Tour of My TINY Apartment in Japan

[mikEXpat]

Hey all. I haven't been around much the past couple months. As some of you might know, I'm planning to move back to the US from Japan (not military) in a couple years. The first phase of my move just happened. My wife and I have divorced. It was mutual. You can see the whole story on YouTube. I moved into a tiny 200sq/ft apartment in order to scale down, save, and prepare for my move. Here is a video of my apartment. I make some comments about when I will move back and live in a van. Maybe my story will help and inspire others. I would LOVE to meet you at RTR.

[video=youtube]

 

[RVTravel]

Thanks for showing the apartment.

 

[ArtW]

man I need to access from wifi at work, 13 min vid is too much data cost, but thanks for posting!

 

[RVTravel]

Art, what size or min amount would you consider not too big to view the way you need to? It might be good for others to know for future posting of video? Sorry to derail thread Mike.

 

[mockturtle]

I can't do videos, either, but it does look nice and compact. Accumulation is a curse, that's for sure. Hope to meet you an the next RTR. I love Japan!

 

[Every Road Leads Home]

Hi, Cool video and nice to see what other people live in in other parts of the world. I've been saying for years someone needs to created small studios like this in some of the major US cities. I think they'd do very well. My smallest apt (I live in the suburbs of Boston) has been 450 sq ft and I could have done with less than that, but it's hard to find spaces much smaller. Largest i've rented is 800 sq feet and that felt huge! In the 450 sq ft one I built a platform for my bed that was about 4' high. I could fit all my outdoor gear (snowboard and boots, hiking packs, sleeping bags, tents, small gun safe) underneath, had a love seat, coffee table and dresser with my tv to the space next to it. Small kitchen, bath, closet and was quite the comfortable little home. Right in downtown Plymouth on the waterfront so was with in walking distance of the restaurants, bars, etc.

Look forward to seeing how you take your small space experience back to the states and incorporate it into a van build

 

[mikEXpat]

@ArtW Yeah. I understand. Maybe when you have a wifi connection you can watch it. I try to fit as much information as possible in the shortest amount of time, unless I taking a walk or hiking.

 

[mikEXpat]

@mockturtle

I'm to be at the 2018 RTR, maybe 2017 if I just can't stand living here anymore.

 

[mikEXpat]

@Every Road

Thanks. I have seen stories of one room places in NY or Boston but the rent is still too high. I'm looking forward to developing plans for my van or RV. Not sure yet if I can live in a van without a high top and decent running water. Living in Japan, I've come to love a cheap endless water supply.

 

[ArtW]

Art, what size or min amount would you consider not too big to view the way you need to? It might be good for others to know for future posting of video? Sorry to derail thread Mike.

since I have only 5g high speed, I try not to watch vids at all on youtube, but I have no idea data /minute cost, I just know more than a minute or two backs me off quick
at work I have Wi-Fi, that's different

 

[ArtW]

Thanks for posting, gives me some ideas re my 160 sq ft cabin

 

[AngryVanMan]

It's amazing how much we can take for granted what we think is necessary, when comparing ourselves to other societies. Thanks for this post, I like seeing things like this!

For those with tight bandwidth, if there is ever something you really, really want to watch, just remember there are different quality video formats available most of the time. I watched this in the lowest quality setting, 144p and that was acceptable to get the overview of his place. The size of that video was 7.3MB. The size of the webpage for this thread, with all the graphics and pictures, is a total of 2.2MB, for comparison. So it's not horrible if you want to see something in particular on video.

 

[BradKW]

Nice video! Leaves me with three questions:

1) how can there be shower curtain rods and hangers, but no curtains?

2) What's outside the widows? I wanted to see the view...

3) did you take out the trash? I didn't really believe you when you said you're about to go do that...

 

[mikEXpat]

Nice video! Leaves me with three questions:

1) how can there be shower curtain rods and hangers, but no curtains?

2) What's outside the widows? I wanted to see the view...

3) did you take out the trash? I didn't really believe you when you said you're about to go do that...

Sorry for the late reply.

I bought a shower curtain a month later and cut the bottom third off so it could fit.

The view outside is of the street and the buildings across the way. I'll do a follow up tour of my place closer to when I leave so 

Everyone can see what it looks like before I have the trash company come and clear it out. 

Taking out the trash is tough. I always sleep later than the 8am deadline to get it out.

 

[USExplorer]

Man, you plan to jump from one extreme to another. It will be an adventure, that's for sure.