Comments for The Blog from Another Dimension

Comment on Harry Potter Fan Fiction: The Veil of Mystery, The Ring of Reduction, and Phoenix Intuition by Chris

Chris — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 01:28:33 +0000

Any answers to post #123 ???

Comment on Domicile Hunt, Part II by Luis

Luis — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 01:01:21 +0000

This place both does and does not have an elevator, interestingly. The building proper has none, but the adjacent 5-storey building does, and they are connected by a plexiglass-walled bridge, with a central island of a small circular building in between–the one with the bird garden. So you can enter through the other building, take the elevator up to the third floor, and then walk over. But that’ll be mostly for moving or for bringing heavy stuff up (like suitcases when we travel), as it means walking about 100 feet too far and then back; there’s a convenient stairway on the closer side of the building which we’ll use regularly. But it’s nice to have the option if necessary.

As you say, ten years old isn’t bad, but brand-new is kinda nice. For example, in the reformed apartment we saw, there were these strange, small orange spots in the flooring material of the genkan; what’s worse than stains is stains which you have no idea what caused them. I guess the worse thing here is the UR construction standards of ten years back, and for lower-rent housing; Sachi and I have been spoiled by our current place, and even that is not top-class. The place we’re looking at has depressingly standard cookie-cutter fixtures–but that’s par for the course.

Your bird’s eye map link almost shows the building we’re probably going to live in–just a little lower and to the right…

Comment on Hachiko: A Dog’s Tale by paula

paula — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 21:51:10 +0000

sachi was a good dog i just saw the movie 5 minutes ago.sachi is a wonderful dog!!!!!!!he is my hero!!!!!

Comment on Domicile Hunt, Part II by Troy

Troy — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 21:43:34 +0000

I LOVE living on the 3rd floor. Free exercise.

Ten years old shouldn’t be too bad, even for Japanese construction. Heck, it was built after I left Japan, and that was like yesterday.

Here’s a bird’s eye map of Hibarigaoka. Now that’s some density for being kinda out in the sticks!

Comment on Standards by Dan

Dan — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 12:10:07 +0000

I’d say go for it. Hibarigaoka is a reasonable area and as you mentioned, quite close to Koganei Park I personally think the west side of Tokyo is the best for living. You’re still only 30 mins away from central and far enough out for less crowds etc..

The only niggling factor I can see is the distance from the station. 10 mins would be nice. I guess it depends on how nice the apartment is. Sounds nice. If you have a scooter…distance doesn’t matter so much..but then need to consider Y3000 for scooter parking.

Have you thought about Akabane?

Comment on Harry Potter Fan Fiction: The Veil of Mystery, The Ring of Reduction, and Phoenix Intuition by khalid

khalid — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:29:15 +0000

freakin awesome man

Comment on Eyelid Twitching by Sue

Sue — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:50:23 +0000

Brilliant! Made me chuckle. My eyelid stops flickering while it’s screwed up with laughter…

Comment on Domicile Hunt by Luis

Luis — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 11:02:34 +0000

Well, we’re around 45 now, so a standard 35-year loan would not be feasible for us. The bank demands a 25-year loan at least–we asked for a 20-year loan, but they didn’t agree. But we calculated that a 4.7千万 cost would be about our limit (1千万 of that as down payment), should our monthly costs be held down to 18万 or lower. But I think the house loans are actually at about 1%–that’s the amount we were told as an “example,” at least.

Comment on Eyelid Twitching by Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:30:19 +0000

@sixth sense
What if it’s both eyes??

Comment on Domicile Hunt by Troy

Troy — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 02:42:37 +0000

@Luis

ah yeah, your work is in east Shinjuku and not Ikebukuro.

Since I left in 2000, they’ve finished the fukutoshin and oedo lines at least.

As far as buying goes, with these low interest rates affordability is somewhat surprising.

For your current rent, 3% interest + 1% property tax could handle a 7千万 loan, non-amortizing.

One mistake I made here in the bay area was comparing amortizing loans to rents, but the principal paydown is more a form of savings so should not be considered an expense like rent per se. It’s still outgo of course!

We’re getting up there now so Japanese banks won’t give us a 45-year loan, alas.