Yoshh, finally! This post series will be about the month I spent in Tokyo last summer and everything related to it (the nail post earlier this week was kind of a prologue hehe). I don't yet know how many posts there will be, so I won't be numbering them as "part 1, part 2..." and so on because I really don't know yet. Anyway, I'm planning to post about one subject at a time, and this one is about getting there and where I stayed during my trip!


The exact duration of my stay was from 16th of July - 11th of August. I booked the flights in March via Supersaver.fi and they cost me ~655€. I was flying with Lufthansa and had to change planes once on both ways. When going there I had a 1h 5min layover in Munich and on my way back I had 6h 10min in Frankfurt (which was pure hell btw).

The flights to Tokyo went pretty smooth and easy and I arrived in Haneda (which is the smaller airport, closer to the city) at 09:55am on 17th of July. From the airport, I took the monorail to Hanamatsucho and once arriving there, I changed to Yamanote and continued my way to Shinjuku.

From Shinjuku station, I took a taxi to the Fontana office, where from I had rented my room for the month.
I had been asking recommendations for apartments in Tokyo from my friends who have stayed in Tokyo more often and after checking few of the companies out, Tokyo City Apartments aka Fontana seemed to be the most suitable one for me.

Their minimum duration of stay is 1 month and the prices were very reasonable I think. The only minus I can think of, is that you can't book your room more than 2 months before your arrival and that was a bit stressful for me because I had to wait so long before I could book anything lol. When I was finally about to make the booking, there was only a few rooms available. But luckily their service is great, because I managed to book a room from them anyway and got a deal that I could change the room into another one, if I found one I liked better when more rooms became available.

In the end, I ended up renting a 12m² room (this one to be exact) from a guesthouse in 都立大学 (Toritsudaigaku) which is a really nice and peaceful area, only 5 train stops and ~10 minutes away from Shibuya via Tokyu Toyoko line. Some of the trains change into Fukutoshin line in Shibuya and also go straight to Meiji-Jingūmae/Harajuku and Shinjuku-Sanchōme, so the public transport connections were great for my purposes!


Here's some street view snaps from Toritsudaigaku. This was basically my walk to the train station everyday. There was a lot of small restaurants, one 7Eleven and a super market 1-2 minutes walk away from my guesthouse.


What I saw after stepping out of the guesthouse and turning right.


And this is the entrance to my guesthouse! One really good thing about Fontana is that they will drive you to your guesthouse or apartment after signing the papers at their office, so you don't need to go searching for it while being jetlagged. I think I was so tired when we drove to my guesthouse that I actually fell asleep in the car..... lol.

What really surprised me, is that they said the front door will be open 24/7 and I only need the key for my own room. I was like okay, maybe that's how they do it in Japan... Anyway, even though they said that, THE DOOR WAS ACTUALLY LOCKED 2 TIMES WHEN I CAME HOME. I panicked a little, but thank god I was able to climb to the apartment from the balcony on the backyard hahah. I wonder if some of the other residents had locked it for the night... because it was usually around the morning when I came home lol.


This is how my room looked like!! I forgot to take pics of the room, but these two snaps I found from my Facebook chat folder because I sent them to Tuomas right after arriving. That's why they're so small...

Before my arrival, I had emailed Fontana and asked if there's a mirror in my room (because I don't wanna occupy the shared bathroom for 2 hours while getting ready...) and they said they will arrange it! Good service once again. The guy who drove me to the guesthouse, actually grabbed this mirror from their office, put it in pieces and packed it in the car hahah. When we got to the room, he just put it back together :D

My room had a bed, computer desk and a chair, closet, some shelves, air conditioner and a sink in it. Everything else like kitchen, 2 bathrooms and 2 showers were shared with the other residents. Oh, and free internet was also included in the rent!


The view from the train platfrom when going to Shibuya.


The entrance to the train platfroms was on the left and on the other side there was the 2-floor super market.


And here's me taking selfies in my room one evening before heading out for dinner with friends!

My experience with Fontana was really good and I would totally use them again and recommend their services for everyone who are looking for a place to stay in Tokyo! Feel free to ask questions if you have any :)