Stress!!!

I have spent hours today flathunting online.

Now I'm in a whole flurry of dilemmas. I hope you're ready for this!

So basically I'm trying to decide about whether I want to go into a flatshare. From what I've seen so far, the cost of living alone and in a flatshare and pretty much the same.

But, you can pay 8man, have your own space but then that space would be the size of a shoeox.

Or, you can pay 8man, have a decent sized/average sized room, but then you would be sharing with other people.

I'm leaning towards the flatshare more and more. Yeh, I've been living alone the last 2 years and it has been awesome. But it's time to be realistic. I will never be able to afford something in Tokyo that's as big as the place I have now. And yeh, you might pay the same for just a room, but that room is likely to be bigger AND you have more living space and a better kitchen and bathroom. Getting dodgy flatmates is just the risk that you have to take. It could also work the other way and you could be landed with awesome people. Plus, I've found in flatshares that the asking price also includes utilities/internet etc. whereas a single apartment would add that on top.

Then there's a third option.....renting a 2 bed place and then finding a flatmate. I've seen places for rent at around 12-15man and this could lower my rent if I could split it in half. The best thing about this is that I would be able to choose who I live with - on my terms. The mammoth problem with this is that I would have to put up the initial money which would financially cripple me. And on top of that, I'm planning on going back to London pretty soon after I move in, so I wouldn't have the time to find a flatmate....not during August anyway...and I can't afford to pay that kind of rent on my own - even if it is only for one month. Not if I won't be getting paid for the time I'll be away.

That's financial suicide.

So there's a lot of things I have to think about. Trying to do this from where I am as well is a complete pain in the arse. I'm gonna fly out there in a couple of weeks but even then, there's no guarantee that I will get to see all the places that I want to. Plus the fact that they might not even be available anymore. It's pretty good because you can put a reservation on some places so it doesn't matter if someone can move in now, if you've reserved that room in August, then no one else can take it. Unless it's for like a month or something.

This is proving to be rather stressful. It's not like I knew it wouldn't be, but now that I've started, finding the time that this actually needs is pretty tough.

And doing it all alone is even harder. If I had someone looking with me, to share the burden, man, how that would make my life easier!

But here we go!

xx