New Home - August 20th

Well four days have passed since my last post. (ha ha... oops) A lot has happened, so rather than throwing it all into one conglomerate of a post, I've decided to split it up into different topics or days.

On August 20th, I was told during training that I was moving to my new apartment that day. In the next hour *laugh* So I went home, packed up all my luggage and was headed off to Kyodai City. It's far enough from the Metropolitan that there aren't many foreigners in the area - thus leading to strange looks in my direction quite often. From Iidabashi - where Interac's Office is - it's about 50 minutes.

After getting lost a few times on the way there (the lady taking me had never gone there before) we made it to my nice little apartment that I am quite fond of. It was actually much larger and newer than I anticipated. It's equip with a clothes washer, stove, mini refrigerator, microwave, TV, desk, and futon. I was really excited about the futon- last time I was in Japan I slept on a bed, which made me feel like I didn't truly experience pure Japanese culture. (ha ha, I know I'm weird.) It's got a ladder up to a loft that's over the kitchen and bath area. It's a good area to put the futon, it's got a shelf with an outlet up there. Behind the curtain are some more shelving. You can move the latter to the left so you can actually reach them.

The kitchen is rather small. The stove has two burners and then a sink next to it. Unfortunately it doesn't have a grill under it like most Japanese kitchens do. No grilled fish for me. *sigh* The fridge and microwave are behind it.

Japan does their garbage much differently than we do in America. (Or at least Utah anyways.) You can't just throw your trash out in the bin, it has to be sorted into the following: Bottles, Aluminum cans, plastics/ nonburnable items, burnable items, and papers. Each day of the week is assigned to a specific garbage type. So I now have three different trash cans in my room/kitchen area. It's a hassle, but it's smart.

The toilets rather simple in my apartment. No bidet or heated toilet seats (dang.) It just has the handle you can push back to let more water into the bowl or pull forward to have it flush. When it flushes, water comes out of the faucet on top that you can wash your hands in. The water just goes into the tank for when you flush it next time. I think it's a rather ingenious way of conserving water.

The washroom has the tub and washing area. The Japanese usually wash themselves outside the bathtub, and only when they're clean they relax in the tub. My host family two years ago would keep the same water in the tub for about a week before draining it and putting new water in. The tub actually had a heater that kept it at a constant comfortable temperature. Personally, I'd get bored in a short while of sitting in a tub with nothing to do, but I guess it's one of the ways the Japanese unwind after a hard day. Washing is usually done sitting or kneeling down.

It's taken a while, but I think I'm finally settling down and gotten all the things I need to live normally (Like towels, food, utensils, toilet paper...) Now that the weekends over, the real work begins!