Welcome to my place!!!!

Hello World!

I first want to grant a HUGE apology to those who have been wondering what has happened to me in Japan! I can't believe it, I have been here for 11 weeks now, and I have been very good at procrastinating this website. So I think the best thing to do would to be to start off with the basics. I don't want to bombard you with a whole load of words and bore you to death. So for my first post, let me introduce you to my apartment. I live 15 minutes walk from the station, a 10 minute bike ride to school, and right next door to a shopping centre with a 24 hour supermarket (very very rare!). The rent is only 5000 yen a month (about $55), so I think I have a pretty sweet deal! Anyway, come see my apartment!

This is the view of my apartment from my entrance. The door on the left leads to my bedroom, towards the right is my living room. The kitchen and a spare room is on the right and the toilet/bath/laundry is on the left.

I really like it when it's clean, but someone keeps leaving things laying around. It's such a pain to pick up after them! I understand where you're coming from Dad, I am such a pain in the arse!

This is my bedroom. I've got authentic Japanese windows! How cool is that? I've actually poked a few holes in the paper, so I moved my bed away from the wall. I reckon my bed is the tallest bed in Japan. I started off with a futon about 5cm thick, which was a nightmare. I then upgraded to a sofa bed, and just recently I have bought an air matress and put it on top. I feel like "The Princess and the Pea"!!!!


So here is the place where I spend alot of time (burning stuff! hehe). Yes! It's the kitchen. I have a gas stove and a fridge, both of which I got for free. The white box on the wall is what gives me hot water in the sink, as I don't have running hot water! So the box leaks hot water very very slowly, and my sink never fills up (I've also got a problem trying to find the right sized plug....) I HATE doing the dishes. I truly appreciate having a dishwasher, and next time I am asked to unpack the dishwasher, I would do so straight away!!!!! (like that Dad? haha)

This is the living room. Don't be misled by the TV... I don't have it connected to any networks or anything. It's good for watching DVDs on though! The thing hanging on the wall is made up of photos of everyone back in Oz. I don't want to forget what you look like! Plus, the wall seemed slashed so I had to cover it up somehow....


So this is my lovely toilet. I can buy a converter to make it "normal", but I can't be bothered buying one frankly and it's not so bad! The picture on the right is the sink thing on top of the toilet. When you flush the toilet, the tap runs at the same time (apparently to save energy or something)

Here is my bath. I have no shower (no running hot water!). It takes about 30 minutes to heat the bath of cold water in the winter. Talk about a ritual! Also, it's really cramped.

How on earth could you think that I am totally neat?!?! This is my spare room. I have no idea what to do with it. It doesn't even have a light (there were no lights when I moved in). So when I don't know what to do with something, it goes in here! The rubbish system here is way confusing, so I get nervous when I have things delivered in cardboard boxes. I don't know what to do with the boxes!

So there you go, that was my apartment. It's pretty bland, but it keeps me dry and it's extremely cheap. I have also learned that I actually don't have a magical fairy that cleans things up after me! Tomorrow I am off to a festival in Ogaki City, so the next post will be about my new hometown in the centre of Japan. Feel free to write a comment, or ask me stuff! As I mentioned in one of my emails, one of the biggest things that counts towards my survival in Japan is hearing from the real world! Let me know how Australia (or wherever you are) is going!