21–30 of 237 posts
Offtopic, but > the tallest building in Tokyo is only 255 meters There is a hotel in this tower (called Andaz) and it has a proper swimming pool on the 37th floor . Quite an jaw-dropping experience on its own, but doubly so during an earthquake.
You barely feel it during an earthquake, because the building has multiple stabilising mechanisms.
The article makes a major mistake: it uses Tokyo Metropolis (Tokyo-to, basically "Tokyo State", area 2,194.07 km2) for comparisons, not central Tokyo (23-ku, aka the former Tokyo City, area 619 km2). So it's basically the same as saying houses in New York are much larger than those in Paris, because you're comparing all of New York State including housing in Buffalo etc with the 20 arrondissements of central Paris. >…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Okutama, Tokyo is part of "Tokyo Metropolis". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okutama,_Tokyo . The furthest I've been is Hachioji, which was about 1 hour by train from 23-ku. Hachioji is roughly half as far as Okutama. In New York City terms, getting to Hicksville, NY takes about 1 hour by train. For Bay Area folks, both Dublin / Pleasanton and Bay Point / Pittsburg ... or even Antioch are about an hour away by BART.
Is 1 hour by train a reasonable metric to use given the differences in trains
As someone being in Tokyo right now chatting with locals about this topic it's just not generally true or comparable to other cities. Sure there are parts of Tokyo that are cheaper, but Tokyo is gigantic. All the places that "matter" with reasonably fast commute are very expensive and small.
House prices here are quite reasonable, nice distance to the ocean for the weekends. I'm considering buying and building a house in the next year or two.
The article makes a major mistake: it uses Tokyo Metropolis (Tokyo-to, basically "Tokyo State", area 2,194.07 km2) for comparisons, not central Tokyo (23-ku, aka the former Tokyo City, area 619 km2). So it's basically the same as saying houses in New York are much larger than those in Paris, because you're comparing all of New York State including housing in Buffalo etc with the 20 arrondissements of central Paris. >…
And the apartment as a comparison to houses doesn't help much, as Japanese houses tend to be smaller than western. Source is me, I've been living in Japan for over 10 years now.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> But during too many hours of the day in popular areas it's normal to see literal piles of trash on the street covered in rats, and in the morning with crows. Apart from the worst parts of Roppongi on a Monday morning, I have never ever seen this.
Trash days 5~8am, normal days in any place with many restaurants 11pm~8am basically (Shibuya, Ebisu, Shinjuku, Ikebukuro, etc).
I mean Tuesday: burnable waste, wed cardboard, Thurs clothes and Fri other, will tend to have trash in the designated areas, on each of those days.
Edit:spelling (Note:days and trash types differ a lot per area, but it's a good generalisation based off of my location).
The article makes a major mistake: it uses Tokyo Metropolis (Tokyo-to, basically "Tokyo State", area 2,194.07 km2) for comparisons, not central Tokyo (23-ku, aka the former Tokyo City, area 619 km2). So it's basically the same as saying houses in New York are much larger than those in Paris, because you're comparing all of New York State including housing in Buffalo etc with the 20 arrondissements of central Paris. >…
But isn't the entire Tokyo Metropolis under an hour by mass transit? That's a far cry from Buffalo. Like, Buffalo cannot commute to NYC by anything other than private aircraft.
The article makes a major mistake: it uses Tokyo Metropolis (Tokyo-to, basically "Tokyo State", area 2,194.07 km2) for comparisons, not central Tokyo (23-ku, aka the former Tokyo City, area 619 km2). So it's basically the same as saying houses in New York are much larger than those in Paris, because you're comparing all of New York State including housing in Buffalo etc with the 20 arrondissements of central Paris. >…
> because you're comparing all of New York State including housing in Buffalo etc with the 20 arrondissements of central Paris. But isn't the entire Tokyo Metropolis under an hour by mass transit? That's a far cry from Buffalo. Like, Buffalo cannot commute to NYC by anything other than private aircraft.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And the apartment as a comparison to houses doesn't help much, as Japanese houses tend to be smaller than western. Source is me, I've been living in Japan for over 10 years now.
Western being what exactly? Houses are rarely spacious in a lot of what qualifies as 'west'. You can't compare The Netherlands and Belgium with Germany, let alone the US.
But even then I'd probably guess Japanese are smaller. I have not looked at the numbers and will go look now though, I should have before commenting.
Edit: you're right(as I had assumed being familiar), Netherlands average from a quick search is roughly on par.
The article makes a major mistake: it uses Tokyo Metropolis (Tokyo-to, basically "Tokyo State", area 2,194.07 km2) for comparisons, not central Tokyo (23-ku, aka the former Tokyo City, area 619 km2). So it's basically the same as saying houses in New York are much larger than those in Paris, because you're comparing all of New York State including housing in Buffalo etc with the 20 arrondissements of central Paris. >…