Choosing a Tokyo neighborhood for a 60–90-day stay

For a 60–90-day Tokyo stay, start with the places you will visit each week and shortlist apartments around useful train routes. A familiar neighborhood name is a starting point; the walk from the particular apartment matters too.

Check the airport journey for arrival and departure with luggage, but give more weight to trips you will make every day. A convenient supermarket or workplace route can save you more walking over two months than a shorter trip to the airport.

Bunkyo: compare the route over the hill

Sendagi and Hakusan are useful candidates if the Chiyoda or Mita line fits your plans. Check the actual walking route from each station, including the hills.

Bunkyo’s terrain description identifies plateaus and valleys. Look at the walk home from the food shop as well as the walk to the station, especially any uphill sections where you would be carrying groceries. If you expect to visit a garden after work, check its closing time before treating it as part of your evening routine.

Taito and nearby Yanaka: separate the station names

Around Yanaka and Sendagi, check which station you’d use most. Nippori and Nishi-nippori are separate stations, while Sendagi offers the Chiyoda line. Similar-looking addresses can leave you with different walks and train journeys.

Use Tokyo Metro’s map for the subway leg and the airport railway’s current journey search for the complete airport trip. Include the walk from the apartment, time to change trains with luggage and the airport terminal you need.

If you are also considering an apartment in Asakusa or Iriya, compare the journeys again from that address.

Suginami: consider the shopping route and the railway separately

Asagaya’s covered Pearl Center runs south from the station. An apartment farther south may let you shop on the way home, while one north of the station could mean a detour.

If your preferred journey uses the Marunouchi line, compare Ogikubo as well. If it uses the Inokashira line, check which trains stop at the apartment’s nearest station at the time you would travel. Those lines serve different parts of Suginami, so start with the route that fits your week.

Check the view from the bedroom toward any nearby railway. Ask what you can hear indoors with the windows closed; distance from the tracks alone will not tell you.

JR’s Nishi-Ogikubo timetable lists Chuo rapid service on weekdays, but only the Chuo–Sobu local services for Saturdays and holidays. Someone travelling to Shinjuku can still use a direct local train. Someone relying on the weekday rapid to Tokyo station needs a different weekend route.

For a couple where one person attends a weekday class and the other travels to Tokyo station every Saturday, calculate both journeys. The advertised journey time may apply on weekdays but not to the person travelling to Tokyo station on Saturday. Compare the Saturday journey with the same trip from an apartment around Ogikubo or Nakano. You can then decide whether you prefer the room or price in Nishi-Ogikubo enough to accept any extra travel.

Setagaya: worthwhile when your actual routine fits

For a Seijo-gakuen-mae candidate, open Odakyu’s station timetable. Its weekday table revised in March 2026 shows both Express and Commuter Express trains toward Shinjuku or the Chiyoda line. In that timetable, a departure with no destination symbol goes to Shinjuku; 我 marks a train bound for Abiko. Check where your particular train goes before counting on a direct journey to work.

If you work mostly at home, compare a comfortable room and usable kitchen with a shorter journey you would make only twice a week. If you commute every day, give that journey more weight.

Shibuya and Minato: price the time you would save

Include central apartments if they would put you near work, friends or other places you visit regularly. Shibuya ward is larger than the crossing, and Minato is larger than Roppongi’s evening streets.

Suppose a central apartment costs an illustrative ¥30,000 more per month and saves 30 minutes on each of 20 working days. That is ten hours saved, at ¥3,000 per hour. That gives you a way to weigh the shorter journey against the extra cost and any difference in room size.

Compare the full prices for your dates instead of assuming one neighborhood costs more.

Turn the shortlist into a decision

For each of your two or three shortlisted apartments, write down the total price for your stay and where you would work inside the apartment. Compare the walk to buy groceries and the journey to the place you will visit most often. Add one thing that would make you happy to return: a park walk, a favorite kind of food or somewhere to exercise.

Check current opening hours and timetables for the places you’ll use regularly. If quiet matters, ask to view the apartment or for a recording made in the bedroom at the time you would normally be home.