A Tokyo guide
I moved here in 2017 and stayed. This is where I write down what I have worked out about living in Tokyo: the trains, the neighbourhoods, the paperwork, and the small things that take a while to learn.
The guides
Moving around the city, and finding somewhere to live. Get these two right and the rest of Tokyo is admin.
Getting around
One card that pays for almost everything, the app that already knows the network, and the boards that tell you which carriage to board and which exit to take. The difference between reading a map and knowing where to stand.
Read the guide →
Finding a place
Share houses, serviced apartments and a standard lease cost different money and want different paperwork. What the move-in costs really are, which of them you can argue down, and the documents that decide whether you get the place.
Read the guide →
Mine does not. I have spent nine years here, and the guides are the ones I would give a friend who was moving over: the things that took me months to work out, the mistakes that cost me money, and the small habits that make the city easy instead of exhausting.
Nothing here is sponsored and nothing is behind an email form. If a guide says a fee is negotiable, it is because I have negotiated it.
Adrien Charles · in Tokyo since 2017
Being written
Taxis, and the city bicycles nobody uses properly.
Which neighbourhood suits which life, and the ward office paperwork you have fourteen days for.
Phone plans, bank accounts, My Number, and the rest of the admin nobody hands you on arrival.
One email when a guide is finished. Nothing else, and nothing sold.
