I can't believe that I have already been in Japan for a week and half – sooo much has gone on! I won’t bore anyone with the mundane details, but a brief synopsis: I spent the first three days in a posh Tokyo hotel with about 900 other JETs, then was plopped on a bus with about 20 others to the Shizuoka prefecture. I gave a nerve wracking 30 second introduction – in Japanese, hence the nerve-wracking part – to a group of the area supervisors, then met the people who had come to pick me up – my Japanese supervisor, and Micah, the other JET that teaches at my school. We collected my luggage and drove to my school, where I met the vice principal and a few teachers – and I was exhausted at this point for obvious reasons, the extreme heat and humidity being perhaps the biggest culprit. And then finally, the moment I had been waiting for – I was finally shown to my apartment.
Does anyone remember my reaction to my apartment in Korea? I was pretty much devestated when I saw the place and thought about living there for an entire year. It was a damn dump with bars on the windows. But my apartment now….wow, I can’t even say how happy I was when I saw it. It’s just a lovely place, and it’s spacious. More space than I have ever had to myself actually. It has a living room, two bedrooms, a large kitchen, and a bathroom. You have to picture Japanese size rooms though – by American standards it would actually be rather small, but by Japanese standards, it’s pretty big. Plenty of room for one person! I have oodles and oodles of storage space – in fact all of my storage space combined is probably bigger than my Korea apartment – no joke. I have a long balcony and a view over my neighbor’s garden and the town cemetary/temple. It is a Japanese style apartment, complete with tatami mats and sliding screens (but a Western style toilet thankfully!). I just love the place, and I already feel like it is my home.
What was even better was that my predecessor left the place in immaculate livable condition. There are tons of stories that ciculate amongst JETs about nightmare predecessors that leave the apartments trashed, but thankfully I was not one of the unlucky ones. My place was not only left spotless, it was left pretty much fully furnished. Not just with the requiste furniture, linens and appliances, but all the little things that you are eventually going to need in a home – like bandaids, paperclips, a hammer, batteries, bedding, tape, glue, fans, heaters, basic medicaitons, etc. I woke up the other night unable to sleep due to a stuffy nose, and low and behold there was nasal spray in the medicince cabinet! I needed to wrap some gifts for my school supervisors, and there was wrapping paper and ribbon! I even have a complete DVD and VHS collection that has been left by all the previous people, half of which are actually pretty decent (and yes, the collection includes at least one video labeled XXX). There is a stereo, a blender, a rice cooker, lamps, storage boxes, a vaccum, hot water dispenser kettles, a couch, books, and much more that I can’t recall now but was totallly stoked to find.
I even have a BBQ and a washing machine. There is a toaster oven and a microwave that can be used as an oven AND a grill, which is apparently a very expensive appliance to buy. So I can bake – this is rare in Asia, as ovens are generally uncommon in homes. I’ve also come across some totally random but “great to have” stuff, like beach umbrellas, candles, Xmas decorations and ice chests. Oh, and I have a bicycle too, which is totally fun to ride around my town. It even has a lock, a pump, a basket and a reflector sash for night riding.
But by far the funniest things – I brough my inflatable exercise ball all the way from home, and guess what I find in my closet here? Yup, an exercise ball. And, a yoga mat, which I was planning on buying anyway.
So why the hell I am geeking out so much on my apartment? There is a reason – it’s not just that I am a complete nerd. You have to remember that I lived in a shitbox in Korea – and I literally didn’t have enough space to even be able to keep my clothes, except my suitcase on the floor. Then I lived out of a backpack for 4 months while I was traveling around Asia. And afterwards, I was renting a spareroom from some friends, but it was an in-use spareroom, so again I didn’t have much space to put my stuff (although everything else about the house was great, thanks Jay and Nette ). But essentially I HAVE BEEN LIVING OUT OF A SUITCASE FOR ALMOST TWO YEARS NOW! God, that sounds horrible when I say it that way, but it’s true.
So you can see why I am so happy to have a nice place that is all mine Add to that the fact that furnishing an apartment is REALLY expensive and a pain in the ass, especially in a brand new foreign place. Getting rid of trash is hard to do in Japan as well, so tons of my poor fellow JETs are spending their first few weekends trying to find creative ways to dispose of all the junk that people before them have been to lazy or cheap to get rid of. But my place had NO junk, only useful stuff. Following the JET tradition, I paid my predecessor 20,000 yen for everything she had bought, which is a great deal – just under $200. I did get to meet her and thank her in person by the way.
That’s enough apartment babble for now, but I can’t promise there won’t be more later! I will write about my town and my school soon – also great things to say about both of those thankfully.
It’s safe to say that I am really enjoying Japan so far!
I will also post some photos soon, but as of now I do not have internet at my apartment – probably in about 2 weeks, and then the photos will come.
