I've finally moved into a new place, somewhere I can stay for pretty much as long as I want. The drawback is that it's a share house - 9 people across two floors, with shared bathroom/kitchen. The 'normal' renting system was not available to me, as I can't prove steady income with a Japanese company.

My new house (called Kitazawa One) is located between the three train stations Shimo-Kitazawa, Higashi-Kitazawa and Ikenoue in Tokyo - about 10 minutes away from Kanako's house, by bicycle. The location is actually fantastic! Shimokita is where I've been spending most of my time before, as there are a lot of music studios and venues around here. Further, I'm just 15min away from bigger hubs like Shibuya & Shinjuku, again by bike. By the way, I've finally managed to buy my own, a Trek FX3 hybrid bike which has the right size and rides very well.

Anyways, my room is unfortunately very small (just 7m2), and the house has thin walls. I've kept some of previous tenants' furniture (cheap shelves and plastic boxes) and bought most of what I still needed at Muji. Here's what it looks like right now (I will add some pictures of the surroundings the following days):

The house just changed management companies, so out of the 9 available rooms, only 3 are currently occupied. Two more people will move in next week, with additional viewings held frequently, so I expect the house to be full by the end of next month.

Perhaps this isn't so interesting, but I was surprised to find a vegan section in one of the nearby supermarkets! The surprise stems from the fact that although there are somewhat more plant-based options in Tokyo today than there were 8 years ago, most places still don't cater to vegetarians/vegans.

As my room is not really a viable option to get any real work done, I'm now trialling a coworking space (called 'Robert') in Shimokita. It's fairly small, but a has a pleasant vibe; plus there's monitors that can be borrowed. The cost is also reasonable at around 130eu a month (which includes 24/7 access and free coffee). Here's where I'm currently writing this:

While I still don't take many pictures, the other day I took some while taking a walk with EMB (a friend of Ben's and myself from years back) around the Tokyo Tower/Imperial palace. These aren't great pictures, but perhaps give a little bit of an impression:

(to the left we see the moat that belongs to the larger area that attaches to the imperial palace)

(here we stairs to a shrine in an area that is mainly high-rises)

(this is one of the many skyscrapers in a fairly small area owned by the Mori Building Co. It can be eerie looking up on an overcast night!)

In other news, Ben, myself, and a talented Japanese guitarist called Anne, are in the process of forming a band! We're going to start writing music very soon, which I'll hopefully be able to post a demo of in the coming months.