Althouse: "We just built what we wished we had."

July 24, 2019

"We just built what we wished we had."

49 comments:

Darrell said...: Before you think that the young lady complaining about a thirty-year old house/apartment is a crybaby, houses in Japan were designed for a fifteen-year life until recently. You essentially are just paying for the land when the structure is over fifteen years old.; 7/24/19, 10:25 AM
John Borell said...: The Japanese are weird.

But it reminds me of the tweet going around yesterday by that leftie saying how shitty flyover country is.

Thank God I live in flyover country; we have space out here.

But I'm glad those people have space that works for them. I just want the choice. I'd never do what they do, but I wouldn't tell them they can't do it. And I don't want to hear city dwellers tell me I can't have the space I want.; 7/24/19, 10:28 AM
Seeing Red said...: It’s Japan. They started small. Now they’re getting smaller. I remember reading in the 80s when they were rising, we tried to offer them or build them battleships. They declined stating they were too big and Japanese didn’t need all that room space.

They lived in small housing then.; 7/24/19, 10:30 AM
madAsHell said...: That guy ain't getting laid in that apartment.; 7/24/19, 10:30 AM
Nonapod said...: There's something strangely appealing about spending time in a small "arm's reach" space. But I seriously doubt I could live like that for long. I'm just too... American. I'm accustomed to lots of space. I need at least a thousand square feet of living space to feel relaxed.; 7/24/19, 10:33 AM
Mark said...: It's got all the warmth and joy of a jail cell.

White and lifeless. Get the guy an interior decorator at least.; 7/24/19, 10:37 AM
Carol said...: White and lifeless. Get the guy an interior decorator at least.

Where have you been. All-white interiors are very trendy. It's as if people were trying to escape vibrant colors or something.; 7/24/19, 10:41 AM
Danno said...: Blogger madAsHell said...That guy ain't getting laid in that apartment.

"Laid" is a misnomer here. They do it standing up in those apartments.; 7/24/19, 10:42 AM
Fernandinande said...: I like that mattress commercial* which informs us that since a mattress is where you'll spend over half your life and eat all your meals it's important to have a good mattress.

(*No it's not); 7/24/19, 10:46 AM
Fernandinande said...: The Japanese are weird.

Only relative to normal people.; 7/24/19, 10:47 AM
bagoh20 said...: Over the weekend I watched a show about ridiculously opulent homes. One place had a bunch fire extinguishers that were bottles of Dom Perignon with special extinguisher nozzles, because you gotta have those. They were kept right under the $2 million dollar stair case. Another, was an apartment in Manhattan that cost $77 million. A DAMNED APARTMENT!; 7/24/19, 10:57 AM
mockturtle said...: There is actually less space in my RV where I spend five months of the year. It is also more convenient. Best of all--I can take it with me anywhere. But thankfully I don't work in Tokyo. If anyone can do minimalism well, it's the Japanese. And, thanks to Mari Kondo [The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up], I now fold my socks in half and keep them on their sides in the drawer rather than rolled up in balls.; 7/24/19, 11:13 AM
Bilwick said...: "We Japanese favor tiny homes because we have, as everyone knows, tiny penises."; 7/24/19, 11:26 AM
J. Farmer said...: When I lived in Seoul for a year, I lived in what was called a micro apartment. It was a little less than 250 sq ft, which was smaller than the bedroom I grew up in. A kpop idol lived in the apartment building across the street and every once in a while a small contingent of fans would gather out front. That was always interesting. The most annoying aspect of the apartment was the bathroom in which, like a lot of apartments in Asia, there was no distinction between the shower and the rest of the bathroom, so the toilet and vanity would both get wet soaked every time I showered.; 7/24/19, 11:36 AM
David53 said...: The girl says she makes a little less than 200,000 yen per month at a part time job in a call center, that's less than $1850 per month. It would be interesting to see how she budgets that.; 7/24/19, 11:37 AM
rehajm said...: That was my dorm room senior year- me and my future spouse.; 7/24/19, 11:40 AM
Hagar said...: Population density:
Japan 865/sq. mile.
New York 416 /sq. mile.
New Mexico 17 /sq. mile.; 7/24/19, 11:53 AM
mockturtle said...: Alaska: 1.3/sq mile; 7/24/19, 12:15 PM
J. Farmer said...: @Hagar:

Where did you get those numbers? I've been to Tokyo many times, and I can't imagine the population density is that low.; 7/24/19, 12:15 PM
mockturtle said...: Where did you get those numbers? I've been to Tokyo many times, and I can't imagine the population density is that low.

