Let's Get Oriented
The first thing I want you to do is take a look at a map of Tokyo and pinpoint where you're going to be spending your most time. Whether it's a university, corporation, or even your kid's school, look up the address on a map and notice what area of Tokyo it's located.
Found it? Good!
Now, from that location, I recommend looking at neighborhoods that are within an 8km (5 mile) radius. The reason is because you don't want to spend more than 45 minutes commuting via public transportation, so an 8km radius could mean 20-30 minutes of train time + 15-25 minutes of walking to and from the station and your apartment or organization location.
If you're going to be spending most of your time in central Tokyo, then anywhere you live in the city - North, South, East, West - is going to be fine in terms of commuting. In this case, it's just a matter of picking which area you feel most comfortable with, so you should watch all neighborhood videos.
Overview
The neighborhoods I will show you in the tours are the most common areas searched by foreigners moving to Tokyo. You don't have to pick one of these major stations - the tours are meant to give you a good idea of what to expect in each are of Tokyo even if you live a couple stations away from the areas you see.
We will start up in the Northwest side of Tokyo in an area called Itabashi, then down to the West side of Tokyo, the Central area, and finally down towards the South. The neighborhood tours do not include the North East or East sides of Tokyo as these are either financial districts or older traditional areas so it's not as popular for the foreign community. The information you'll get from this course will help you make decisions even if you choose to live in areas not covered.
Points of Reference
In the neighborhood tours, I will be talking about convenient transportation paths based on 3 popular shopping and transit districts: Ikebukuro, Shinjuku, and Shibuya.
It's hard to explain convenience if you're not familiar with Tokyo, so let's use these 3 districts as reference points.
The map you see above represents the JR Yamanote train line - this train line circles around central Tokyo. Typically, residential neighborhoods located along this train line or inside the circle are more expensive than apartments outside of this circle.
Alrighty, now that you know where you'll spend most of your time in Tokyo & are acquainted with these points of reference, let's move on to the neighborhood tours!