Freedom to move, neighbors and local areas

Tatami has a strange smell. Most of the locals I talk to love it. I don’t mind it but I wonder if I’ll get tired of it.

We are finally moved in to our new place and it’s nice to be able to move around and stretch my arms freely…finally.

It’s still quite a small place so we are trying to add as little furniture as possible and we even took out the sliding doors that separate the kitchen just to give it a spacier feel to it.

I don’t exactly love having to duck every time I pass through a doorway. I’m always worried I’m going to hit my head, but we have a window…a big window and a balcony!

Our neighbors seem to be half older (widowed?) women, we hadn’t seen much of anyone else until yesterday. I saw one couple in their 20’s who look like they like to drink and a ywoman in her early 30’s. The walls are thick here, much more so than older houses, but the floor seems to make sounds downstairs if we stomp around. I guess I will have to be careful what exercise I do here.

I’ll probably get away with playing guitar in the afternoon but nighttime will likely get reported.

There is a massive difference in dealing with neighbors between rural Japan and Tokyo. In the countryside, it’s commonplace to greet your new neighbors and make friends or at least be friendly. The old tradition was to bring long noodles as a gift for a long relationship.

In Tokyo if you knock on your neighbors door they will likely hide and pretend not to be home. People tend not to have guests over because the walls are often thin and most people separate their private (home) life, social life and work life entirely.

We specifically chose a place with thick walls and as I mentioned, we live in the punk rock/subculture capital of Tokyo because it’s easy to make friends and feel connected.

People are still pretty shy with their neighbors. I haven’t knocked on any doors yet, though I thought about it. I might try.

In the hallways so far, half tNohe people I run into respond to a greeting with an automated response. It reminds me of high school kids who are told to greet their teachers and do so to avoid getting in trouble. Some others wouldn’t make eye contact and just nodded.

I’m not sure which is better though, in America, you get all kinds of neighbors and sometimes they can be friendly to the point where you lose some privacy or they could be even less friendly than the average Tokyo neighbor, and sometimes really inconsiderate…than there are some really really nice neighbors.

Not my neighborhood but there’s an alleyway about 2 minutes away that looks just like this

I’m always quite satisfied with my neighborhood. Whenever I move to a new city I look for unique areas that are where artists and unique people gather because it always makes it easier to meet friends.

The only thing I wish we had more of was healthy local food. Traditional food in Japan is so healthy but these days ramen and local fast food is more common and our area is popular for drinking so most of the food food is at bars. I rarely drink alcohol and it’s a little rude to go to those places and only order food (the profit margin on food is tiny compared to drinks) so we eat mostly Vietnamese, Thai, and one or two chain restaurants (even though I really really prefer local). At the chains I get a fried fish set with pickles rice and miso soup, or sometimes miso pork and eggplant.

If you have any questions about life in Tokyo feel free to ask. I’m not a local obviously but I’ve spent a lot of time here and have a lot to compare it to

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