What Americans call apartments yhe Japanese call condos. They are advertised as 2 KDK meaning 1 bedroom, living room, dining room and Kirchen. This usually means one room cintains those three things. Some are just 1 L – no kirchen or eating space. Some are just LDK – *one room for everything. Three bedrooms are rare.
owners do not like to rent to folks over 65. There are no fair housing laws.
people do not like to rent a unit over 30 years old. That:s about when the building codes changed to make buildings more quake proof.
Yoko san got lucky. After looking at many units she found a 3 KDK that i the owner was willing to rent to us. It is rather incredible.
about 13 years ago a man had a 3 story building built in a neighborhood that is limited to three stories. He must have built it for himself.
the ground floor has a two car garage that is ours – a bit of a waste since we have no car, the rest of the ground floor and the second story have five one room apartments. In over a month we have not even seen an occupant.
The ground floor has our private entrance that opens into am ample space for changing shoes, with plenty if cabinetry for storing shoes and hats, and a closet for storing other things. And our private elevator..
from the entrance room there is a private elevator to the third floor. That floor is entirely ours.
there are three bedrooms, a living/dining room, a separate jochen, a bathroom and connected wash room, and a separate toilet room. A small patio with a spiral staircase to rhe roof. Every room has windows and none are looking at a neighbor wall.
each bedroom and the jiving room gas a Hxx style heater.aircindiyioner that are very efficient. Ni gas.
the rent is a bit high at 27 manes (¥270000,) which in normal times is $2700, but now one US dollar buys 159 yen, so the rent is currently $1800. While I don’t wish bad ytimes for Japan U hope the yen stays weak.