Green areas near Tokyo

12 comments

1. This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.

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   **Green areas near Tokyo**

   Hi Everyone,

   I’ve had a dream job opportunity come up which is based in Tokyo (Minato City) and will mean relocating from Australia.

   Long story short, I’m trying to convince my wife to make the move but she is extremely hesitant to move our family (2 young kids) to a tiny apartment in a skyscraper. I think she will only agree if we can live in a detached house in a green leafy neighbourhood where the kids can be in nature away from the “big city”…

   My question is: are there any expat friendly neighbourhoods which are 30-60 mins commute from Minato City, but are also in nature with larger homes? Money shouldn’t be an issue, as the job pays quite well (40-45M yen p.a.) and we are used to paying high rent where we currently live…

   Thank you so much!

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2. That is a very good salary for Tokyo of course, I imagine you could find what you were looking for on that budget, though I don’t have any specific suggestions as I’m new to the city myself.

   You might give /r/JapanFinance a shot as there may be a higher concentration of higher earners there who might swim in circles that would be more useful.

   You might also try reaching out to realtors, I imagine with your budget they would be happy to try to help.

   Out of curiosity would you be looking for a 100 percent Western style detached house?

3. Unfortunately, 30-60 mins commute from Minato is still urban.

   Are the kids school age? If so, the international school you choose may be the greatest influence of what areas work for you.

   And if you want an “expat friendly neighbourhood”, you aren’t going to be able to venture out of the city. Something like Futako-Tamagawa might work. Right beside the Tama river (no forest but a lot of open grass), a lot of non-Japanese, and plenty of nice houses.

4. You’ll need to travel much further than 60 minutes to get out of Tokyo, the city is massive on a scale that’s truly difficult to visualise. There are some fantastic parklands within Tokyo though.

5. Does it need to be “away from the city” or just a detached house with a small garden? The former will be harder (since you’ll have to go farther out), but the latter won’t be too hard to find, especially with a good salary. You find find detached homes with small gardens even fairly central in Tokyo, but they’re certainly not outside of the city. Also, be sure to consider if you want an international school, as then your first priority will be proximity to the school.

6. Your wife isn’t wrong about the tiny apartment in a high building (maybe not a skyscraper), nor the concrete jungle outside. There are definitely better locations, apartments, and nice detached houses, but you might still need to lower expectations since it’s still Tokyo. If you want something Western the price tag is probably much higher.

   With your income you can provide for a very very nice life for the whole family in a bigger place (apartment or detached) with more green and parks AND still be able to save. But adjust expectations.

   What you should consider:

   1- Commute by train or car? Tokyo has really good public transpo, but it’s also sooo packed during rush hour. 30-60 minutes standing in a packed train is NOT fun. The closer you are, or the better train connections, to your work place the better. Car might be more complicated at first but you could always take a taxi (expensive).

   2 – The school or kindergarten your kids will attend. Public? Private? Should also be near where you live and/or easily reachable by public transpo.

   3 – Parks and nature. But maybe what your wife is thinking about are playgrounds rather than just a bunch of trees.

   In terms of distance, living within Minato itself isn’t too bad. There’s Shiba park. Shinagawa has nothing much in it but there’s a central park and it’s an affluent area. Yokohama could even be an option as the Keikyu line easily connects to Minato in about 30-40 mins. I personally love Yokohama.

   I think the best spot would be somewhere in the middle of commute for you and your kids. Work with a realtor to find the best place for your needs.

   Why is Reddit so bad with lists on mobile…

7. There are some lovely areas around Inokashira Koen with large houses and yards (though yards will be pretty small by Australia standards) and it is about 45 min from Minato-ku. With your income, you don’t need to worry about living in a ”tiny apartment” in a skyscraper and there are plenty of relatively large homes even in Minato-ku near green space but if you want 150-250 sq meters the cost will be around 1 m/month or more depending on how luxurious the place. But with your income you could easily afford it and why on earth spend 60 minutes commuting if you don’t have to? Just search listings on Ken Corp or Plaza Home Tokyo Websites with the features you want in the place you want.

8. I’m sure your company will pay the services of a professional relocation agent who will be assisting you. Given your compensation, you will be introduced to decent sized houses to rent in Minato, Shibuya or Meguro wards, for example. There are dozens of neighborhoods with large houses in quiet areas. You won’t want more than 30-40 minute commute and with your budget, there’s no need to consider it.

9. **EMPEROR’S BOWELS!!** With that kind of abnormal salary, you should really be assigning one of your people to this problem, instead of asking the plebians on here 🙂

   Presumably you’re on the board of directors, or something? If so, you can probably use the Shinkansen to commute. Simply trace along those lines until it hits something nice.

   Otherwise, somewhere like Kamakura might be pleasant. It’s the ancient capital.

   Yokohama is another nice choice.

   You might also want to maintain a townhouse in the capital as well, for those times when things go awry due to earthquakes, typhoons, human accidents, etc.

10. Geez mate what do you work in?

11. With that kind of salary, and also if your company compensates commuting fees, using the Shinkansen to commute is always an option.

    Karuizawa is in Nagano, however with a 90min shinkansen commute (if you don’t mind a longer commute time), you can live closer to mountains, ski resorts, and a location your wife may be willing to accept. There are grocery stores and shopping facilities nearby too, so it’s not like you’re in the middle of nowhere.

    Some other people recommended Kamakura, and I agree, but depending on where you live, it can get crowded with tourists on holidays.

    Again with the Shinkansen (Or even the regular Tokaido Line trains), Atami is a seaside resort town with access to the Izu Peninsula.

12. Hey – congratulations! I was thinking of something I did years ago. I worked in Akasaka (Minato) and wife worked in Utsunomiya so we ended up in Saitama but took the shinkansen in to work. So maybe….since money really is not an issue, you could consider living fairly outside of Tokyo and commuting on the bullet trains?

    I lived in Omiya which is maybe not what you’re looking for, but there is a nice historical town called Kawagoe not far from there. You could potentially go from Kawagoe to Omiya, jump on the shinkansen into Marunouchi line to Akasaka. It’s not perfect, it might be a bit above an hour but something like that would give you a place to live that is not super urban but is fun and commutable a couple of times a week. You can definitely find houses and parks out there. You would really have to check it out in person though. Door to door might be 75 mins or more though. Omiya to Akasaka was an hour door to door.

    Another way to go is just get out of central Tokyo. Like I live in Nerima ward which is really family friendly. Parts of Nerima are really not city at all even though technically we are one of the 23 wards. There is a big park in Hikarigaoka for example so you could get on the Oedo subway line and be in Roppongi in 45 mins with a seat the whole time because the Oedo starts in Hikarigaoka.