Hiromi and I climbed the local observation tower atop a nearby hill for a view yesterday; that’s me, with my apartment complex in the background.

It’s a really nice location–in front of us, you get a nice view of Tokyo, and to the back, noting but wooded hills for a few kilometers. But it’s not too “inaka”; it’s only a 30-minute train ride into Shinjuku–though it’s a 5 minute bus ride or a 20-minute walk to the train station. But I love the green, the parks, the wide open areas, the feeling of escaping Tokyo without getting too far from it.

And this isolated pocket of apartments up against a hill is priced right, too–I pay about 130,000 yen per month, but I have an 84-square-meter apartment for it. That’s an 8-mat bedroom (all the rooms are hardwood floors despite the tatami size measurement), 8-mat living room, 5-mat dining room, 4-mat kitchen, a 6-mat room off the dining room, and a 4.5-mat guest room–not counting the genkan, bath and toilet rooms and a walk-in closet thrown in for good measure. Try finding that downtown without breaking the bank!