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We moved to Japan in March, 2002.
Andy was going to attend a language school in Aobadai.
After seeing the area, we decided to settle down here, because Aobadai would give us great access to the whole Tokyo area,
and it's a nice little town (see Virtual
Aobadai for more).
Click on any photo to see it in
a larger version. |
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The
best view of our apartment building!
Ok, it's not easy to make it
attractive from the outside... |
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Zooming in you can see our apartment. That's our shower
room sticking out of the side of the building, and our kitchen
window just to the left of it. |
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We
are on the first floor right by the entrance. You have to
climb up a short flight of steps, but we never have to use the
elevator. That's nice. |
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When you come inside, you are on
the bottom floor. Our bedroom is straight ahead.
Actually, this is the view from our daughter's room, which is
just to the left when you come in.
We have a Tatami floor, so we
sleep on Futons. Each morning you're supposed to put them in
the closet... |
| This
view is looking back from our room into our daughter's room.
The two rooms are separated by a sliding door. |
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But
actually Reia has gotten into the habit of sleeping on our
futons. |
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Looking across our Tatami floor and at our closets. We have a
big closet under the stairs, and we bought some plastic
drawers for our Futon closets. |
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| We also have a pressure pole
(like the kind you use for shower curtains) on the other side
of the closet, and that's how we hang some of our clothes.
You can see Reia's clothes hanging on a smaller pressure pole.
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With
space at a premium, most stairs in Japan are steep and narrow,
with few handrails. So far, at least only I (Andy) have
fallen.
My knee is getting better
now... |
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From
the top of the stairs looking ahead (slightly to the right)...
And then looking all the way to
the right. |
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In between the sofa and the
computer we have a view of a parking lot. That's too
bad, of course. But zoom
in to the building straight ahead, and that is Andy's Japanese
language school. He walks to class each day in two minutes. |
The closet is between the computer and the stairs. |
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| Our
"dining room" viewed from the computer. We got all the
furniture in this picture at second-hand stores, and the
carpet, too. |
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There
are no garage sales in Japan, and it's hard to take stuff with
you when you move. So you can find very good deals at a number
of "Recycle Shops." |
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To
the left of the table is the entrance to our bathroom.
It's a narrow hallway with a towel rack and some plastic
shelves we bought. There's a towel bar, but it's held up by
suction cups that kept letting go at odd times.
Our sink in in a recess on the
right, and the bath is straight ahead. |
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Our
office is on the left.
Then we have a typical deep bathtub. There is a shower
hose that you can hold or mount on the wall. When you
bathe in Japan, you're expected to shower first before getting
in the water. That's because families will often share
the same hot water one-by-one before going to bed. |
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We
have a typical set of cute plastic bath accessories: a dipper,
a big bowl, a rack, and a stool to sit on. This is all
for washing up before you get in the bathtub. |
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| As
you leave the bathroom turn hard left at the dining table and
enter our kitchen. |
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Kitchens are pretty small and built for function. We're
fortunate that our kitchen is in a separate room. Many
apartments have a kitchen counter along the side of a small
dining/living room. |
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Looking left you can see our refrigerator and microwave oven.
Our stove and rice cooker are by the window. We don't have an
oven like you see in America. They are rare here, and kitchens
are only designed for these stovetop models. You can see
our stovetop espresso maker, which I (Andy) use almost every
morning. |
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We live here!
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Sayonara! |
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