We spent Wednesday morning in search of an apartment. We really wanted our own place with a bathroom and kitchen…so we took the train about 30 minutes into Yokohama city in hopes of finding something with a great realtor Nishibie. He showed us a place that was small (this we knew) on a bottom floor and with no view. It wasn’t a big deal, the price was ok….the problem…public transportation in this city is so pricy it would cost the two of us $500 US a month for the train.
So, Nishibie mentioned that he had a guest house one stop up from our school on the train. It did not have its own bath or kitchen, but it did come fully furnished and had a full size bed. There was no down payment and everything including utilities and internet came with the 69,000 Yen a month price ($889 USD)
We took a look and decided it was a good idea to take it. It is a 10 minute walk to the train station and costs 120 yen or 150 yen ($150-$2) to get to the two different schools we work at. Then, a 5-10 minute walk to the school.
We spent the afternoon setting up and putting away our luggage. And this is our new place!
It just so happened on the night we moved in, in the common area, they were having a Chinese Dumpling (Gyoza) making party. So, we were able to have a few beers and meet some of our neighbors. Few spoke English, but we had a fun time trying to learn everyone’s names.
There are 14 rooms on each floor…give or take one or two here and there for office and storage space, a toilet on each floor (1 squatter and one rimmed one, 2 urinals) and on the bottom floor are showers…4 stalls (1 for women only…there are 4 of us in the building)
The kitchen is industrial and a lot of fun to cook in. The dishes and cups and pots and pans etc. are all communal and then we have a drawer in the kitchen to keep spices or oils or whatever we may need down there. You just have to remember to pack all of the other foods and such you may need to bring it down to the kitchen each time.
It does stink that the hallways don’t have a heater and in the middle of the night you have to bundle up, throw on slippers and make your way down the hall to the freezing cold toilets…but we intend to find big robes (we couldn’t pack ours in the small space we were allotted)
The space is small, but it is very comfortable, we have a nice view out the window and signed only a 2 month lease so we can always extend or find elsewhere to live in a bit.
Our new mailing address is:
26-1 Chigusadai
apt. #213
Aoba-ku Fujigaoka
Yokohama Kanagawa 227-0051
Japan
Thats all for now!
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Intentionally and incrementally. Most families who live this way did not leap from conventional to adventurous overnight. They built remote work capacity, paid down debt, tested longer trips, and had increasingly honest conversations about what they actually want from their lives. The leap feels bigger from outside than from inside.
Different for every family. For some it is long-term travel. For others it is weekend adventures close to home. What connects them is intentionality about how time is spent and a preference for experiences over accumulation. The version that fits your family is the right one.
By finding stability within the adventure rather than treating them as opposites. Routines, rituals, and family rhythms travel with you. Familiar foods, bedtime routines, and predictable family dynamics provide stability even when the location changes. Kids need consistency in relationships more than consistency in geography.
That people are fundamentally similar across cultures in what they want for their families. That comfort zone is a smaller circle than it feels from inside. That the things worth having in life require effort and discomfort to get. And that time together doing hard interesting things is the most reliable source of family closeness.
By getting clear on why you made the choices you made and returning to that clarity when the outside noise gets loud. Most families living unconventionally describe an initial period of explaining themselves that gradually gives way to just living the life. The explaining becomes less necessary as the results become visible.
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