My stay at the Capitol Tokyu Hotel is coming to an end this Saturday. IBM's relocation specialist made appointments at three apartment buildings, and I visited them all on Tuesday morning. The first building had a perfectly wonderful unit on the ground floor, and the Nissin market (which sells one gallon jugs of Tide liquid detergent for a mere 2500 yen) was just two blocks away. But unfortunately this small building was just too quiet, there wasn't any exercise equipment, and it was the most expensive of the three.
The third building was the Oakwood Apartments in the middle of Rappongi, but the building management couldn't actually show me the exact unit I'd be renting. Oakwood is a worldwide chain of corporate housing, and a franchise just didn't seem right.
That left the second building, Ark Towers near the IBM Asia-Pacific Headquarters. Unfortunately I work in the other IBM office, but Ark Towers has a great health club which I can feel guilty about not using. I also liked having windows on two walls in the bedroom. (I need light to wake up sometimes.) Ark Towers and the Oakwood Apartments are perhaps more "luxury gaijin ghetto" than the first building, but there's something to be said for having a few people to talk to about the Superbowl and just how bad George W. Bush is.
I spent some time between each appointment walking around each building's immediate neighborhood trying to get a sense of the place. For example, I sat for a little while in the Starbucks near the Ark Towers. Two British blokes were chatting about their sexual conquests and how they cheated on their girlfriends. How disgusting.
When I got back to work at the IBM office later that afternoon I called the relocation agent to ask for the Ark Towers.
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