115 years of apartments in Japan

On this day, November 6th, in 1910, Japan's first wooden apartment building was completed in Ueno, Tokyo.  The apartment building, which was located right next to Ueno Park, was called "Ueno Club". It was a five-story rental apartment block with a Western-style façade.

Reportedly there were 70 rooms inside the apartment block. The bathrooms and bathtubs were shared, and residents had to pay separately for the cost of bathing. They also shared a telephone. Nowadays, when facilities are shared in this way, it doesn't conjure up the image of an apartment block, but rather a share house or equivalent. In contemporary society each apartment usually has its own facilities. 

I would love to see what that first apartment building looked liked. Nowadays, many of Japan's apartment blocks are large buildings, like the one in the feature photo. This is a pretty standard looking apartment block. However, the size and cost of each apartment, and the services and facilities available, differ greatly. 

I've only ever lived in one apartment in Japan and it was tiny, with a 'unit bathroom' and a small kitchenette. Still it was better than the dormitory that I lived in before it, where I only had a 6 tatami mat room to myself and absolutely everything else was shared. I have been fortunate to live in houses mainly in Japan. I personally don't think I could go ever back to living in an apartment, but I do understand their appeal in Japan and why they have remained popular the last 115 years!