Moving to Shibuya
This moment is an amazing snapshot in time and I've got to render it in words. We're living in temporary housing in Akasaka - right in the heart of Tokyo. However, time is almost up. March 15th is the day we must move out. Our brief stint in Paradise.
Kinori has already left for Advance Hang-loose lacrosse practice far away. The new season for the amateur, men's league is coming up and the practices have begun. Friday night was a meeting and drinking celebration, where Kinori would only drink Oolong tea. I'm a known LAX Papa, so Friday night, the phone gets passed around with people shouting "Yoroshiku!" Saturday was a day time practice in Chiba (60 minutes away). Next weekend, team Japan is playing team Australia from Friday (3/9) through Monday (3/12). So, I'm going to watch him play on the Japan practice team against the Australia practice team Friday and Sunday morning. It's wonderful to share this LAX experience with him.
We called Rina in Philadelphia. Mornings are great to call since it's the evening in the East Coast of the US. She's got lots to deal with in her life, at school and in pursuit of the ever elusive Summer medical internship.
Yuriko and I put on some clothes, but no fire alarm was forthcoming. We took the elevator down the twelve floors (we were supposed to avoid it in the case of a fire alarm practice) and spoke with the lobby staff. They laughed. There's no way they're going to wake the building residents on a Sunday morning for a fire alarm practice. The announcement voice we heard did *not* come from the intercom.
We decided we needed food and coffee to start the day. We walked through the streets of Akasaka. This area is like downtown Washington DC without the tourists. Nearly all the stores, restaurants, bars and cafes are closed on the weekends. It's a neighborhood with few residents, but lots of working people who are served during the week. At lunch and at night, it's full and lively, but dead on the weekend.
In our attempt to find an open Starbucks, we see the likely cause of our waking. Two black vans, with bold party names and slogans on their sides and huge speakers on top are parked in front of the Prime Minister's residence. It's like the White House. The police have cordoned off the public street in front of the residence with accordion-like barriers that are already in place for the purpose. The voice is shouting very loudly and defiantly. Although the voice is hard to make out, the lettering on the vans makes it clear that this is the far right nationalists. Police officers are walking around the vans and one of them is holding a device. Yuriko and I suspect it's to measure sound levels. Perhaps there are legal limits to the sound volume of protests?
Walking through Akasaka now feels ephemeral because we're moving! I dedicated a day two weeks ago to view a variety of apartments around the city with Yuriko. Although I initially planned to live in a location like Musashi-Kosugi, I changed my target to an area like Ebisu. Musashi-Kosugi is just across the Tamagawa river outside of Tokyo proper. It's got more of a sub-urban feel to it with just a small sprawl of shops around the station, that quickly transitions to tall buildings full of mansions (condos) and apartments as well as large shopping malls. There was a very nice apartment within my target budget at the top of one of those buildings. The view was gorgeous and it was a nice layout. But, living in Akasaka gave me a taste for something I had never experienced - living right in the city. Also, in consultation with new friends, they said that since we don't have young kids, we should live in the city. Although we couldn't find any units in my budget, at the third floor or above and in a sufficiently new building to be earthquake resistant, in Ebisu, we looked at units in Sakura-ga-oka, Jyuu-ga-oka and Setagaya.
Some of the units had amazing views, were near freeways, had large spaces, unique layouts, old bathrooms and kitchens while others were recently updated. Most were within our budget, others showed us what we could get for more money.
In the end, we picked the one in Sakura-ga-oka. Yuriko called it. All the others had something wrong with them. They either stretched our budget, or added to our commute, or had a bad bedroom, or old bathroom. Sakura-ga-oka, however, had nothing wrong with the unit. It had no view and was an efficient, compact (69 m^2) layout. It nailed the idea of living in Tokyo with location, location, location. It's a 7 min walk to the nearest subway station, Shibuya. If Akasaka is Washington, DC, then Shibuya is Times Square in NY. It's always throbbing with energy (weekdays, weekends, day, night). Shibuya is overflowing with restaurants, bars, stores and everything.
The unit is a 3LDK. That is it has 3 bedrooms, a living room, a dining room and a kitchen. The kitchen is open to the living room/dining room, so it feels spacious. There's a bedroom for Yuriko and me and one for Kinori. The third bedroom is a Japanese style room (with tatami) that opens on to the Western style living room to make an even bigger living space. When we have guests, we can take the futon out of the closet and close off a space with privacy.
The details of the process of renting were onerous. The rental agreement had to be recited in a two and one half hour process which was lengthened by translation between Japanese and English. No AirBnB, if they smell AirBnB, you're out. No hanging stuff or BBQ on the balcony. It goes on and on. The initial payment was FIVE times the monthly rent. This was lengthened by me moving in during March, so I payed for March and April in advance. But, there's also a half month's rent for a required guarantor company who verify's my employment, my income, my emergency contact, etc. and then insures my rent payment. That's non-refundable. There's also a refundable two month security deposit and a required cleaning fee subtracted from it at the end of the lease. The details of the restoration of the property at the end of the rental is a huge portion of the agreement. I was left with the feeling that I wouldn't see much of the security deposit back on the way out. Finally, there's the "key money", another month's rent paid to the owner, that's non-refundable and required at the start of each two year lease period. Although, it's translated as "key money", the Japanese is actually "gift money".
Setting up the Internet took hours of phone calls and arrangements. Thank goodness, Yuriko is here.
We get the keys this week and the rent begins. On the same day the remainder of my shipments from the US arrive to the Shibuya apartment. The next week, a moving company moves our stuff from Akasaka to Shibuya and finally we'll be living in the new place. A week later, KDDI will install our Internet connect. In the middle of all that, there's the final Microsoft ski trip of the year.
All-in-all, it's an amazing time.
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