tokyo #16 - our stay in iriya

i'm sharing about where i stayed in tokyo.
the name of the neighbourhood is iriya,
roughly a few metro stops to ueno.
we stayed in an airbnb japanese-style house.
for me the location is okay,
since central tokyo can be expensive.

actually the story of how i managed to walk to this house is quite amazing.
i had no idea of the exact location of the house,
i had no wifi or phone line,
i was alone and nobody was there waiting for me.
all i had was a rough sketch of a map showing the way from the metro station to the house
that i took a screenshot of from malaysia.

in tokyo, the metro exit is not so straightforward.
iriya metro station alone has 4 exits and only one of them has an elevator.
i arrived and had no idea which exit to get out of,
not to mention in which direction i should start walking to hahaha T.T
bigggg mistake, honestly.
tbh i vividly remember then that london, paris, and seoul
also have many exits out of one metro station.
why didn't i think that i would have the same problem in tokyo -.-"

i was just praying a lot that i would get to the house before it gets too dark,
lugging my heavy luggage haha.
i managed to not get too lost, in the end.
found the house within an hour.
i have to thank my crazy brain for being a genius
and Allah for looking out for me.

navigating in tokyo is actually fine,
it's just that you have to understand where you're going,
to have a sense of direction,
and to always have a map (and wifi) with you.
in a few days i was already a pro in taking metros
and understanding where is where in tokyo.
i'm proud to be a non-typical girl in this stuff haha.

seriously, tokyo held so many adventures and stories for me.

narrow buildings

sakura at the main road <3

just around the corner of our house

beautiful manhole covers

you can't even open the car's door, honestly..

our room sweet room,
i guess in big cities like tokyo, this small space is enough for one or two person living here fulltime

kitchen and door to the very small toilet.
notice the many recycling bins

i'm not proud to say i didn't learn much about recycling when i was there -.-"

this is the shower OUTSIDE the house.
yes, the toilet inside the house contains only the toilet.
to shower, you have to get out of the house, walk to the shared shower with 3 other houses.
zzzzzzz.

okay by now i'm wondering why i didn't take a picture of the full house.

to describe in short, it is a two storey building

with 2 doors on each level for the houses.

the shower room is located on the ground floor in the same building.

the house is more like a studio house, really.

doors to the shower rooms with washing machine and dryers just outside,

i pity those living in tokyo if they have to live like this.

the houses are so small and the price is crazy expensive.

you have to share common space with other people,

but in a way it makes you closer to your neighbours, i guess.

all in all, iriya was a nice neighbourhood.

it felt like living amongst locals for that one week in tokyo :)