We’ve all seen Japanese apartments and homes in anime and manga. I’m sure many of us have heard of how expensive it is to live in the Tokyo area. I’m not sure how many of us know just how expensive it can be, considering the size of the places for rent.

Thus, I bring you COVO, which is a site I stumbled upon via a Google ad on my friend Lepidus’s site (how a Japanese ad appeared on his very non-Japanese site, I have no clue). A few things you’ll have to remember as you cruise this site.

1. The yen/dollar conversion rate is roughly ¥100 to the dollar (it was ¥107 when I actually posted this). So when you see those 500,000 (what I believe are per month) prices PLUS service costs (extra), its not a mistake and it is really going to cost someone in Japan over $5000/month to rent this place.
2. Japanese are very metric, so if you see floor plans with “8800,” (or whatever), thats millimeters. There are 1000 millimeters in a meter and ~3.28 feet per meter. When they mark out stuff in actual meters, you’ll know it. I think the biggest place I saw on the site was a little over 300 square feet when the conversions were done. ^_^;
3. The “Premium”ones are newer places (for the most part) and considered luxury places. The regular residence ones may not be considered luxury, but are nice places for Tokyo.
4. If you don’t see a “bedroom” in the floor plans but do see “LD,” that’s your living/dining, and bedroom. ^_^;
5. When checking out the different models, you’ll notice “レイアウト” with a square Kanji next to it (third link-button from the left at the bottom of the page). That will give you the floor plans (“レイアウト” is how the Japanese phonetically spells out “layout”).
6. “SHOP・SOHO” (under “Shop/Office”) is for people who have a store on the ground floor and a residence above it.

It is very fascinating seeing these places. It makes me appreciate the fact that in the U.S., we can have nice, big places to live in, even in an expensive place, and still be WAY, WAY cheaper than it costs in Tokyo.