The Apartment Search - Day 1

I started visiting apartments yesterday with Tai, his parents, and the fudousanya (realtor). We ended up looking at 4 places. Overall, I think the experience was very educational. I was able to understand what I wanted in an apartment and to clarify some of my needs.

The first apartment I looked at was nice, but it was directly above a train. It was relatively quiet actually, but there was no closet for storage space. I believe the train would have become irritating over time. The second and third apartments were in the same building, except the third one had a loft. I actually really liked the second apartment. It was clean and the building was only a few years old. It also had a nice closet and bathroom. The space was small though; a bed would have taken up 3/4 of the room. The third apartment was the same size, but the ladder to the loft came down into the middle of the room. Although the loft was large and good for storage, it seemed extremely dangerous in the event of an earthquake. It also made the room about 10 degrees warmer.

The final apartment was a lesson in everything that I didn't want in an apartment. Although it was large,  it seemed like an apartment made for men working construction jobs. The building was old and smelled of mold. It seemed like it was an old concrete barracks that was converted into a residential building. It was questionable whether the stove worked. The door to the bathroom was like a temporary wooden door. No lock with a little metal handle similar to an outhouse. The laundry machine was right next to the toilet. If I'm washing laundry, I do not want it to smell like whatever I have relieved myself of recently. Perhaps the worst part was that the entire building was surrounded by scaffolding that the owner had put up for people to hang their laundry. It made the place look like a construction site and it was extremely depressing.

After the first day, these are the things that I have decided are important to me:

1. Located in a safe family-oriented neighborhood with auto-lock doors. When everyone gets out of work, I do not want to go home, to find all of the businesses closed and be walking on an empty street. Nor do I want to live in a nightlife-oriented area. It's dangerous. 
2. Stove with preferably 2 burners. I like to have a couple burners for cooking.
3. Closet space is invaluable in a place as small as Japan.
4. Having a balcony where I can dry my clothes so that they do not hang over the abyss is nice.
5. Close to work and Tai's family here in Setagaya. I will travel frequently to both.

I'll continue my search.