Hibarigaoka West
Just a few minutes’ walk in a westerly direction from the south exit of Hibarigaoka, you can find what appears to be a small pocket of very, very well-off people. Kind of like a mini-Atherton, to those of you familiar with the south SF Bay Area. You get your first hint when you see the uncharacteristic (for Tokyo) heavy tree cover.
Then you start seeing the very nice houses, for Japan:
Many of them have a surplus of space–actually, a bit cramped by American standards, but a gate and parking space like this, in Tokyo, is absolutely a status sign:
And another interesting sign of status: American mail boxes. We saw quite a few in this area, though they are pretty rare in Japan.
I can’t even begin to guess what some of these plots–maybe as much as 1/4-acre–might be worth. But I am guessing it is a lot.
Looks like it’s 東久留米市学園町１丁目
Very nice, but for me it’s a lakeside home on Shakujii-koen or nothing : 0
btw, how’d you survive the summer?
This does look a bit like Atherton (the gate is what clinched it for me) !
The below article talks about japan hiring people to help make it more friendly to non-japaneese. I think you would be good at that since you have done lots of writing on this topic.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLNE69H01K20101018
Glenn W