Housing areas for families

[Marisa]

Originally Posted by jadetiger

Sounds interesting. Thanks for the heads up? Definately food for thought. I was looking at information about Roppongi and it looks pretty "lively". Any thoughts about locations outside of the city? I'm not against a short commute if it means a larger more cost effective living arrangement.

I wouldn't recommend you move outside of the city as there can be serious traffic congestions and trains are packed during commuting hours. Roppongi is basically a busy nightlife area - drugs, pimps, nightclubs and "girls" surface by evening and not so interesting during the day, either. If the office is in Chiyoda-ku and you don't want the Roppongi lifestyle, try Ichibancho. Area is very central and surrounded by greenery. Government offices and Prime Minister's Office is close by, as is Imperial Palace. Very classy area. Less than a 10 minute drive to Roppongi or American Club or main English-speaking medical clinic.

[larabell]

Hmmm... I'm coming to this thread a bit late but there were a couple things said that I would take minor issue with.

I have a 4-yr-old in Japanese day care and a 2nd-grader in Japanese Elementary. I don't see any signs of them being treated any differently than other kids (except that the girls all seem to like my older son). The 2nd-grade class has done some pretty interesting things that, when I went to school, weren't even on the curriculum. Most of the pressure on kids comes from the parents who want their kids to enter Todai someday. From what I can tell, things don't seem to get tough until around middle-school.

If you're going to be here a while and are thinking International School, though, your relocation should take that into account. There aren't all that many International Schools around and transportation can be a challenge if you have to commute to take the kid to school and go back the other way to get to work.

Also, there are no problems with diapers or other baby supplies, as kids are kids and some need diapers longer than others.

I would definitely not recommend Roppongi if you have a toddler. You will want an area with parks to play in, streets on which a kid can safely walk and ride their bicycle, and at least a bit of quiet on the weekends (when there's no election coming up). How close is your office to Tokyo station (Chiyoda-ku is pretty big)? Try Nakano. I commuted from Nakano to Oimachi (near Shinagawa) for years. I'm lucky enough now to have a job where I can work mostly from home but I still go to the office now and again and there are only a few windows of time during the morning commute that I would feel qualify as "crowded" -- maybe I'm just getting used to it. Anyway, Tokyo to Nakano is a straight shot (one train, no transfers) and it only takes about 20 mins.

I have heard that trains in the other direction (ie: Chiba) are very crowded. Also going West from where I'm at it gets a worse. Maybe I'm just lucky.

BTW, there is no subway from Ikebukuro to Shinjuku and very few from which one can see trees. The Yamanote-sen runs between those two stations but it's only about 4 stops and less than 10 mins total. On the West side of town, there are a number of train lines that can put you in reasonably suburban surroundings within a half-hour. Unfortunately, fewer choices from the East side (Chiyoda-ku) because the bay is kinda in the way. But you can get down to Kawasaki in less than 20 mins (assuming Tokyo as the starting point) and things are less crowded and less expensive down there.

[synthia]

OK, it was probably a train, not a subway to Shinjuku. I never sorted it all out, so if I went underground and bought a ticket, it was a subway. We have subway lines in Washington DC that go above ground, but they are still called the subway. And it used to be, if you stood on the right side of the train going to Shinjuku, and stooped a bit, you could see some trees. This was long ago, and they may well be gone. It was a short trip, though at rush hour it sure seemed a lot longer than ten minutes.

[larabell]

Sounds like the Yamanote. You're lucky you got off at Shinjuku. The segment of the Yamanote between Shinjuku and Shibuya is said to be one of the most crowded in all of Japan.

That's another good reason to live outside the loop. You can usually avoid the Yamanote altogether. Some of the lines radiating out from Tokyo are just as bad. But many are not. It might behoove one to ask come colleagues (or experienced train riders on this list) about certain segments once you know where your office is and have a potential apartment picked out. I always said I was going to try a test-run at rush hour before relocating but never had the time or inclination to follow through on my threat.

I guess the point is that you don't have to be shoved into the train by the "white-glove army" if you plan ahead when picking a place to live and avoid the segments that everyone in the city uses (like Shinjuku-to-Shibuya or Shinjuky-to-Ikebukuro... or any part of the Ginza-sen ). It also helps if you're in a position to be able to skew your work schedule a bit one way or the other to avoid the heavy times (which seem to be different on different lines).