[patio11]

Can I throw one into the list? The median cost of a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco gets you approximately two bedrooms in Tokyo... in a semi-luxury apartment, in the most desirable neighborhoods. (Though this comparison is complicated a bit by the non-comparability of Japanese and US real estate. For example, your costs on move-in day will be substantially higher in Tokyo, and the real price of apartments is a few percentage points higher than the sticker price due to being assessed 1 month's rent every time you renew the rental contract, which happens in 2 to 5 year intervals.)

Still though, given that I have had lifelong impressions of Tokyo as being the most expensive place to live anywhere, I was pretty gobsmacked when I started doing the math.