$600 a Month to Live in a Human Locker Room!

Well, hi there! How're you doing today. Nothing cramping your style? Good to hear! (I hate that expression, don't you). Pour some of that deliciously aromatic Arabica into your mug and feast on a virtual treat or two while I tell you about how some people's style is indeed cramped in Tokyo.

It’s no secret that Tokyo is one of the most crowded cities in the world. More than 36 million people live there. That's around 3 million more than in the whole of Canada, eh!

It’s also got some of the smallest apartments in the world, but a recent news program showed this whole housing problem is getting ridiculous. People are paying huge rents to live in coffin-sized apartments.

Just looking at photos of these locker room apartments in the Tokyo’s Shibuya district is enough to make anyone feel claustrophobic. And yet there are people willing to pay as much as ¥55,000 a month ($586) a month to live in them. Granted, most of them are probably just young professionals who spend most of their time at work and outdoors, using these tiny accommodations just for sleeping, but still, the fact that someone would pay that high a rent for this kind of living conditions is baffling. 

Apart from the obvious lack of space, these so-called ”geki-sema share houses” are stacked on top of each other, and some don’t even have windows. The latest reactions to the video report show even Japanese people, who are used to small spaces, think these human locker rooms are insane.

2.44m x 1.5m is about 4x8 ft. That would take some getting used to! If you want to change your mind, you'd have to go outside, eh! Much as Nong and I'd love to visit Japan, by the time we could afford to go, I suspect we'd have to stay in a shoebox!

See ya, eh!

Bob