Super cheap apartment in Japan has a steamy past, free water

Low monthly rent for rooms that used to rented out by the hour.

There’s a perception that apartments in Japan are expensive, but if you’re OK with cozy dimensions, there are some great deals to be found. For example, right now there’s a property in the town of Asahikawa, Hokkaido Prefecture, with studio apartments for just 29,000 yen (US$195) a month.

There’s a 3,000-yen building maintenance fee that gets tacked onto that, bringing the total monthly cost to 32,000 yen, but that’s still extremely affordable, especially since the maintenance fee also covers your entire water bill. And as an especially nice amenity, each unit has its own private garage with a shutter directly underneath. That’s a pretty rare luxury in Japan, but it makes sense that every unit has its own discreet parking space, because before this building was an apartment building, it was a love hotel.

▼ The building

For those not familiar with the term, love hotels are a class of hotels in Japan which rent out their rooms by hourly rates so that consenting adults can express their love for one another in a physical way. Once upon a time, the building seen above was the Hotel Nokyo, a love hotel with an unusual agricultural theme to its room names where in-room refrigerators were stocked with a selection of seasonal vegetables that guests could take home with them.

▼ The building’s exterior, post-renovation

The hotel went out of business some time ago, but it’s apparently now been renovated and converted into an apartment building. The floorplan shows what looks like a perfectly livable studio apartment. The toilet and shower/bathtub are located in separate rooms, always seen as a plus in Japan, and there’s a separate sink for washing your face or brushing your teeth, and you get a reasonably sized kitchenette too.

There doesn’t seem to be any in-wall closet space, so you’ll need to buy a wardrobe or rack to hang your clothes, but that’s really the only big drawback, aside from the potential awkwardness of knowing that many, many people have gotten it on in your living space prior to its renovation, If that’s not a deal breaker for you, though, the listing for the apartment building, which is located in Asahikawa’s Daiba neighborhood, can be found here.

Source: Internet Realestate Information via Twitter/@hopigon via IT Media, Deep Annai
Top image: Pakutaso (edited by SoraNews24)
Insert images: Internet Realestate Information
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