So It Begins

I figured that I better just start writing, or else I will end up just thinking about it and never actually writing this.  I chose this format because I feel somewhat guilty filling up your inboxes with mass emails that you then feel obliged to read.  I  didn't want to join facebook, for many reasons, but the two most legitimate are these: a) people have to join facebook to read anything I want to say and there are still people out there who don't have facebook; and b) facebook takes away your intellectual rights and any other rights to any material you have on facebook.  Here, everything is still mine, mwahahaha. 

Furthermore; this way, reading my rantings is completely by choice.  Freedom of choice, that's what I'm all about.  Rather like God, or Devo.  But I'm no where near as cool as either of those two.  Hmmm, I wonder if that is a good way to start a blog, you know, a little sacrilege.  Oh well, if you are still reading here are some pictures of my new pad.

 This is from the area between the bathroom and the shower/laundry room.  It is sort of all one room.  To the immediate left is the "kitchen."  Which sadly consists of one (literally only one) burner, a tiny multipurpose space and a sink.  Straight ahead you see my bed/futon, my table, and the doors to my balcony (which is not as swank as it sounds, it is very tiny and looks right into the apartment across the way).  In fact, the apartment across the way is so close that I could easily jump from my balcony to his front door.  So the day that I came out of the shower in nothing but my towel, and he came out of his apartment, and I left the curtains open...let's say everyone involved was quite surprised and slightly embarrassed!

Here you see my living area, as seen from the balcony, or from the front door across the way.  I bought that lovely red chair the other day!  Although, I'm not sure it can really be called a chair, what with it having no legs and all.  If we take away all the leggy looking letters (ooohh, amazing alliteration) then we can rightly call it a "ca."  So, this is my lovely red "ca," the requisite purple polka-dot blanket and the ever essential heater.  It makes sense for my "ca" to have no legs, because my table is only a foot off the ground.  Now before anyone gets too stropy, we will return to calling it a chair.  Is a man with no legs no longer a man?  Well, yes, because he has no leggy looking letters to take away.  (I really must stop this silliness, before I really offend somebody.)  This closet is one of two in the apartment, but the only one with a hanger pole, thingy.

 Here you see my "bathroom" sink and washing machine.  I say "bathroom" because all the traditional bathroom elements are divided.  The sink and washing machine are together in one room, that is to the right once you walk into my apartment.  The shower, pic below, is to the left of the sink, but it has it's own little room.  So, I guess this would be my washing up room, which sounds very British, but is an accurate description.

 This is my shower/bathing room.  The shower head seems really low, because it is.  However, there are two holders, one of which is higher up and I don't even have to crouch below it to shower.  Those of you who visit me and are any taller, may not have that luxury.  The bathtub is really short, but super deep.  I have yet to use it, it seems somewhat daunting to fill up.  Although, I can set my gas heater to exactly the temperature that I want, and the exact amount of water that I want and it will do the rest for me!  But here in Japan you pay for water twice.  Once coming in and again going out, so no bath for me.

And here we have my toilet room.  This little room is to the left once you walk in the front door.  I am so glad that I have a western toilet.  I plan on writing a post about the adventures with Japanese toilets, so I won't spoil anything here.  The more astute of you may have noticed that there appears to be a sink on top of the toilet tank.  I assure you, there is.  At least there is a faucet.  Supposedly you are meant to wash your hands with this water, fresh as it is coming in from the water main to fill up your tank, but I cannot yet bring myself to partake.  I know it is fresh water and my washing room sink is across the hall, I just haven't managed to be okay with it.  I am not concerned about the water being cold, because the water in my sink is cold too, it's just psychological.  Maybe after the next water bill, I will see the need to use this innovation of Japanese convenience.  

So, that's my place in a nutshell.  It is nicer than some, not as nice as others.  I think it's about average in size for a single person, if not a little larger than some.

For those of you who received my last email and are curious...no wallet.  But, it's okay.  I've replaced everything, or am in the process of replacing everything.  I guess that it was just my luck to have one of  the 0.01% of the Japanese population who would decided to keep my wallet, be the one to find it. 

There, now I've broken the ice.  So,  please if you are so inclined, check back and see how I'm doing.  I will try to update this at least once a week.  And feel free to ask me questions, tell me what's up with you, or pester me about my learning Japanese.  Really, I need someone to get on my case about that because I've been here for 3 months and still can't say anything.