High summer is an awful time to be in Tokyo, when temperatures exceed 30ºC on a daily basis. What makes it even worse this year is the non-stop noise from outside our apartment.

From 8.30am to 5pm we have the demolition crew, who have been clearing the land next to our apartment to make way for a new car showroom. They expect to finish everything by March 2009:

Then from 7pm to 3am we have the roadworks posse, who are laying new gas pipes underneath the main road. They have at least five light-sabre-wielding traffic monitors along a 50-metre stretch of road, one of whom you can see here:

Thankfully I usually don’t get back from work until after 7pm on weekdays so I miss the demolition. However, the $#&%ers insist on working Saturdays: I’m currently struggling to hear myself think over the noise of drills, diggers and crushing concete.

Our final post in the series covers probably the single biggest living expense: accommodation. Tokyo, and London especially have a reputation for being two of the most expensive places in the world in terms of rent, so they will be our “test sites”, as it were, for investigation today.

As in earlier posts I’m going to compare the cost of living in two areas: Southgate in north London and Kichijoji in western Tokyo. Let’s begin by finding two relatively decent-sized flats:

For Southgate, I’ve chosen a nice little place in Haddon Court (N1), 0.4 miles from Oakwood station and 0.7 miles from Southgate station:

For Kichijoji, I’ve chosen this imposing-looking flat in the Honcho 1-chome area, just 7 minutes walk from Kichijoji station:

For Southgate, we have the added bonus of a nice selection of photos of the inside:

Sadly, the website I’ve used to search for flats in Tokyo (apamanshop.com) doesn’t usually post photographs of interiors. They do, however, always have a floor-plan. People often search for places to live in Tokyo by the overall size of the flat (in square metres) and their proximity to the station. The closer to a train station you get, the more expensive rent becomes.

Let’s look at the floor-plans, starting with the Southgate flat, which is 56 sq m:

And the Kichijoji flat, which is slightly bigger at 56.4 sq m:

As you can see, the layout of both is quite different. The Southgate flat has a proper kitchen, where the Kichijoji flat has a combined kitchen and living room (known as a LDK, or “living dining kitchen” – bit of a mouthful). Personally I prefer the separate kitchen offering, as watching TV while someone else (ie the wife) is doing the cooking in the same room is a pain in the arse.

One important factor to note is that the Southgate flat comes fully-furnished at no extra cost. For those who have no furniture of their own this is a great bonus. Unless you’re coming across to Japan with a company your Tokyo flat is highly unlikely to be furnished. People who have been transferred to Japan do very well in this regard, as they are usually placed in ridiculously expensive serviced flats in Azabu-Juban; for those coming across as English teachers, well, you’re not quite going to have the same level of luxury; and with some English schools you may find yourself sharing accommodation with one or two others.

But how about the cost? In basic terms, this is how much each flat will cost you per month:

• Southgate: £964 (£225 per week ÷ 7 days = £32.14 per day)
• Kichijoji: £926 (JPY168,000 for rent, plus JPY3,000 for management fees)

So, that’s pretty even, but! there’s one nasty surprise in store if you want to move into the Kichijoji flat: two-months rent in advance as a security deposit! Actually, this flat is much better than many others, which often require an additional two-months rent as “key money”: a non-refundable “thank  you” to your landlord, leaving you paying out a total of four-months rent before you even have your foot through the door.

With regard to discrimination against foreigners renting flats in Japan, I can’t deny that I have heard of it happening, but most of the (single) people I know who rent flats in Tokyo have managed to do so without too much trouble. Obviously it helps to know Japanese, or have a Japanese-speaking friend help you out, but it’s not impossible to do it without either of these.

That brings the “Is Japan Expensive?” series to a close for the time being. In the future I will look at the taxation system in Japan and how it affects foreign residents, but this is a very complex issue and I simply haven’t got the time to do it at the moment!

Exchange rate used correct as of 19 July 2008 (£1=JPY213.69).

In the past couple of months I’ve had to do some foreign travel for work. On paper this sounds like a good deal: free flights, free accommodation and a daily allowance. Of course, the major problem with business travel is the fact that you have to actually do some work once you’ve reached your destination.

In March I went to Singapore to make a presentation and conduct “research” (I can say no more than that, because, err… the less I say about it the more mysterious it sounds). Unfortunately I didn’t finish work until 7pm most days, so there was little chance to take in the sights. I did manage to have a pint or seven the first night I arrived, which in hindsight was a very bad idea: I spent much of the next morning sneaking out of a meeting to spew-up in the bogs. Thankfully no one noticed, or if they did they did a very good job of pretending that nothing was awry.

