Living in a sharehouse in Japan is often a cheap way to live in Japan. A sharehouse is kinda like a hostel/flat. You often don't have to pay a lot of the fees that come with moving into an apartment in Japan.
Regular apartments in Japan often include key money (gift to the landlord), guarantor fees, cleaning fees, other deposits and a yearly contract. But a sharehouse often doesn't. Some may include those fees, but the one I moved into was only for a 6 month contract and had a one month deposit.
So that was not so bad.
However, the first one I lived in I didn't like much. It was old and just kinda had crappy construction. The walls were very thin..
For example, I could hear my neighbor push the button on the remote to turn the heater on. Plus he had weird hours, the floor would squeak and when he would close his door it was like he was closing my door.
That was no good. So I moved into this other one which was an improvement.
My room is on the second floor, is bigger and the walls are more solid, so I haven't had any issues with noise and sleep really. It's still an old house and not that solid, but a bit better.
Here is a video that I made about it.
I wonder if it was a former "akiya" which is the Japanese word for abandoned house. I saw some other Youtube videos where you could buy these for very cheap.
I pay 35,000 Yen a month and 12,000 in utilities. Actually I think you can find cheaper places, but you will have to pay some move-in expenses and have a proper long term visa. I don't have a long term visa so that is one reason why I am living here.
There are different people living here. There are maybe 4 Japanese people, a Vietnamese girl and myself. So far so good.