The choice to renovate a 45-year-old apartment in a downtown Tokyo neighborhood.

Recently, my husband and I moved from the rental apartment in Tokyo where we had been living,
to a 45-year-old apartment in the same city that we fully renovated.

Since leaving my parents' home in Gifu after graduating high school, I have moved more than a dozen times—through my college years, my time as a flight attendant, and even after marrying my husband, whose job requires frequent transfers.

For a couple like us, who are both curious and easily bored, a life of moving around like travelers suits us well.

In fact, the option of "buying a home" had never really felt realistic for us until now.

The reason we reached this decision was because, after moving all over the country, when we first moved to Tokyo...

it was unexpectedly comfortable to live in Tokyo,that is.

My husband and I were high school classmates from the same hometown.
The air and water were delicious, and at night, countless stars would twinkle in the sky...
We were born and raised at the foot of those mountains, so

wanting to live in the big city of Tokyo

was something we never expected.
We never imagined it at all.

After all, until we came to Tokyo for my husband's job,

"Tokyo is no place for people to live"

—we held such ridiculous prejudices...

After moving to Tokyo, the first apartment we rented was on the north side of the city, close to Saitama.

It was along the Arakawa River, about a 15-minute walk from "Akabane," known as a mecca for drinkers.

Before moving to Tokyo, we had lived in Sapporo and Asahikawa in Hokkaido for nearly 10 years, so while I was surprised by the drastic change in environment,

"What an interesting place this is!"

I couldn't stop feeling excited.

How should I put it? Just walking down the street is fun.
In Hokkaido and my hometown, even if you drive for hours, it's mostly mountains, fields, or rice paddies on both sides... (laughs)

In Tokyo, there are houses packed together on both sides, and many small shops lined up.
If you take a train or subway and go a little further, a neighborhood with a completely different atmosphere appears.

It's not just sophisticated, stylish neighborhoods; there are also many chaotic, cluttered streets that retain the charm of the old downtown, which is just fascinating.

As a country bumpkin, I only had a glamorous image of Minato Ward when I thought of Tokyo, so I felt a sense of relief, in a way. (laughs)

Tokyo is really vast...
I realized something that should have been obvious.

Especially in the drinking districts, there are all kinds of people.

People with unique fashion.
Young people who drink until morning and sleep on the ground.
Middle-aged men walking around in the middle of the day with a canned chuhai in one hand.
Along the Arakawa River, there are not only people walking dogs, jogging, or riding road bikes, but also a young woman practicing an instrument alone, an older man practicing singing, and an older man lying down shirtless to get a tan...

A lot of middle-aged men... (laughs)

When you live in the countryside, there are so few people that you tend to be self-conscious...
In that sense, there are so many diverse people in Tokyo.

No matter what you wear or what you do, you are free!!!

Seeing those men, my heart suddenly felt liberated.

It's no exaggeration to say thatTokyo is the place that set my heart free.

However, once my husband and I started talking about buying and living in an apartment in Tokyo, we naturally became cautious...

Maybe a place with fewer disasters would be better?
Considering earthquakes, a place with solid ground?
Considering flood damage, is living along the Arakawa or Sumida rivers a no-go?
Is the west side safer?
If I think about selling it eventually, would it be better to be along a train line with higher land prices?

That was the mindset I had when I started looking for a place to live, but...

Somehow, no matter which station or town I went to, I didn't feel excited at all.

Well, that makes sense.
Because I was trying to make a choice based on anxiety, worry, and profit rather than excitement.

In the end, anxiety and worry never really go away, and
anyway, there is no place on earth that is 100% safe to live!

Thinking that, when I started looking for a place again...

I found myself excited about the downtown area on the east side of Tokyo after all.

"We'd love to live in a place like this, wouldn't we?"

When I talked to my husband about it, a property we hadn't been able to find for over a year suddenly appeared, and we were able to reach a contract smoothly.

What we found was a 45-year-old used apartment.

Since we didn't like the floor plans of new apartments to begin with, we started with only the option of"fully renovating a used apartment into the shape we like"and were looking for properties through a renovation company.

We had a strong desire to create a home that suited our way of life and living, without being bound by common sense, so renovation was the only choice.


The detailed background of this is summarized in these articles.

Construction was completed on March 13th,
and we moved in on the 14th.

Here, I'd like to introduce a little bit of the empty state before moving in our belongings!

And now, three days after moving in, it's still messy, but the furniture has arrived and it's gradually coming together.

However, there were really so many things that happened before reaching this point.

The twists and turns until I met the ideal renovation company.
As I mentioned earlier, the problem of where in Tokyo to actually live?!
The problem of... not being able to find a property at all!
The various issues with the loan application for my husband, who once fell into a mental slump...

There are plenty of things that are hard to talk about openly (lol).

That is why, once life has settled down, I would like to publish

the behind-the-scenes of used apartment renovation

one by one, candidly, in a one-time purchase paid magazine.

I hope to deliver content that will be useful for people like you.

If you are interested, I would be happy if you could look forward to it!

Thank you for reading this far!

Please check here for other articles.

⇨(Maico, who wrote this article, is this kind of person!)
⇨(Maico's note site map: Search by purpose)