The Sky is Cryin'

Japanese Word of the Day:
English: Rain
Japanese: Ame (あめ or 雨)

Today, it is raining sideways here.

Yeah, there's normally mountains in that view.

Basically a typhoon is blowing through this weekend which means lots of rain, rain, and more rain. Also there’s some wind. So yesterday after nursery excitement I grabbed a ton of snacks at the grocery store, came home, and tucked in knowing I wasn't going anywhere this weekend. That means ya’ll get more blogs, yaaay! And this is the long promised “what my apartment looks like” entry, yaaaaaay!

I’m excited, anyways.

In honor of my mother’s love of floorplanes I cobbled together a rough idea of the layout of my apartment. Please note this is not to scale because I made this in MS paint and scale is hard. For the record, my apartment is quite large based on my understanding of normal Japanese apartment sizes.

So let’s dive right into the tour, shall we?

Yup, that's a hallway all right.

From the front door we have the shoe removal area and main hallway. In Japanese homes you don’t wear your shoes around the house for a number of reasons. First off, shoes damage tatami mat and secondly they track in the dirt and grime from outside. When your bed is literally on the floor you don’t want your floors to be dirty all the time so upon entering you switch out your outdoor shoes for usually slippers of some type. You can see my outside shoes hiding in the shoe area and an extra pair of sippers waiting for use. See that room on the left in the picture? That’s the…

Despite being a large apartment the rooms are still too small to easily photograph. Don't mind the panorama distortion.

That's my bed. No, really!

Tatami room! The flooring is tatami mat which is supposedly softer than normal floors. The softness is the reason it’s used in bedrooms since futons in Japan are not very thick. Except mine. Because I am currently layering 2 futons and a plush comforter to make my bed softer.

Fellow futon sleepers: Stop judging me

I actually slept on the single futon my first night or two and then decided that was silly and it was my apartment and I could do what I liked. Japanese believe that a firm bed is important for a healthy back and blah blah blah. I had really bad shoulder soreness (which I fully admit could be attributed to the massive luggage I was carrying around not my bed) but I decided to go with a softer setup. Maybe later in the year I’ll splurge and just get a plusher futon. If you’re wondering why my futon is folded up it’s certainly not because I need the space. Futons absorb the liquid you sweat out in your sleep and if you leave it on the tatami it will cause mold. For this reason you need to air out the tatami you sleep over during the day and the futon itself weekly. Since it’s been raining so much I haven’t been able to air my futon. : (  Anyways, from the tatami room we take a left to go into…

Yeaaah, photoshop didn't like this one much. Sorry! I tried to tidy it a bit so the distortions would be less distracting.

Oh good, photoshop was kinder to this one.

This is my base of operations and where I am sitting as I type this. Not only does this room have a great desk, a killer view, and comfortable chair but it also has the AC unit (it’s above the tv). All the piles of papers are important things I need to figure out. I have a lot of piles. Through the other door we go to…

That phone is actually an intercom to the front door.

Those flowers are from my Welcome Ceremony I haven't gotten around to telling ya'll about. Opps.

My super awesome kitchen! Seriously, I know it seems small by American standards but I get so much cooking done in here. I’ve been getting pictures of all the things I cook so I can show off but that’s a later article. Also, that window looks out on the side of my office. I often leave the door to the kitchen slid closed because the kitchen is hot and I like privacy. Back into the hall!

I spent the longest time trying to figure out what the thing on the top of the toilet was;

It's a sink! When you flush it puts clean water through the sink part so you can wash your hands off. Pretty nifty!

I don’t think Japan believes in simple toilets. Aside from the built in sink, Japanese know-ers will notice that the flush lever has the kanji for “big” and “small”. If you turn the lever towards “小” you get a small flush that will remove liquid waste without using a lot of water. The “大” direction does a full flush. Handy way to save water and sure beats the Japanese squat toilet.

You may have noticed on my floor plan that there is no door separating the bathroom proper from the hallway. I have a curtain though!

I actually rather like the curtain.

Oh, and there's a washer too!

I really don’t have much to say here. Yup, that’s a bathroom. To the right is…

Take a moment to notice that the shower head is detachable and not over the tub.

The shower/tub room. The picture doesn't show it but there is a step up into this room and the shower style door slides shut completely closing the room off. You may also notice that strange spot on the floor near the middle of the tub; that’s actually a drain. This entire room is actually a shower that drains into the spot on the floor. In fact, if you try to use the shower head holders to hold the shower head you will get water all over the floor (which is fine). I was so, so very confused my first night. I also don’t know who decided I needed a window in the middle of my shower room but I want to stab them. It’s frosted so you can’t see anything but it always makes me nervous as it faces the front of the apartment complex and the street. Also, the mirror is low because people often sit on a bucket or something similar instead of standing. Also Also, that little box on the wall by the faucet controls the warm water. My first time showering here was very, very confusing.

Last room!

I actually forgot to turn on the light for the picture. Woops!

I don’t actually use this room. It’s at the front of the apartment so I keep the door shut to cut down noise and heat in the house. It’s got a bunch of books, movies, and craft supplies from my predecessors so it’s a great storage room but that’s about it.

So pretty sweet apartment right? I mean, except for the fact that everything is in Japanese. Yeah, I have had to constantly google to figure out how to do things like work my AC, use my shower, not destroy my tatami, have hot water… etc. For the record, my policy of “hit all the buttons until you know what they do” is remarkably effective, though I might not recommend it for everything (like the stove). There are also the perils of low sitting; my headphone cord snagged on the bottom of my chair and almost broke the jack. It’s also substantially more work to take a nap when you have to literally make and unmake your bed to do so (which may be why I've been so productive, hmm..) In addition to all that there is the fact that the Japanese trash/recycling system is insanely complicated. For the record I only barely understand the gist of this.

Each section has to be bagged separately and put out on different days.

.

But aside from trash, for the most part I know how everything works now and I’m quite comfortable. It only I could get internet going I’d be set. Oh and maybe be able to magically translate the mail I’m getting so I know if it’s spam or like a warrant for my arrest.

Oh well. Can’t have everything!