Rented a flat in Tokyo for a month too as a tourist. But it wasn't cheap. Around $1500/month, in 2011. But it was 3 rooms, and very nice. So maybe not so bad, actually? But then again, it was many years ago.
For whatever reason, people in our generation seem completely unaware of how often they cite things from 15-20 years ago.
I've taken to pointing out that it's like if someone in the 90s used advice from the 70s. For whatever reason, it tends to put things in perspective timeframe-wise.
Pretty much all non-luxury housing in Tokyo is built to a much lower standard than equivalent housing built in say Canada or the US in the same time period.
Much thinner wall insulation, single glazed windows (until recently), much smaller elevators in high rises, etc…
So on a quality and square footage adjusted basis it’s still quite expensive.
Not really: the difference is that "lower standard" housing of the same age simply doesn't exist in the US. You want a small, 20-30 year old apartment in a decent building with small elevators and everything is maintained well and isn't broken, and you don't want roommates, and at an affordable price for you on your non-tech job paycheck? You can't have that in a decent American city; it doesn't exist. It's either some very expensive "luxury" apartment (where stuff is still broken, but hey, it has granite countertops and new appliances that'll break down in a year!) where you'll need roommates, or some nasty shithole (where you'll probably still need a rooomate).
I just left an apartment in Shanghai that was two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a kitchen for $700 / month. I was advised that prices have come down over the last year, so that if I was planning to renew my lease I should negotiate a lower price.
True, and it generally has better amenities than a hotel too: a kitchen (though tiny), fridge, microwave, stove (no oven though), clothes washer, maybe a vacuum, etc. Also importantly, a mailbox, so you can receive deliveries (and in newer places, there's an automated delivery box system).
Those are "grills". If you want to bake stuff, you can get real ovens, but they're fairly small, and not built into the apartment, and usually combined with a microwave oven. Any decent appliance store sells them for around 30,000 yen. You're not going to cook a turkey in it, but if you want to bake a small cake it's perfect.
Yes, they are meant for grilling fish but they can be the world's tiniest oven if you believe enough(or just use a thermometer probe for temperature adjustment!)
My recollection of the countertop oven is that it would fit half a small size turkey...for we did do that one year.
Yes, unlike Americans who apparently absolutely need to bake a whole turkey on a regular basis, Japanese don't normally bake stuff at home, so Japanese homes (at least in the big cities) don't normally come with built-in ovens. There's no space in Tokyo apartments for the comically-large ovens that are common in America, and the cuisine people make here doesn't normally need one, just a stovetop. For baked goods, people usually just buy them at the grocery store or bakery or other specialty shop.
Eh, Tokyo has plenty of monthly apartment rentals that are effectively corporate rentals that you can do without a residence card.
(I used to do this before having an actual visa there)
It's functionally better than a hotel, insofar as it doesn't read or act as one.