# Best neighboorhood in Tokyo for families



## benshosh

We are a family of 4 (kids 10 and 7) who will soon be moving to Tokyo. 

I would be extremely grateful to get members advice on narrowing down neighborhoods in Tokyo that we could consider. Tokyo is so large and overwhelming, we’ve not been able to narrow down a particular area or neighborhood. 

Some important considerations:

1. Kids will be going to an International School (we’ve not yet selected one)
2. My work will be Chiyoda area and I prefer a short commute to work if possible
3. Would be nice to live in an area where some of the neighbors are also expats
4. I expect that the rental budget will probably be quite OK (I’m guessing 800,000/month). 

I really appreciate if you could point me in the right direction.

With kind regards,
Avi


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## larabell

Chiyoda covers a lot of ground and the optimal choice will probably depend on where your kids end up going to school. If your rental budget is close to accurate, you're probably better off starting somewhere in the middle of the city, so long as you don't mind the congestion and almost constant activity.

Roppongi, Hiroo, and Azabu-juban are the areas in Tokyo where you're most likely to find other high-end ex-pats living. There's also a number of International Schools around there (as a result of the heavy ex-pat population, obviously) but someone who has actually investigated schools might be able to provide actual names. I've also heard that Den-en-chofu is popular with ex-pats.

Can you find out the closest station(s) to your office? That might narrow things down. Getting to and from the center of Tokyo in rush hour is bad enough, you probably don't want to make it worse by having to change trains several times.

Just for the record, it seems a number of forum participants have ended up in Yokohama. It's not anywhere near the Chiyoda area but... I think Yokohama is nicer than the Chiyoda area, I know there are International Schools down there (you're more likely to get recommendations from that area on this forum, I'm guessing), and there are a couple of lines that can get you back-and-forth pretty quickly (maybe 30~40 minutes), depending on exactly where you live and work.


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