Our Apartment

We are pretty well settled into our apartment. We had some interesting adventures furnishing it - and as you will see from the pictures, we are going with the "less is more" theme. The apartment is, of course, small, but we haven't had any problems adjusting to that. We are enjoying having less stuff and cleaning is a much simpler task. Here is a drawing of the floor plan.


Cool things about our apartment:
1. It's far enough uphill from the station that we get good exercise, but not so far that we wish we lived closer.
2. It gets a nice breeze when the windows are open.
3. Its quick to clean
4. It has one of the awesome sink toilets that I love. (see picture)
5. It has a lovely deep bathtub
6. It is bright and cheerful
7. It is in a quiet neighborhood
8. We have a gas stove!
9. We are close to a Saturday market.
10. We are close to an awesome coffee shop run by two old ladies that think we are hilarious. (The feeling is mutual)
11. We are walking distance from an awesome zoo full of all the cutest animals the world over.
12. The mob keeps down petty crime (not verified, but so we hear)


Things that aren't so cool about our apartment:
1. The sink only comes to mid-thigh - and its deep, so I have to bend way over to do dishes. Russell just does them on his knees. I'm serious.
2. The cabinets are made of plastic and are none too new.
3. The white floors mean I can see every speck of dirt, hair and skin that falls on it. Good thing for #3 above.
4. I don't have a washing machine and the laundromat down the block is closed for remodeling. That means we have to haul our laundry down the hill and back up again once a week if we want clean undies. This will improve when we either get a washer or the nearby laundromat reopens.
5. No matter the weather, everything always seems to be damp.
6. No heat (but we bought a space heater after a few weeks and summer is fast approaching, so this isn't a problem anymore).
7. The garbage system. Its not too bad once you figure it out... but it took us a full moth to figure out.
8. It took a month to get Internet.... but that's not the apartments fault.


This picture shows the entrance in the back left, our bedroom with our futon bed in it is in the back right, and the wall behind which is our bathroom. The toilet gets its own room and is behind the door just off the entrance. There is a step up into the regular bathroom with the sink on the right and the bathtub and shower through a door on the left. You can't see any of the regular bathroom because of the angle of the picture. One interesting thing about Japanese bathrooms (ie the bath part of the bathroom) is that the whole room is plastic and has a door closing it off from the sink area. Showering is NEVER done in the bathtub. The bathtub is only for soaking. No soap or other products are ever put in it. Showering is done outside the bathtub, as is all soaping up and scrubbing before your bath. Our shower is set up so it can be used standing up or sitting down. The bathub is not as long as an American bathtub, but it is much deeper - which makes the bath much more enjoyable.



This last picture shows our kotatsu. The same table Russell was under in the previous post. Notice that the futon (blanket) part is gone. It has warmed up the last week and we were worried the futon would trap moisture and mildew. It is now tucked away in the closet until after summer. I spend most of my time at the table. It is used as our dining room table, game table, Jaci's desk and general gathering place for papers and junk. Its tidy today, though, because its Saturday- cleaning day. You can see our two zabuton (cushions) in the picture. We sit on them when we are using the table. The man that sold us the futon for the kotatsu also handmade the zabuton. They are very comfortable, and we really need to go get a couple more.

You might notice that the term "futon" is getting tossed around a lot. It turns out that a futon can refer to several different things. In the West, we use the word to refer to a bed. That's true here too, but the futon you buy here are totally different than the kind you get in the U.S. They are basically just dense cotton pads that you lay on the floor. They aren't more than an inch thick - probably less. It took me a while to get used to ours - at first I would wake up aching in the morning. But now we are both very used to it and it is perfectly comfortable. The word futon is also used to describe the comforter that goes over the mat. They are just the upper and lower futon. Both the upper and lower futon have duvet covers that slip over them and eliminate the need for sheets. We just take off the covers and wash them when we need to. The only tricky part to the futon is that they mildew easily if the bottom futon is left on the floor indefinitely. Every morning, no matter the weather, the lower futon is damp on the bottom when we wake up. We have to at least turn it over every day so that the damp part can air out. Often, we prop it up on end against the wall so that both sides get plenty of air. The upper futon seems to stay drier, so we just fold it up in a corner for the day. Then to make the bed at night we toss down the lower futon and unfold the upper futon on top. It sounds like a lot of trouble, but its way easier than making a bed with multiple sheets and blankets. When we have a nice sunny day, we hang the futon out over our balcony (with very large clamps to keep it from taking a dive) and let it air out completely. It comes back in all fluffy and smelling like sunshine. I just hope we can keep the futon from molding when the weather starts getting really humid (and that day is fast approaching).

Dampness has been a constant concern. I spend a good half hour to hour every day pondering its effects and how to ward it off. We have learned a few tricks (like putting desiccant boxes in the closet), but on any given day a book left on the floor will have buckled pages the next day and everything in the house is damp on a rainy or humid day. Apparently in June we will have a "rainy season" (imagine a constant downpour for three to four weeks straight) and then everything will start getting much warmer and oppressively humid. Great. There must be dehumidifiers or something that can help combat humidity... we need to investigate.