patrick.net

Lots of people in San Francisco would be freakin delighted to have a space like that for $800 per month. Maybe they should move to Tokyo to save money!

Check out the photos:

Bathtub/shower without an enclosure or even a curtain, and a showerhead with no mount (meaning you have to hold it in your hand all the time).

What is the logic behind this? I have seen this myself a few times and I find the whole setup hugely impractical. Water splashing all over the place. That is the last thing you need if space is tight to begin with.

You must be familiar with "aPodments" here in Seattle that are about 400 sq ft. They started as University housing, but are now in a lot of popular locations.

http://apodment.com/

Lots of people in San Francisco would be freakin delighted to have a space like that for $800 per month

Nobody can accuse the Japanese of not overbuilding, LOL.

(red frame is my old place, can you find it???)

Maybe they should move to Tokyo to save money!

telecommuting (making $ and spending ¥) might actually kick ass this decade thanks to Abe and Kuroda.

Get my apps working for me and I'll be set : )

justme says

Bathtub/shower without an enclosure or even a curtain, and a showerhead with no mount (meaning you have to hold it in your hand all the time).

What is the logic behind this? I have seen this myself a few times and I find the whole setup hugely impractical. Water splashing all over the place. That is the last thing you need if space is tight to begin with.

It's mounted. Sit on a stool and wash. More than likely, there is another mount above it.

The whole room is waterproofed (note the drain) so you're good to go showering anywhere in it.

The tub's for soaking though, and lemme tell ya, nothing beats a long, hot soak on a cold winter night. The drain in the floor means you can fill it to the top and hop on in! kersplash!

The Japanese also make bath sensors that ring when the bathtub is full enough, of course.

Yeah, I guess I know how this setup is used but I find it very impractical. I don't like getting out of the shower and wading around in puddles of water all over the floor. You basically have to escape the bathroom in order to get dried up. And if the toilet is in the same room, everyone has to live with the latest round of splash for hours afterwards.

It is not the European way (although they do have a lot of concrete and watertight flooring/walls, even in wooden houses), not the North-American way, seems somewhat uniquely far-eastern. What's the problem with having at least a shower curtain? Sure it gets grungy, but that can't be the reason, can it?

Help me with my cultural education...

athome.co.jp is great because their search lets me find top floor + corner apt + washer hookups.

that's my minimum, I don't care where in Tokyo I end up as long as I have that, and some quiet and privacy without having to close all my blinds.

athome reports 300,000 available apartments in Tokyo-to.
70,000 are top-floor, 37,000 of those are corner units, and 32,000 of those have a drain for a washer.

ISTM the renters have the whip-hand in Tokyo, LOL 32,000 apartments and I'm being pretty picky!

Curiously, there's only ~400 condos for sale that meet that filter criteria.

justme says

I don't like getting out of the shower

that's just it, you don't get out of the shower . . .

the whole room is the shower. The back wall (where the door is) is probably far enough to not get wet.

This design also cleverly (?) reuses the entry foyer as a private space, though if you're drying off when your hosuemate comes in with guests, that would be funny!

But with just 220', this is hopefully only for 1 person!

I know the neighborhood, actually. I used to live there back in the day - shakujikoen. Enjoyed it a lot. I was about a 15 minute walk from the station and I passed cabbage fields on my way home (in urban Tokyo!). The house I rented was on a dirt alleyway, no fooling. It all changed rapidly in the 80's, unfortunately, but I really liked that little house. Rent, as I recall, was about 45K yen, but I'm not certain.

justme says

It is not the European way (although they do have a lot of concrete and watertight flooring/walls, even in wooden houses), not the North-American way, seems somewhat uniquely far-eastern.

I have seen this type of setup (or similar) in the middle-east and India as well.

justme says

Bathtub/shower without an enclosure or even a curtain, and a showerhead with no mount (meaning you have to hold it in your hand all the time).

The shower head is for a squat or sit and wash. You can get a lot cleaner quicker than with water just falling from above.

In Japan there is a different (possibly cleaner and more water efficient) style of taking a shower/bath.

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2002.html

"When bathing Japanese style, you are supposed to first rinse your body outside the bath tub with a washbowl. Afterwards, you enter the tub, which is used for soaking only."

I have also bathed in rooms like this where there is no running water (and no tub), just a pan of water and a little bucket for pouring.

justme says

And if the toilet is in the same room, everyone has to live with the latest round of splash for hours afterwards.

Yes, this is annoying. It happens every time my kids take a bath, in our "American" bathroom.

I recall that odd North American bathroom trend of putting carpet down. Between bathtub splashing and fecal spray from "the commode", I guess this was a short-lived fad, but much crazier than a Japanese shower.

leo707 says

"When bathing Japanese style, you are supposed to first rinse your body outside the bath tub with a washbowl. Afterwards, you enter the tub, which is used for soaking only."

there's pro-forma washing for a public "bath" -- more like public jacuzzi -- when you're already clean -- splish-splash a bowl a bit and then you jump in.

but if you're there to GET clean, the Japanese use a shower thingy like normal people. Either sitting on a small shower stool (kinda convenient actually) or standing up in a proper shower at head height (generally not in a public situation).

My unit bath in Japan had a shower head at a decent enough height for me, in the tub actually, just like the American set up (the unit bath had a toilet too so it wasn't a dedicated bathing room like this place)

beentheredonethat says

I was about a 15 minute walk from the station and I passed cabbage fields on my way home (in urban Tokyo!).

still kinda wild out in Nerima-ku, LOL

http://goo.gl/maps/QM3Ni

Special place in my heart for Shakujii since that's where I stayed the first 2-3 weeks I was FOB.

What a great little town. The lakes make it pretty ritzy:

http://goo.gl/maps/bHGKl

and it's also the first express stop out of Ikebukuro so it's pretty convenient to Tokyo proper.

Though I think I like Kichijoji a bit better. These rinky-dink shotengais get pretty old after a couple of years, plus Kichijoiji has good connections to the Tozai line, Shinjuku, and Shibuya via the Inogashira line.

I rode the 8:48AM or whatever express every time I HAD to get to work by 9:30 in Shibuya and it never let me down over six months.

It's like Japanese railroads have little Mussolinis running them, LOL