RResidents in Japan

What do you like best in your neighborhood?

Good day,
there’ve been some up and downs lately, so I would love to hear some positive stories about your neighborhoods. I will start: Despite having barely any contact with our neighbours, I really like that I have all the most convenient things near me. Supermarkets, convenience stores, doctors, train stations… But still far enough away from the main street and rails that I am not bothered by any loud noise.
What about you?

48 comments

  2. A great shotengai, great restaurants and bars, and yet quiet enough on my street even though im just three minutes away from the station.

  3. I love my neighbors. They’re all sweet couples who love animals and gardening. Everything is clean, quiet and green.

    Two houses do TNR with neighborhood strays. One has adopted a cat from me.

    This morning I got a handful of oranges and persimmons from the lady across the road.

    When some ~~drunk guy~~ his “just sleepy girlfriend” crashed into our retaining wall one night all the neighbors came out to check on us and talk to the police.

    Our place doesn’t have nearby shopping buuuut that also means we don’t get a lot of traffic or noise. And our house was cheap since it wasn’t a desirable location. We’re also down by a city park and a river. Just lovely and quiet.

  4. I like that my neighborhood is peaceful. Mostly seniors living nearby so minimal noise. Everyone smiles and greets each other on the street. There’s a supermarket, conbini, and drugstore in a 5min walk. I can hear the yaki-imo truck in the dead of night. Train station is also barely 5min away but I don’t hear much noise from it. It’s nice. I am way more relaxed and calm than I was living in a bigger city.

  6. Not a lot of bars, Pachinko and such so it’s really quiet after sun sets, malls are relatively close if I own a car and I do。

    Good air, clean water.

  8. Setagaya: There are a bunch of parks and walking paths near where we live and even a couple of small farms that have stands nearby. We can walk 150 meters and buy vegetables that were in the ground that morning. Depending on the year, there are 6 or 7 supermarkets nearby.

    We’ve got friends and acquaintances dotted all around.

    Our neighborhood’s far enough from major streets to be quiet, but near enough to make going places convenient.

    From our roof we can see six or seven fireworks shows each year, not counting the ones at Jingu Stadium, and we can see Mt. Fuji as well on clear days.

    Our child’s school is only a few hundred meters away.

    We live within walking distance of train lines that go in different direction and different branches of the ward library.

  9. I live surrounded by one the biggest graveyards in my city, so I don’t actually have a neighborhood, well few houses close by but the residents are quite old.
    I only have a grave store, flower store and few vending machines nearby, the good thing is located a 10 minutes walking to the train station and I pay a ridiculous low monthly rent fow a 3 story house, new from 2016, garden, etc, been living here from the past 2 months and I fucking love it. Super quiet.

  10. Despite being in the slightly-inaka side of Saitama, from my front door I got…

    * Supermarket 2~3 min walk excluding waiting for traffic light
    * 7-11 2 min walk
    * Coin laundry just across the street
    * A soup curry store that tastes AWESOME, it’s *the best* soup curry I’ve had so far
    * Huge public bath, 15 min walk
    * Workman, Shimamura clothes store, stationery shop 5 min walk
    * Residential area so not much noise at night
    * Multiple clinics and drugstores, home center, all within 10 min bicycle ride
    * 24h McD, Sukiya within 10 min bicycle ride
    * Best of all: 10 min commute to work by bicycle / moped
    * My rent is 30k (50k, 40% subsidized by work)

    Downsides? Small room (leopalace), quite a walk to the station, around 15-20 mins. Most of the time no problem cause I’d just cycle to the station.

  12. My neighborhood is super convenient. Got a 24hr grocery steps from my manshon, several other groceries nearby, over a 100 restaurants within a 10 minute walk. It’s still friendly and feels like a neighborhood.

    Within a short walk to several different stations too.

  13. Naka meguro in the suburb part. Can walk to work in Meguro, lots of decent restaurants and random bars and can go to Ebisu, daikanyama or sancha and walk home if needed, internationally minded (cute) people, easy access to Yokohama.

    Downside: lack of parks but I’ll take the no commute and cycling to Kinuta park over struggling on the denentoshi every morning.

