How Vivian (Almost) Found a 1bdrm Apartment in Downtown Tokyo, Part Two

1LDK.

The acronyms are pretty simple to figure out, but we all need to learn them just the same...

1 is for the number of bedrooms! Moving on!

K is for Kitchen!
You're probably familiar with what a kitchen looks like. It's supposed to have appliances to wash, cool, and heat the food you need to live. If you're lucky, it's not just a mini fridge and a hot plate. If you're SUPER lucky, it comes with a microwave and shelving. If you're EXCEPTIONALLY lucky, it even has an oven. Gambatte.

D is for Dining room!
We're going to gloss over this extravagant use of space because my budget doesn't allow for it. It's theoretically where you eat the food you've prepared in your kitchen (see above).

L is for Living room!
In a perfect world, your apartment should have one of these. Unless, of course, you want to feel like you live in a prison cell. However, due to the spacial requirements of Tokyo, this is also not within my price range.

Most apartment rentals in Tokyo advertise with these letters attached to the heading. Usually I ignore ones with "D"s and "L"s because they're over 100,000 yen.

Ideally, I'm just looking for a place where I can put a bed and a table, while still have room to dance around in between. With great thought, and set of highly complicated mathematical equations, I have surmised that I require about 21 square meters of space to dance between a bed and a table. I thought I found this place. It was pretty, it had MULTIPLE BALCONIES and a SPIRAL STAIRCASE (see last post).

BUT JUST WHEN YOU THINK YOU HAVE EVERYTHING FIGURED OUT...

Surprise! It's Captain Karma knocking at your door! And I must have seriously upset some small child/ booted kittens in the teeth in a past life, because SHAZAM! That super awesome apartment I thought I had NO LONGER EXISTS!!! I waited a split second too long and someone else snatched it from under my nose. BWAAHAHAHAHAHA!

I probably deserved that.

That sweet (yet totally false) sense of accomplishment vanishing out the window has seriously dampened my resolve. After weeks of searching and haggling with real estate agents, I'm back to square one. (I just received the token "so sorry, but please go f*ck yourself" email today). And my time is running out. I'm moving to Tokyo in 5 weeks, with or without an apartment. I'm getting desperate, which means I'll probably settle for something mediocre and expensive. Here goes nothing.

On a totally unrelated note! Here are some completely random and unrelated pictures of THINGS!!!

 Shrine.

More Shrine.

 Sunset from the Shinjuku-bound train.

 Edemame and Kirin beer! mmmmm....

 The happy beginning to a night of clubbing in Shibuya... Pretty sure I turned into a pumpkin around 2 a.m. Must. Stop. Going. Clubbing.

New. Favourite. Outfit. This guy was STRUTTING. Hard to tell, but the print on those pants are dollar bills with smiley faces. I am going to re-dedicate myself to learning Japanese just so I can say "OMG I love your outfit" without sounding like a douche. Oh but wait... He probably totally speaks douche. All the same. :)