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From the guide: Tokyo Guide: Rent, Key Money and Where to Actually Live
Tokyo Checklist
27 things to do, eat, check and decide. demontemag.com
🔑 The move-in money (do this first)
- Budget 4 to 6 months rent to move inReikin + deposit + agency fee + first month
- Understand reikin is NOT refundable1 to 2 months rent, gone. Different from a deposit
- Price a no-reikin serviced apartment as an alternativeHigher monthly, far lower up front. Usually better under a year
- Ask any landlord to split the quoteWhich part is reikin, which is deposit, which is agency fee
- On a ¥150,000 flat expect ¥600,000 to ¥900,000 up front
📍 Pick your area
- Shimokitazawa1K at ¥60,000 to ¥85,000. Vintage shops, live music, affordable eating
- NakameguroCanal lined with cafes. The nomad hub, and priced like it
- Walk both before decidingThey are very different prices for very different lives
- Check the walk to the nearest station
☕ Cafes and working
- Shimokitazawa for laptop-friendly density
- Walk the Nakameguro canal end to end
- Watch what others are doing before settling inLaptop tolerance varies and is not always posted
- Find one cafe you can work a full day from
🌃 Nights out
- Start with an izakayaEating and drinking are one activity here
- Walk into somewhere tiny with no English signThis is how Tokyo actually works
- Do not over-plan a bar listTens of thousands of venues. Wandering beats research
🧭 Practical setup
- Get a Suica or Pasmo IC card on arrival
- Pack a Type A adapterJapan runs 100V, the lowest mains voltage in the world
- Check older chargers work on 100V
- Sort a Japanese phone number earlyNeeded for a lot of admin
🗓️ First week, in order
- Day 1 — IC card, SIM, settle in
- Day 2 — Walk Shimokitazawa. Work from a cafe
- Day 3 — Walk the Nakameguro canal. Compare
- Day 4 — View serviced apartments and no-reikin listings
- Day 5 — View standard listings, get full cost breakdowns
- Day 6 — Do the maths: up-front versus monthly, for your stay length
- Day 7 — Commit to whichever wins
💸 Rent and costs, per month
| 1K apartment, Shimokitazawa | ¥60,000 – 85,000 |
| 1-bed, city centre | ¥130,000 – 200,000 |
| Comfortable all-in budget | ¥250,000 – 370,000 |
| Move-in total (one-off) | 4 – 6 months rent |
| of which reikin (non-refundable) | 1 – 2 months rent |
Most expensive city in this Asia series. Seoul asks for a bigger deposit but returns it; Tokyo reikin is gone for good.
demontemag.com/blog/tokyo-guide-rent-key-money-neighbourhoods