{"id":1031,"date":"2020-10-10T05:11:51","date_gmt":"2020-10-10T05:11:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dailysack.com\/?p=1031"},"modified":"2020-10-21T00:36:35","modified_gmt":"2020-10-21T00:36:35","slug":"cheap-tokyo-my-move-to-hostel-lifestyle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailysack.com\/travel\/2020\/10\/10\/cheap-tokyo-my-move-to-hostel-lifestyle\/","title":{"rendered":"Cheap Tokyo: Living the Hostel Lifestyle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-heading\">It&#8217;s official:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"> I have moved from Zoshiki to Tabata, Tokyo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/dailysack.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Capture-3-1024x1018.jpg\" alt=\"Zoshiki to Tabata\" class=\"wp-image-1032\" width=\"387\" height=\"384\"\/><figcaption>As you can see, my new place is not far from Asakusa and Ueno.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>I waved goodbye to Zoshiki and its neighboring town, Kamata (\u84b2\u7530\uff09It was honestly pretty sad for me. I&#8217;d lived in Eastern Tokyo for a few months and was getting used to life over there. I had my routines: wake up, ride my bike to work, enjoy the sights, then ride back at night. When I went out, I recognized familiar faces around town. I even had a favorite bar where they all knew me. Not that it&#8217;s hard to get recognized when you&#8217;re a foreigner in Tokyo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Full disclosure, it was a karaoke bar called Joker, and they all got me drunk and made me sing anime theme songs that I knew. They had &#8220;all you can drink&#8221; for about $10\/hour. I basically got smashed and sang the Evangelion opening theme song with the entire establishment (as it turns out, everyone in Japan knows it by heart). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text alignwide\" style=\"grid-template-columns:26% auto\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><video controls src=\"http:\/\/dailysack.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/IMG_3099.mov\"><\/video><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size\">I climbed my favorite bridge<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>and said goodbye to my last train. I liked to stand up there on the bridge and watch the trains go by. Although I felt nostalgic, I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ll be going back any time soon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Zoshiki and Tabata are great places. They have a fresh outdoor vegetable market and cool bars and great food. But it&#8217;s really far out of the way (it borders Kawasaki, the next prefecture over). Plus, I feel like I&#8217;ve seen everything there is to see in that corner of the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On to bigger and better things! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8230;or, if not bigger and better, at least new and different&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Anyway, I don&#8217;t have a legitimate Tokyo apartment anymore, at least like I did in Zoshiki. Now I live in a hostel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-heading\">Base Inn Tabata <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>My place in Zoshiki was 80,000 JPY per month, or roughly $800 USD. Not cheap. My new place runs me about $300 USD\/mo. In other words, it is a cheap Tokyo hostel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the price is right, and you do make sacrifices for such a cheap price. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For one thing, there&#8217;s no stove. You&#8217;re stuck with a hot water boiler and a microwave. Which is okay by me. I get by. I&#8217;ve been too lazy to cook recently anyway. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The hostel is clean. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you live in Base Inn Tabata, yo ur personal living quarters are a rectangular tube. Yeah, it&#8217;s one of those. Then there&#8217;s a shared space with a counter for eating and writing, a few showers (free soap included), toilets, and 3 refrigerators. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-circle-mask\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/dailysack.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/IMG_3126-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1036\" width=\"281\" height=\"375\"\/><figcaption>Behold, the area of the brushing of the teeth<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>There&#8217;s no personal locker, which is insane to me, but I already booked the entire month. I feel safer about this in Japan than I would in any other country, but I&#8217;m still a little funny about it. Call me paranoid, but I bring my laptop around with me when I go out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-circle-mask\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/dailysack.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/IMG_3123-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1037\" width=\"270\" height=\"360\"\/><figcaption>Speaking of paranoid, they change the door locks every week.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Basically, I live in a dormitory with 8 guys and one gal. Everyone&#8217;s nice. 3 or 4 of the guys ride their bikes for Uber Eats, and they make enough money to get by. Everyone here is Japanese except for me. That&#8217;s because of the COVID19 pandemic: there&#8217;s not a whole lot of tourism in Japan right now. Honestly, I&#8217;m kind of glad for that. Foreigners can be kind of loud and obnoxious. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Besides me, of course. I&#8217;m an angel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anyway there&#8217;s not a whole lot of room for your stuff, but you make it work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are a few small-town bars. I visited them last week after moving in. I hope to write about those soon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The coin-op laundry is a 5-minute walk away, which sucks when it&#8217;s raining or cold. But there&#8217;s an upside: soap is included. That&#8217;s right: you don&#8217;t need to put soap in the machine. It just cleans your clothes because Japan is amazing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m going to leave you with this final picture (below), taken in the lobby of the building. These origami tomatoes are quite cute! Here&#8217;s what I like most about them: the variety of colors. The artist chose 9 unique colors of paper, yet they are all legitimate tomato colors. I think this is a thoughtful, homestyle piece of art that is pleasant to see every time I come home. It&#8217;s right in front of the elevator, and it gives me something to look at while I wait.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-circle-mask\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/dailysack.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/IMG_3131-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Tokyo Cheap Hostel \" class=\"wp-image-1038\" width=\"528\" height=\"397\"\/><figcaption>Japanese Origami Tomatoes at Baseinn Tabata<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">All in all, cheap hostel living in Tokyo has got its perks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Thank you for reading. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-circle-mask\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/dailysack.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/IMG_3050-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Eli Case \" class=\"wp-image-1043\" width=\"167\" height=\"223\"\/><figcaption>Eli Case is living in Tokyo. He is the proud owner of this super cool hat. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-wordpress wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-the-daily-sack\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"zfMyWiPkYv\"><a href=\"http:\/\/dailysack.com\/2020\/07\/05\/3-nice-things-about-living-in-kamata-tokyo\/\">3 Nice Things About Living in Kamata, Tokyo<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;3 Nice Things About Living in Kamata, Tokyo&#8221; &#8212; The Daily Sack \" src=\"http:\/\/dailysack.com\/2020\/07\/05\/3-nice-things-about-living-in-kamata-tokyo\/embed\/#?secret=zfMyWiPkYv\" data-secret=\"zfMyWiPkYv\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-wordpress wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-the-daily-sack\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"0spxLKHHMQ\"><a href=\"http:\/\/dailysack.com\/2020\/05\/31\/bicycling-in-japan\/\">Bicycling in Japan: A Story in Photos<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;Bicycling in Japan: A Story in Photos&#8221; &#8212; The Daily Sack \" src=\"http:\/\/dailysack.com\/2020\/05\/31\/bicycling-in-japan\/embed\/#?secret=0spxLKHHMQ\" data-secret=\"0spxLKHHMQ\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s official: I have moved from Zoshiki to Tabata, Tokyo. I waved goodbye to Zoshiki and its neighboring town, Kamata (\u84b2\u7530\uff09It was honestly pretty sad&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,2],"tags":[9,19,17,20,12,21],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailysack.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1031"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailysack.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailysack.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailysack.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailysack.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1031"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailysack.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1088,"href":"https:\/\/dailysack.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1031\/revisions\/1088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailysack.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailysack.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailysack.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailysack.com\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}