  15. Lots of families, large parks, great facilities, and basically anything I need is nearby. And no tourists out this way.

  16. The most important for me is that it’s quiet and has two convenient subway lines very close. Other than that it has nice spots for running nearby and for daily stuff I can get what I want in a 10 min walk or less.

    I had the chance to move for free to anywhere I wanted last year and chose to move very close, about 10 minutes away from the previous place. I want to buy a house here.

  17. Great bakeries, all services you can think of at a 10min walk, plenty of greenery, aaaand I can walk to my hangout spots from this area. I love living here.

  19. Peaceful, nice calm walk from the station to my home, and still 5-10mn by foot from Ikebukuro and bars, restaurants and so on.

  20. Being married with kids, I honestly couldn’t be happier with my neighborhood.

    * Supermarket across the street
    * Said supermarket has a McDonald’s, which is good for all but my physical health
    * Elementary school across the street
    * Kindergarten is on the way to the station, 3 minutes by bike
    * 5 minutes to the station by bicycle, 11 minutes walking
    * 5 minute bike ride to the gym, which is open 24/7 and fairly big
    * 7 minute bike ride to Yamaya
    * 15 minute bike ride to Aeon Style
    * Gym is located in a mini-mall with a bunch of useful stores
    * 10 minutes to Kappa Sushi, 5 minutes to a soon to be opened other sushi chain
    * 3 minute bike ride to a specialty craft beer store
    * Jankara by the station has FREE alcohol nomiho bar!
    * Station area has all the restaurants a family needs (Saize, Gusto, Toriki, along with KFC and Lotteria)

    It’s just so family friendly that I cannot think of a reason to move away from it until kids are at least in junior high.

  21. My city is pretty much inaka bar a few places… and I live in the place that is less countryside but I’m in a weird place where I walk twenty minutes in one direction, I’m in the city centre where it gets quite busy, and if I go twenty minutes the other way I’m next to a lot of paddy fields and forests, it’s wild but pretty. Especially now that I can drive I like to explore the area a bit and see what’s around.

  22. Neighbors. When my wife got sick I had to take her to hospital in a hurry, my neighbor came to nanny our 3 months son. We both foreign so many of them invite my wife and kid out to park.

    Big dog community with meeting every morning and night 😂.

    Lot of schools and kindergarten.

    Shoutengai know us for many years, so fruit place, meat place always give us nice discounts.

  23. I’m super curious what gym culture is like in Japan? Is there gyms on every corner like North America? Are they busy?

  26. I’m living in this building right in the center of Osaka, and when I moved in, I didn’t expect to get to know my neighbors much. I thought, big city, too busy to even say hi. But turns out, I was dead wrong. We’ve got this cool manager who sets up lots of events and started a building association. Every month, we grab sandwiches and coffee for just 300 yen, chill, and chat. Twice a year, we do a lobby recycling thing, swap stuff we don’t need. She also helps out the homeless with food and clothes.

    Inspired by all this, I’ve been getting into practicing my Japanese. Since I moved, I’ve been hosting a Halloween trick-or-treat and a Christmas party for all the kids in the building every year. Being here and getting to know my neighbors has seriously changed my life. Now, I’ve got my building buddies and at least four awesome grandmas.

  28. I like that I am close to a train line (just the line not the station lol) because I like trains and I can sit on my porch and watch them go by; about one every 20min.

  29. I came to say my neighbors. They were greeted us warmly even before we bought the place they added us on Line. Last week we were out at Costco and the kids came to play. My kids were so sad they missed them. But they played the day before. We’ve never been in their house or opened their fridge though but we’re close. They’re both surgeons.

  30. 3 shopping malls connected to the main station and not too far from Shinjuku. A lot of families and couples live in this area so it’s calm and there isn’t much noise, but it’s lively even during weekdays.

