Countryside within easy striking distance of Nagoya
March 27, 2009 7:14 PM Subscribe
Any Nagoya savvy folks who could comment on what towns to look at for real estate (rental or purchase) within a 30-45 minute train or bus ride of Nagoya Tsurumai Station?
Looking to be in countryside, or smaller town rather than within the big city as am desirous of green, fresh air and water, walking, a small garden,
but need to work in Tsurumai.
You might want to check out Inuyama, if it's not too far (don't know where Tsurumai is).. IIRC I've heard good things about that town. I only blew through it on the way to Komaki, but it looked nice.
posted by mrt at 9:03 PM on March 27, 2009
posted by mrt at 9:03 PM on March 27, 2009
Kani is a hellhole full of boring nothingness. I am of course moderately biased, as I visited Kani by rail and not by car, so perhaps there are things to do there (beyond a big generic shopping mall) that are accessible if you aren't on foot. But when I visited, the primary excitement I managed to derive from the town was that there were a CoCo壱番屋 and a Sukiya across the street from each other.
Tajimi is the big bedroom town for Nagoya, at least on the Chuo line. It's rather large and quite spread out, but if you want the big stores like K's and Yamada Denki (i.e. big electronics department stores, really) then they're basically right there. It's a bit on the unwieldy side, though, in terms of its size, so it isn't hugely walkable.
Toki-shi is one stop past it, and is what I would describe as "big enough to have everything you need, but small enough to not have anything you want." Housing tends to be a bit cheaper, though, and everything's a bit more compact (so you're more likely to have a grocery store within a very short walk). Tajimi would probably be nicer to live in, though I'm not fully certain of whether or not this is true. (I live in Toki-shi right now, and it's about 35 minutes from Tsurumai on the Chuo line, if memory serves).
There isn't a huge amount of greenery in either town, but then this is Japan, where if you want green, you go live where there are copious amounts of rice fields, because American-style big naturey parks and wide-open fields simply do not exist in places that people move to instead of from. On the other hand, Gifu does have nicely clean water, and the towns are quite liveable — I live literally across the street from the Toki-shi train station, and my rent is only ¥45,000 plus utilities for a 2DK, and there's a post office about 60 seconds from my building's front door, and a grocery store about twice that (which has a very large ¥100 shop inside it, which is great). It's a great little town, honestly, even if it is a bit dull at times (although there's always something going on somewhere in the area, even if it means having to go to Nagoya).
Feel free to drop me a line if you want any more thoughts on the matter. As I said, I currently live in Toki-shi a half-hour by train from Tsurumai, so I can at least give you an idea of what the towns around here are like.
posted by DoctorFedora at 1:09 AM on March 28, 2009
Tajimi is the big bedroom town for Nagoya, at least on the Chuo line. It's rather large and quite spread out, but if you want the big stores like K's and Yamada Denki (i.e. big electronics department stores, really) then they're basically right there. It's a bit on the unwieldy side, though, in terms of its size, so it isn't hugely walkable.
Toki-shi is one stop past it, and is what I would describe as "big enough to have everything you need, but small enough to not have anything you want." Housing tends to be a bit cheaper, though, and everything's a bit more compact (so you're more likely to have a grocery store within a very short walk). Tajimi would probably be nicer to live in, though I'm not fully certain of whether or not this is true. (I live in Toki-shi right now, and it's about 35 minutes from Tsurumai on the Chuo line, if memory serves).
There isn't a huge amount of greenery in either town, but then this is Japan, where if you want green, you go live where there are copious amounts of rice fields, because American-style big naturey parks and wide-open fields simply do not exist in places that people move to instead of from. On the other hand, Gifu does have nicely clean water, and the towns are quite liveable — I live literally across the street from the Toki-shi train station, and my rent is only ¥45,000 plus utilities for a 2DK, and there's a post office about 60 seconds from my building's front door, and a grocery store about twice that (which has a very large ¥100 shop inside it, which is great). It's a great little town, honestly, even if it is a bit dull at times (although there's always something going on somewhere in the area, even if it means having to go to Nagoya).
Feel free to drop me a line if you want any more thoughts on the matter. As I said, I currently live in Toki-shi a half-hour by train from Tsurumai, so I can at least give you an idea of what the towns around here are like.
posted by DoctorFedora at 1:09 AM on March 28, 2009
Response by poster: AS you said, none of those cities have much at all in the way of green, so i suspect that one really needsto live in the boondocks in Japan to be near real open space
posted by dougiedd at 6:14 PM on March 28, 2009
posted by dougiedd at 6:14 PM on March 28, 2009
Also, I was a bit unnecessarily harsh on Kani. On the other hand, I've never been privy to a conversation around here that involved the phrase "I went to Kani" without the interruption "why?"
Tajimi is a pretty nice town, definitely. Toki-shi and Mizunami aren't quite as nice or big, but there's a good chance they'll be cheaper to live in.
posted by DoctorFedora at 11:02 PM on March 28, 2009
Tajimi is a pretty nice town, definitely. Toki-shi and Mizunami aren't quite as nice or big, but there's a good chance they'll be cheaper to live in.
posted by DoctorFedora at 11:02 PM on March 28, 2009
Actually, DoctorFedora, I had to laugh when I read your answer, because I would tend to agree. I've never visited Kani for the hiking, and it is drab (but green!) with absolutely no character. Tajimi was appealing because of the outlet chinaware places.
I think the challenge dougiedd has is that there is nothing on a direct train line from Tsurumai. Personally, I wouldn't mind living in Mino in Gifu.
You don't have to be in the boondocks in Japan to live in green space per se (although I did live in the boondocks, and quite liked it). You could work in Kyoto or even Osaka and live in Shiga, which is quite pleasant and full of character. Kanazawa is perhaps the most perfect city in Japan - it's an urban centre with character, and it's close to mountains and ocean.
The problem is there isn't a lot of work for foreigners in either Kyoto or Kanazawa, or any of the other mid-size provincial cities. We're stuck with Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka. I was lucky (in a way, but cursed in another) to find work in inaka Japan that allowed me to build a life there.
posted by KokuRyu at 12:09 AM on March 29, 2009
I think the challenge dougiedd has is that there is nothing on a direct train line from Tsurumai. Personally, I wouldn't mind living in Mino in Gifu.
You don't have to be in the boondocks in Japan to live in green space per se (although I did live in the boondocks, and quite liked it). You could work in Kyoto or even Osaka and live in Shiga, which is quite pleasant and full of character. Kanazawa is perhaps the most perfect city in Japan - it's an urban centre with character, and it's close to mountains and ocean.
The problem is there isn't a lot of work for foreigners in either Kyoto or Kanazawa, or any of the other mid-size provincial cities. We're stuck with Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka. I was lucky (in a way, but cursed in another) to find work in inaka Japan that allowed me to build a life there.
posted by KokuRyu at 12:09 AM on March 29, 2009
Er, Tsurumai is on the JR Chuo line before Nagoya station. There are a huge number of trains on an hourly basis that go directly to Tajimi, Toki-shi, and Mizunami, among others (although a good number have a tendency to end at one of those three stations, as well). But yes, other than that I agree with what you're saying. Of course, working in Tsurumai is essentially to be read as given in this case (which does, to be fair, simplify the matter of finding work, as the OP already has it).
posted by DoctorFedora at 1:55 AM on March 29, 2009
posted by DoctorFedora at 1:55 AM on March 29, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by KokuRyu at 8:30 PM on March 27, 2009