That's for Japan, not Tokyo.; 7/24/19, 12:19 PM
J. Farmer said...: That's for Japan, not Tokyo.

Duh! Completely read that wrong. My apologies. Thanks for the heads up.; 7/24/19, 12:20 PM
mockturtle said...: BTW, the population density of Tokyo is estimated at about 6,000/sq mi. But, at least last time I was there, it was the cleanest city I've ever visited.; 7/24/19, 12:27 PM
Black Bellamy said...: "I always eat standing up."

Fucking brainwashed salaryman. If you have a life where work demands that you eat standing up, you have chosen poorly. Literally there were choices in your life you had to make, and the culmination of those choices is you standing up when you eat. Look how convenient it is to sit on this floor and reach everything.; 7/24/19, 12:42 PM
Sam L. said...: Why is there no text for me to read? Only the comments follow the blank space after the headline.; 7/24/19, 12:46 PM
Dave said...: Is it true that zoning in Tokyo is less restrictive than other cities of that size? In Fremont County, CO, we have to follow the ICC Building Code.

You have to permit anything. The only thing I can do to my 5 ACRES! is build a fence no higher than six feet. No houses less than 400 sq ft in perimeter.

My county commissioner is the big sanctuary city gun guy. I asked him about the permits. Safety. For the children.

Who owns property? As far as I can tell, no one owns property in the USA.; 7/24/19, 1:05 PM
Big Mike said...: @Althouse, whatever you linked to is gone now.; 7/24/19, 1:10 PM
Fernandinande said...: There are cats in Japan, so here's some fake cat news, by John Anderer:
"New Study Finds Felines Are Getting Chubbier"

"One of the study’s most interesting findings is that the average weight" ... has not increased since 2005.

"...cats usually hit their heaviest between six and 10 years old. However, other cat breeds seemed to be their heaviest at eight years old."

I was under the impression that "8" was right in the middle between "6" and "10".; 7/24/19, 1:12 PM
Known Unknown said...: This is what happens when you nuke a country to smithereens.; 7/24/19, 1:17 PM
Rob said...: It's like living in a space capsule--every frigging day of your life. BTW, no way is that space 9 meters wide. Nor 9 meters deep. That's got to be a mistranslation. More likely the space is 9 square meters.; 7/24/19, 1:29 PM
dreams said...: And not to forget "we are the ones we've been waiting for.; 7/24/19, 1:51 PM
Mark Jones said...: Rob, I agree. "My apartment is nine meters wide."

Uh, no. It's not. Definitely a mistranslation.

I couldn't live there. I like my two-bedroom apartment, even though it's just me.; 7/24/19, 2:07 PM
stlcdr said...: Could be worse, could be in downtown Baghdad.

It's funny how you justify the positives as major advantages in living under certain conditions: living on the street means no taxes! Don't know why you schmucks live in houses.; 7/24/19, 2:13 PM
traditionalguy said...: Small vision, small house. An introvert’s escape house safe from all visitors over 35 lbs. No family raising allowed. you get what you pay for.; 7/24/19, 2:23 PM
Bilwick said...: "Small vision, small house. An introvert’s escape house safe from all visitors over 35 lbs. No family raising allowed. you get what you pay for."

I knew there was something about this place that appealed to me! Actually, I don't have a small visition; but the house I want--Fallingwater--is unavailable.; 7/24/19, 3:01 PM
rehajm said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/24/19, 4:55 PM
The Godfather said...: This is where the Green New Deal would lead for urban Americans.

