LWIF EP3: Squeezing Between Homes in Tokyo, Japan

Hello World! Space is tight in Tokyo.

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Shot from the Ebisu area of Tokyo. Not all of Tokyo looks like this by the way.

Japanese houses can be small in comparison to North American homes, but what’s even smaller is the spaces between them. A good amount of homes in Tokyo don’t have yards, or if they do, they’re quite tiny.

What we didn’t show so much in the video was what the houses look like from a distance. Here’s a Google Map that starts off at what appears to be some recently built homes (with some ugly rock trim if you ask me… unless it’s your house… it’s nice!)

Below is a rendering of new homes.

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If you look at the drawing on the bottom right, you’ll see how crammed up the units are against one another.

These units are 4LDK, which means 4 bedrooms, living room, dining room, and kitchen (but the living and dining room are the same area, so it’s really more like a big – by Japanese standards – living room). The houses are 100 m2 (which is 1076 square feet).

The parking below is not common at all (I’ve only seen this a few times), but it’s possible to make up for the lack of parking spots with one of these devices.

You can always go up!
You can always go up!

In case you think there’s not a lot of open space/green space in Tokyo, you’d be surprised. Here’s a nice walkway.

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And here’s another photo of Tokyo, this time from its taken from its neighbouring prefecture (state/province) Chiba. You can see how the riverbanks have a lot of green space and the buildings aren’t so big.
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