Hacker News Reader

Comment by laurieg | Hacker News Reader

Many posters have already mentioned some of the great things about Japanese cities: walkable neighbourhoods, good public transport, life without cars. I agree with all of these.

However, you can't get something for nothing. Even in the suburbs there are essentially no gardens (a friend of mine lives way out of town and has a 10m by 10m garden which is enormous and unusual). Houses and apartments are significantly smaller too.

I think the tradeoff is worthwhile. You can meet friends at a restaurant instead of at home. You can go to the park instead of play in the garden.

View on HN

In that case, they should build tall apartment buildings, so that people can have a large indoor floor area. Normally that is at the cost of having a garden/yard, but you are telling me they don't have a garden anyway.

You're forgetting that Japan is earthquake country.

One more drawback to mention (Having lived in Tokyo a few years) it’s worth pointing out its not exactly kid friendly. I really don’t think most big cities are tbh.

As somebody that lives in the downtown of a large city (Toronto) I disagree, though it will obviously depend on the city. There is so much for kids to do. My kid has access to museums, an aquarium, several parks/playgrounds, children's programs, community centres, etc. All this is within a 15 minute walk.

What do you mean by kid friendly? I lived in central, urban Tokyo (Minato) for several years and found raising kids was way easier than where we live now (Bay Area). There were several parks within 10m of where we lived and each neighborhood has a community center with a very nice indoor play area for rainy or cold days. I found businesses to be more children friendly than in the US. Several businesses, both large and small, in our area would have well maintained child seats and silverware for children.

The only thing I like better about where we live now is the much higher salary (even with cost of living) and the access to outdoor activities. You'd have to take a train at least an 1.5 hours away to get to larger green spaces in Tokyo. Arguably, this might be more convenient for those that don't like driving but getting several kids ready and babysitting them on a long train ride is a bit difficult.

For context I am comparing it to the suburban United States.

Boarding public transit is definitely an issue. Going anywhere with small children is a bit difficult to be honest as their are quite a lot of rules. For example, no toys in the pool.

Constrained and limited places to play outside. Outside of the park everything is concrete and many types of play are banned. When out, I had to watch them like a hawk. Here they go over to a neighbors yard to play and have no such worries.

Childcare is also expensive to get if both parents do not work (in that case it’s free).

That said I knew plenty of expats from population dense areas that were of different opinion. They had cars too :)

With a kid or is that just your impression?

I used to like living in the city with a kid. Lots of access to interesting places and activities, able to walk to school and playgrounds and such. It’s lost some allure during the pandemic.

Small children. It can actually work for older ones I think.

Many places were shut on and off due restrictions during our time. Definitely makes thing harder.

Postwar American suburban development is terrible for raising children, too.

https://youtu.be/ul_xzyCDT98

Reply on news.ycombinator.com