BTW, @Althouse, when I went to this post on my phone, there was no link to the video, but when I went to it on my laptop, the video popped up. Don't know why.; 7/24/19, 5:08 PM
Ann Althouse said...: You should be seeing embedded video. If not... I don’t know why.; 7/24/19, 5:16 PM
Yancey Ward said...: I lived in Chicago in a studio apartment that was less than 350 sq.ft., and did that for all four years of grad school- smaller than the bedroom/master bath I am typing this comment in right now.

I could definitely do the small home routine- I get the appeal, but wouldn't choose it now unless it were an RV life where the option of moving from place to place is part of the value.; 7/24/19, 5:40 PM
Josephbleau said...: Wow, I once lived in a dorm room smaller than that with two roommates. These days I suspect they would have to be opposite sex for fairness purposes. I did not have a microwave but did make Campbell’s soup in my popcorn popper.; 7/24/19, 6:06 PM
Bob Boyd said...: "We just built what we wished we had."

At first I thought the headline was a Mueller quote.; 7/24/19, 6:29 PM
Rabel said...: The video doesn't give a good idea of just how small these are.

They have just over 9 square meters inside the walls. That's roughly 100 square feet.

Take away the cabinets and the shelving and the bed and that's about how much countertop space I have in the kitchen. That little clear space the guy is sitting in and eating - that's it, except for the bathroom which must be painfully tiny.

Some do have a loft for the bed.; 7/24/19, 7:06 PM
mockturtle said...: At first I thought the headline was a Mueller quote.

Good one, Bob!; 7/24/19, 7:41 PM
daskol said...: Demented and sad, but social.; 7/24/19, 9:18 PM
jk said...: Honestly... this seems perfectly fine. I remember wanting basically a dorm room when I was young and single, and this is essentially exactly that. Many large Japanese companies actually have "dorms" that new employees are allowed to stay in for a few years (and most rue it when they have to leave). This is just the same living arrangement for those who are either kicked out of the dorm or not at large companies.

In addition to some translation issues others have noted in the video, probably the biggest one is the absolute determination of people to translate "arubaito" as "part time job". It doesn't really mean anything of the sort. It means "non-career job", ie something that you don't expect a pension from.

To those commenting on "That guy ain't getting laid in that apartment" and such... that would be extremely unusual anyways. Japanese generally don't entertain guests in any way in their homes. Even if you live in a fairly nice place, love hotels are usually preferred for that sort of recreation. It certainly has some advantages in terms of planning what you're doing with your partner this evening.; 7/25/19, 1:15 AM
stlcdr said...: You don’t have any snark in your homestead, do you jk?; 7/25/19, 5:36 AM
EAB said...: I love that the thing he hated is now the thing he likes. Hearing his neighbors and knowing their routines. We lived in an apartment below an artist once. He wore work books and had a paint cart he pushed across the wooden floor. On weekend mornings he often painted while listening to opera. Friends were over one time when he came home. They heard him enter upstairs and commented on the noise. I hadn’t even noticed and said, “Oh that’s just Dan.” I realized his noises had become the equivalent of hearing a family member upstairs.

I now live in an extraordinarily quiet apartment building. The only ambient sound I sometimes get is our upstairs neighbor doing vocal scales. Oddly enough, it comes through the bathroom vent. I get a kick out of it,

These places are why the store Muji exists and does well in NYC.; 7/25/19, 8:43 AM
Unknown said...: I couldn't help thinking about alternate uses for the space...it could have been developed as a rooming house, with shared kitchen/bath spaces with a welcoming table for meals and considerably more generous private spaces. Tenants could have formed closer relationships.; 7/25/19, 2:19 PM
The Eidolon said...: I worked part-time in Tokyo for a summer, and these apartments don't look particularly small compared typical single apartments I saw then (1996). The bed being up in a loft in these is a bit different, but the total area was comparable to what I had. The bathroom was like a little space pod, all one plastic encapsulated unit. If a mosquito got caught inside with you it would bite you over and over all night--it had nowhere else to go.; 7/25/19, 10:09 PM
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