I just reserved an apartment in Gotanda (located about 5 mins west of the station), and am feeling a bit apprehensive of this decision. I checked out about 4 different places in the area (midday on a weekday), and nothing felt off or sketchy to me. However, I have been reading up about how it’s a red light district. That fact doesn’t necessarily bother me, but I am curious of your guys’ experience or knowledge about the area? I just want to make sure it’s not super dangerous. I’m new to Tokyo, have only been here for a few months and am female in my mid 20s, for context. Thanks in advance!
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Many major train hubs will have some sort of red light district and Gotanda isn’t an exception, though I doubt it is as severe as ikebukuro or kabukicho shinjuku.
Other than that Gotanda is a pretty high end area. I could never afford to live there.
It’s got lots of good food options and is pretty residential.
There’s some red light stuff but it’s nowhere as sketchy as Ikkebukuro, Roppongi, Shinbashi, Kanda, or Kabuchiko.
A more peaceful Ueno maybe?
it’s a good area. Osaki is even better but at some point you might enjoy Gotanda’s bars and more lively atmosphere.
Gotanda 30 years ago, I’d be worried about. Gotanda today is considered prime real estate, and developers are building mansions and apartments all around there.
I lived in Gotanda before. It was totally fine. There is that red light district area as well as an area filled with love hotels, but you can easily navigate Gotanda (or at least the places worth going) without having to even pass through said areas. Lots of restaurants, plenty of shopping stuff for most of the stuff you’d need. There’s also an Anytime Fitness in Fudomae (not too far from Gotanda).
Plus, a few minutes walk away you have Meguro which is nice (and has a reasonably sized Nitori), or you can take a very short train ride to Ebisu, Shibuya etc in one direction or Shinagawa/Tokyo direction about 20 minutes in the other direction.
Pretty awesome location as long as you can afford a liveably-sized apartment.
At the time I was paying just over 100,000 yen for a pretty small place (25sqm one room, old building but fully renovated unit). Location was great except for the fact that I had the big main road AND the train line not far from my window so it was loud all the time (or at least too loud to open the window except to hang my laundry).
(*Unrelated to Gotanda specifically*) assuming you’re not going to have a massive apartment, I guess just be careful not to overestimate the floor space in your place. This mainly means things like thinking twice about getting semi-double/double bed if your room is honestly too small for it.
No where in Tokyo is super dangerous, I’ve never lived in that neighborhood but enjoy going over there once in a while. Nice cherry blossoms along the river in spring time!
I lived in Osaki (inside loop) for 5 years which was a short walk/ride to Gotanda. The red light district is fairly small (a few block square) close to the newish Donki location and not dangerous at all. If your apartment is west of the station you won’t even be in that area on a daily basis – unless by choice.
Gotanda is considered fairly ritzy by some of the older generations before the station area was built up. Plenty of large houses on the hills to the north.
As for living, it’s got a lot of restaurant and bar options, close to the cherry blossoms of Meguro river, and some decent grocery options as well.
I live not too far from there (togoshi) and I worked very close to where the red light district/ 友楽通り is. Honestly it’s pretty decent. You can get anywhere you want since Yamanote has good coverage, the bars and food in gotanda are good too. If you got near the 友楽通り after 10-11 you’ll see lots of interesting people but they are pretty easily avoided.
A red light district in Tokyo usually means there are several bars and some love hotels. Not a big deal at all and certainly not dangerous. Anyway, it’s not like you would be living in the red light district. Every largish station has this type of bar area