So anyway, I liked Singapore. The food was very good, although I have been told to try the chilli crab next time I visit. I hope it’s boiled crab served with some kind of chilli sauce, and not a crustacean with a bad head cold. My hotel was opposite the world-famous Raffles hotel, and natually I had to go in for a Singapore Sling. Tradition dictates that you throw your peanut shells on the floor of the bar, which made the place look like a cow shed. To make matters worse, a fleet of ageing American cruise-ship tourists waddled in while I was there, and the very size of them only served to reinforce the cow shediness.

There was a brief lull in activity until a couple of weeks ago, when I went to Australia for more “research”. The schedule was a bit mental: two days in Melbourne, two days in Canberra, one day back in Melbourne and then one day in Sydney. I had forgotten that it was autumn in Australia, and it was a bit strange walking around in May and seeing the leaves falling off the trees, and it being -2 degrees in the mornings.

The wonderful thing about Australia was being able to understand what people were saying all of the time, being able to pick up a newspaper and know what’s going on, and simply being able to deal with everything in my own language. It was very easy to fall into conversation with complete strangers, which happens very rarely in Japan, well at least to me at any rate. I must exude an aura of unapproachability. I think it has something to do with my childhood - having to put on an “eff off!” face to dissuade the scallies from trying to nick my pocket money when I was hanging about Middlesbrough on Saturdays.

At any rate, Australia was good. I even managed to finish work early which gave time for a bit more of a wander around. This extra time was good in Melbourne, and would have been in Sydney if I didn’t have to wait at the airport for 2 hours for my suitcase to turn up, but sadly it was lost on Canberra.

With two days in Canberra, and my hotel being close to the centre, I decided to go for a wander to the parliament building. From my hotel room window it looked like a 20 minute walk at the most. However, after thirty minutes of walking in its general direction I had lost all sight of it, and hadn’t passed a single living soul. I decided to give up and head back after 40 minutes for fear that I might get beaten up by a gang of renegade kangaroos (there was a kangaroo cull on while I was there. Some of them had been going to the off-licence, buying 24-packs of Stella and beating up goths who where waiting for the bus home from sixth-form).

So, that’s all the travel news so far. I think I’ll be heading back to Australia at the end of the year, and Singapore again next year. In the meantime, here are some photos for your perusal:

This is from a bar in Singapore. It pissed it down for the entire duration of my stay.

This is the view from the Singapore office (which, incidentally, is much better than the one I work in in Tokyo. Damn them!).

This is the view from my hotel room at night. Raffles is in the bottom-left corner.

Here’s my hotel room. No idea why they gave me a twin room. Still, good for dumping the old suitcase!

“Death for drug traffickers under Singapore law” - ooh err missus!

This is Melbourne. Lots of trams in the city centre. I was convinced that I would get ploughed by one at some point. Didn’t happen. No one seemed to pay for tickets, so I didn’t either - when in Rome…

Down by the river side in Melbourne. Found lots of good bars and restaurants down here. All the staff were either British, Irish or American. Mind you, in London all the bar staff are either Aussies or Kiwis.

Melbourne’s skyline, as seen from the office (which once again was much better than my office in Tokyo. It’s a conspiracy!).

This is somewhere in Victoria. Taken from the plane back to Melbourne from Canberra.

This is the view from my hotel room in Canberra. The spiky thing in the distance is the parliament building. Doesn’t look too far away, does it?

Close up of the parliament building. Apparently most of it is underground in case of war. Looks like a big hill with a kebab skewer on top if you ask me.

I somehow managed to land an executive suite at no extra cost in Canberra. It was about the same size as our flat in Tokyo - class!

The bed was enormous as well.

This is what I discovered when I went walking towards the parliament building in Canberra: absolutely nowt. The footpaths even disappeared after a while…

… I did find a solitary signpost. Shame it was to nowhere in particular

Golden Week is here! Let’s do some mountain climbing!

Ah yes, the smell of the wet earth, the sour tang of fern trees - this is nature at its finest. It’s so nice to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city and just, you know, get back to my country roots.

Whoa now, what the bloody hell is going on here? Where did all these lot come from? It’s not the queue for the toilet, is it?

Ahh yes, this is more like it. Trees, and sky, and… erm… birds, perhaps?

Just look at those clouds. Full of malice, they are.

Oh now come on, be fair. I wanted just one day of peace and quiet and look what happens - three thousand people follow me and then decide to have a picnic on the summit. I want an Alsatian, then I could say…

“You lot! get your fat little behinds off my mountain and back to Hachioji, or Steve (good name for an Alsatian, I think) will be going round the summit snipping off some scrotes.”

…is quite impressive, especially on a clear, sunny day. The Mori Art Museum, located on the fiftysomething floor of the Mori Tower, is currently staging an exhibition called “Art is for the Spirit“, with works from the likes of Damien Hirst, Andreas Gorsky and Julian Opie on display (and is, I might add, well worth a visit). While I couldn’t get any shots of the exhibition itself thanks to the extreme number of security staff dotted around, I did manage to take quite a few of the Tokyo skyline for your general perusal: