Sutorenjaa In Japan

My Crib

After the drop off, I unpacked and arranged all my stuff. I must say the the new apartment is kind of cool. It turns out that it is not exactly a shoe box. I am happy to report that it has plenty of room for me and room for guests… hint hint, you all!
To describe, it is amost a complete square… with an all purpose room, a bed room, kitchen area, and a shower, toilet and washer.
The APR (for dining, watching TV, guests, chillin) is 6 tatami (straw) mats big, as is the bedroom. I’m still getting used to sitting on the floor all the time. My posture is going to hell.
I’ve been told that the mats and panels on my windows (the doors are panels with paper) are all pretty new. No pressure to keep everything nice!!! But still despite the newness of some things, I think this apartment is actually pretty old. The drier is ancient and the color scheme is terrible!!! Its all blue and yellow and then brown in the rooms! Eek! And my predecessor has left me a bunch of pink stuff! Bah. I like pink and was actually looking forward to my big pink chair (its actually pretty comfy), but it doesn’t seem to fit. So, I’d like to get new stuff. BUT as usual, it costs $$$ to do that. And I am not really in a position to be buying crap to decorate with (esp if I’m only here a year?). Priorities… FOOD!!!!
So, because I was up arranging stuff… and I was a bit nervous, I didn’t eat anything the first night I was at my place. (-.-;) Luckily I had more courage the next day AND the local ‘supa’ is right down the street from me. It was a real adventure though. I had no idea what anything was. I mean, there are something that look the same everywhere (bread, rice, fruit) but all the extra ingredients were more difficult. ESPECIALLY SINCE I’M ILLITERATE! Man, it took about 30 minutes for me to figure out which bottle was conditioner and which was shampoo. In the end, I think I walked out with $25 worth of $50 groceries. How will I ever save in this country!
First night’s meal was rice noodles and curry sauce… I didn’t know which bottle of black sauce was actually soy sauce. It was good but I nearly set fire to the apartment because the pots I was left were CRAP and the stove likes to play games with me (i.e. flicker in and out and then burst into flames again). At least there was baseball on TV... Ichiro is looking pretty good these days.

posted by KidBach @ 9:50 AM