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Autumn is the season of food, sports and moving house in Japan. Get on board with us and check out 4 different sharehouse lifestyles |
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We received a great reaction to the Sharehouse Bus Tour we held in February last year. Upon being overwhelmed with requests to do another one we thought long and hard about where to go and after a year of consideration held the Sharehouse Bus Tour Round 2 on Saturday, 4th October. I won’t go into too much detail so as not to bore those of you who read the first bus tour article, but to put it simply the idea is about getting on a bus and checking out some wonderful and interesting sharehouses all day. It’s not difficult to understand. With the cooperation of Tokyo Athletic more than 20 of us boarded the bus and went around to see the sharehouses. Tokyo Athletic and Tokyo Sharehouse may have very similar sounding names (or not at all…), but the crew from Tokyo Athletic actually formed the group after becoming close living in a sharehouse together, and they really enjoyed this bus tour event being sharehouse tenants themselves. We had so much fun during the bus tour that I can’t possibly do the event justice in one article, and thus this will be split into two parts. In today’s offering I will cover 2 houses, Krann Terrace Kugahara and Stylio With Kamiikedai. Without further ado, come along with us as we check out some awesome sharehouses! |
The folks from Tokyo Athletic gathered bright and early at 9am in Shibuya despite it being a Saturday. They had stayed up late the previous night busy with preparations, and wait here for the other tour participants with slightly sleepy looks on their faces.
As the departure time drew nearer participants started to arrive one after the other. Among the participants are people already living in sharehouses, people interested in living in one in the future and people who say they have never seen a sharehouse before. Hearts beat with excitement at what kind of houses they will be able to check out today.
The first house we check out is 「Crann Terrace Kugahara」. Everything was in perfect order and nothing had changed since when we first went to take photos of the house. The current tenants also worked together to tidy the common areas for our arrival.
This hammock is a new addition to the spacious courtyard and residents here now have everything they could possibly need.
The karaoke room in the basement is very popular with the housemates and they often party it up in here (laughs).
As one would expect, guiding 20 guests at a time around the house is a difficult thing to do, and as such we were divided into two groups. The first group started off from the living room, where they found a group of housemates sitting around talking. Of course, as sharehouse residents, they were open and frank, speaking to us without any sign of nervousness.
Here we listen to a staff member from Tokyo Defence talk about the house. The males in the group looked a bit jealous as he mentioned that the girls’ bathroom included a mist sauna and television.
The second group went to the kitchen. The staff member with this group was a very nice and cheerful character, the type of person you feel like you could ask anything. The two guys on the left of the photo seem to be preoccupied with whoever is in the courtyard…?
Well, well, what do we have here? Someone seems to be relaxing in the new hammock. One can’t help but look on in envy. On second glance, this fellow seems familiar… oh well, let’s not worry about that and move on!
On to the basement. We all toured this area quite excitedly as the basement is home to a fitness room, soundproof studio and theatre room.
Sharemates lounging in the living room as they always do on their days off didn’t bat an eyelid when asked to speak about their experiences living in a sharehouse. They were unanimous on the merits of a sharehouse being having a variety of different ways to amuse oneself because all the equipment and facilities available for use, and events being held when you least expect it. As for the demerits, we were told that with such a complete and satisfying environment within the house, it was easy to hole up inside and spend less time out in other places. We really thank these guys for their cooperation even though we sprung our questions on them all of a sudden!
The next house we went to check out is「Stylio With Kamiikedai」a house built around the theme of food and cooking. Standing in the kitchen, the houses best feature, we are told that even if you’re not very good at cooking, it’s a great environment for cooking together with others as they teach you the ropes. As there is plenty of room for more than a few people work in here at once, residents here can really have a good time cooking up a storm together.
This room is apparently used for a variety of different purposes. To give you an example, a movie was being projected onto the wall when we got there. Watching a movie like this might even be better than seeing it at the cinema.
This small, raised platform has been used to hold a mini live performance before. How very extravagant!
Arriving at the house we were greeted by the lovely autumnal decorations in the living room. The residents apparently decorated the room themselves for a previous event and created a fairytale atmosphere.
Something seems to be happening in the kitchen… but let’s check out the rooms first. I felt a bit hungry for a second but I guess it was just my imagination.
We head to the rooms in one big group. Lamps hanging from the ceiling are each fitted with a different bulb with an English monastery as inspiration. It’s quite a stylish concept.
Here is the model room. With its simple design the room can be arranged to suit anyone’s tastes. You can have fun deciding how you will decorate your own room.
Returning from the room inspection, we found that the current housemates had prepared us lunch, so it was time to sit down and eat. The self-serve style was reminiscent of a school cafeteria and I couldn’t help but feel once again the anticipation I felt when I was a student of what would be on offer.
The finished dish! It looks delicious… Thank you so much for taking the time to prepare this food for us!! Now it’s time to dig in!
Everyone eating in silence as they savored their delicious meals. It really was delicious… It made me think that having a kitchen like this really inspires genuine cooking.
As time passed conversation came to life. Eating great food gathered around a table with everyone is one way to create communication.
It’s almost like a scene from a restaurant. The room looks great with people in it. The awkward conversation we started the trip with has turned into smooth, flowing exchanges by eating a meal together.
After eating the current residents spoke to us about sharehouse life in an open and frank manner. It was very interesting to hear the different points of view among these 4 housemates. The one thing everyone agreed on was that it felt like living with family. One housemate has even gained the nickname of Papa, which really completes that ‘at home’ feeling.
We will end part one here.
We visited two amazing houses, both with completely different concepts and features, out of which I am sure someone can find a house to suit them.
We’ve filled our stomachs just with these two houses, but this is only the beginning!
Please look forward to read about everything we get up to in Part 2!
/Author: Emoto
