Yes I agree. There is no way I can have equivalent housing here in Tokyo. But actually, I really like my tiny apartment better, it is easy to clean, heat and cool, and every bit of space is utilised, whereas homes back home have an awful lot of wasted space. I would love to have some kind of garden though.

Aside from housing, an acquaintance of mine came out with her husband on an expat package, and she recently had a baby. This is a topic I am very interested in as the idea of having a baby here in Tokyo is very overwhelming for me; trying to deal with the system and find all the ins and outs of which hospitals, paperwork, procedures etc. But when I asked what it was like for her, she remarked on how easy it was and very straight forward. After I questioned her further, it turns out everything was taken care of already by the HR department. Lucky!