# Moving to Tokyo for 3 Months. Not sure what suburb to stay in. Any suggestions?



## Kn10

As the title says, I am moving to Tokyo to live for 3 months as a holiday. Basically, exploring Tokyo and occasionally going out of town to the other cities.

I am not a partyer so the bar/club areas are not my thing. I also work online so I dont need to be near any employers offices or anything.

Good transport connections, ability to walk to shops/restaurants and maybe an area that's interesting to walk around is more of what I am after.

I would also prefer to have a smaller place in an awesome area than a larger place in a crapper area. I can go up to about 115,250 Yen per month for rent.

I have spent 2 weeks in Japan before so I do know what the culture is like a bit. I have found many places to stay in my price range but the problem is, I dont have enough local knowledge to choose one suburb over other so I ask the kind people of ExpatForum , any suggestions on where to live?


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## expatmat

Hi Kn10, I used to live in Tokyo so can speak from personal experience.

>> Good transport connections, ability to walk to shops/restaurants and maybe an area that's interesting to walk around is more of what I am after.

That's all of Tokyo - unless you're going way out into Saitama you won't have any problems.

As for good neighbourhoods, West/SW Tokyo is one of the nicer residential areas (Setagaya-ku) although it comes at a price.

If you wan't a bigger place for your money, many live out in Kanagawa and Kawasaki. On your budget, this may be more realistic. Unlike many Western cities, Tokyo doesn't really have one centre, so you can be living 1 hr + out of middle and still be need amazing shopping, restaurants etc so I wouldn't be too concerned being out in the sticks.


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## Yosh

Somewhere on Keio-line would be nice and convenient


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## larabell

I don't think it's too much of an exaggeration when I say there are a near-infinite number of places that fit your general description. We'll need to narrow it down a bit.

If you're planning on exploring areas of Japan other than Tokyo you might want to be near major transportation. Yokohama (in particular, the Shin-Yokohama area) puts you within easy reach of the Tokaido Shinkansen. Living west of Shinjuku on the Chuo-line (Nakano, Kichijoji, etc) means easy and rapid access to Tokyo where you can pick up any of the Shinkansen lines. If you plan on spending significant time in a specific area of Tokyo, it might pay to think about the kinds of things you're likely to want to do. The Keio, Odakyu, and JR Chuo lines allow easy access to Shinjuku, which is good for shopping or eating. The Toyoko and Den-en-toshi lines allow easy access to Shibuya, which tends to be frequented by a younger crowd. The Toyoko line connects directly with a line that leads into Roppongi, which may not matter to you since you're not keen on partying. Any of those lines will have reasonably nice neighborhoods. The farther you get out, the less places will cost (in general... there are exceptions). If a one-room place is OK, your budget will allow you to live almost anywhere except maybe some parts of central Tokyo. Naka-meguro is nice, as is Shimo-kitazawa or Kichijoji (depending on which line you prefer). I'd also put in a shameless plug for Nakano-shimbashi (or Shin-nakano, which is pretty close) -- close enough to Shinjuku to walk if you're not in a hurry but for long-distance travel, it's not necessarily convenient to get to major stations like Tokyo.

All that said, I agree that the West (and particularly South-West) parts of Tokyo are preferable. If you decide to go all the way out to Kawasaki, Mizunoguchi has been built up in a big way over the last decade or so and it's a really nice place now.

If you had more time I'd suggest just riding the various lines out and back to see the kinds of neighborhoods each has to offer. However, given the short time frame, you probably need to set something up before you arrive. In that case, check out the short-term apartments like Sakura House. There's one in my neighborhood and it seems OK -- though I've never seen the inside.


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## expatmat

Good suggestions by the moderator.

If you do decide you want to see some of Japan outside of Tokyo aiming for West/SW would make sense (including Yokohama which is a great place) as you also have access to Yamanakako/Yamanashi lakes, Izu etc which would be great when it gets warmer in the city.


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