  33. Two different train lines within 8 minutes with Tokyo access in less than an hour, super cheap rent, and a though we don’ t have all that many restaurants, the ones we have are all banging. One of the best Indian restaurants in the country (it’s on NHK a lot) is a 5 minute walk, and we have an oden/yakitori izakaya that rivals any I’ve ever been to. Our soba joint is again, among the best I’ve had, and across the street from it is a nihonshu joint with an unparalleled selection of uncommon nihonshu. The local chinese place isn’t upscale, but they have that “keep coming back” flavor that other places I’ve been to just can’t seem to match. Our town even released a small flyer called “Townname Gourmet” that lists 25 or so gourmet izakaya and restaurants that, as previously mentioned, are amazing despite the otherwise unsophistication of the area. We also have a somewhat lazy street that’s about 2km long with a park running down the middle lined with cherry trees, where people hang out and picnic during Sakura season. The only major downside is that our local supermarket is Seiyu, which sucks donkey balls, and no real alternates. I keep praying that Aeon will move in and run them out of business. We also only have 3 ramen shops, and somehow, they’re about the only “meh” restaurants in the area. That said, we have seen about 8 new smallish apartment buildings go up within view of our place within the past 5 years, so there’s a near constant state of noise during the day (which doesn’t really bother me, but might be an issue for others).

  34. Tiny ski area where I am the only skier 90% of the time 3 minutes one way, and a golf course 5 minutes in the other direction. I am surrounded by sports year round.

  35. Convenience. I live on the street separating Nishi-asakusa and Asakusa. Anything I need is close by, Donki is a stone throw away, there’s proximity to a bunch of lines, Sumida gawa is close. And it’s not exorbitantly expensive.

  36. Convenience store a one minute walk away, a little park right outside the apartment, a PokéStop right on top of me, and I SWEAR I saw a stoat once

  38. It’s not perfect but there’s a couple of decent cafés, it’s right next to a river with a good cycling road, and I like the building I’m living in. Honestly I miss my old neighborhood but my wife’s commute would’ve been awful from there.

  39. I live in a quiet residential neighborhood that is less than 25 years old but still growing. In Nara, but highway is close and can get to Osaka in 20min by car or train. School is less than 20 years old too. Off the main roads so I don’t have to worry about my kids and crazy drivers.

  40. The neighbours, in fact the local community.

    Also and this is a Sunday only thing, if I go for a walk around 5.30pm the whole neighborhood seems to be cooking, so you get wafts of curry, oden etc.

  41. Kyoto resident here:
    1. Lots of parks
    2. Mixture of half Inaka-ish zones and traditional Japanese areas to walk around
    3. Overall silence and peace
    4. A bazillion of places that are just fun to walk around even outside of the usual tourist traps (I take 6-8 hour long walks on weekends sometimes and I just enjoy seeing the overall city)

  42. I live in Higashiazabu, I love that its close to my job, convenient to everything in Tokyo, has tons of parks nearby and is unbelievably quiet for a neighborhood in the middle of the biggest city in the world. I also live high enough up that due to having Shibakoen on one side and a bunch of low-rise buildings on the other, I can more or less see everything from Tokyo bay on one side of our apartment to the mountains on the either, and we have an incredible direct view of Tokyo Tower which is literally like 100 meters away from my balcony.

    But if I’m honest, the number 1 thing I love the most is that Japanese girls go absolutely nuts when I tell them where I live.

    I had no idea it was such a big deal to live there when moving to Tokyo, I just wanted something that was very close to my job and thought that the rent I was paying for my place was standard procedure for a large apartment in a major global city. I never discuss it with people openly and never even mention where I live to most people (other than girls at bars as I said) because I do not want to make my Japanese friends or coworkers uncomfortable, so I am getting it out here, so pardon me for sounding like an ass hole.

  45. I have 3 of the best Tokyo boulangeries (according to me) in walking distance ! it’s important because i’m French

  47. I live in central Tokyo, but pay cheap rent since I live on family property. We’ve been here 4 generations so we know our neighbors pretty well (as well as possible in Japan, at least) and everyone is warm and friendly. I loved it when I was still in uni because I could walk home from Omotesando, Shibuya, Shinjuku after last train or take the taxi and not have to pay an arm and a leg. These days, I’m more appreciative of the fact that it’s a quiet neighborhood that pretty much has everything I need for my day to day such as supermarkets, conbini, restaurants, drug stores, and I don’t have to go far to get to a major area for things I can’t get here.

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