What I'll Miss

What's that?  You're surprised that I'm actually going to miss something?  What with all the complaining I've done over the past (almost) four years?  Well, it's true....it's hard for me to think about now as I'm deep into anticipating American food preparing to go back to the US but I can come up with a few things....(sorry no pics, hope you can make it through!)

1. I know I'm going to be asked a lot over the coming year(s) what I miss most about Japan....my answer is probably going to be the people.  Being here has certainly made me see that people are basically the same the world over.  But I do think that Japanese people IN GENERAL are a little more quiet and thoughtful and less reactionary and proselytistic than Americans IN GENERAL.  The vast majority of the people I've interacted with have been lovely.  I have not had a single truly negative experience.  I've had a few shop clerks avoid my eyes (in hopes I didn't need help) and I usually get ignored by the people who hand out flyers by kiosks in the mall (I consider that a perk) but that is really the worst I can come up with.  I've been giggled at by a few teenage waiters.  I've been stared at creepily by a few old guys. (For the record, these last two would totally happen in the US too.)   But so many times I have asked for help or initiated a conversation (in my shamefully terrible Japanese) and have had the person try their hardest to figure out what I needed.  Other moms are so very welcoming in the playground and parks we go to. Everyone loves Cora....people around here are  used to adult foreigners but a foreign baby/toddler is still a pretty big draw.  I think when we move back home she's probably going to be offended that she isn't getting fawned over and "kawaii'ed" constantly.  So that makes me a little sad.....I may do a separate post about being an "outsider" in a homogeneous culture but even that hasn't been negative at all for me personally.  
2. I have pumped gas--no kidding--one (1) time in (almost) four years.  It was on a trip home to the US.  I have a lovely full-service place I go to maybe once every couple of months....because I rarely drive more than a few miles from my house.  At the full service place the nice workers will wipe my windshield/mirrors/windows down and give me a damp cloth to wipe my interior.  My dash and steering wheel have stayed astonishingly clean.  Back in America I DREADED pumping gas and my dash was filthy.  And there may be a full service place somewhere in Greenville, but I sure don't know where it is.  Or how much it will cost. And to all you reading from the states that don't allow you to pump your own gas ---- pphhht!!
3. Believe it or not, there are a few food items I'll miss.  Milk tea is probably #1.  I like a little gyudon (beef and rice dish) from Sukiya.  Tonkatsu (breaded sauced pork) from our local bento place is tasty.  You can get really good pre-made frozen dumplings to fry up.  I am going to miss making a lunch off of soft boiled eggs and tuna-mayo onigiri (rice balls) from 7-Eleven.  I realize that last one probably sounds gross but you'll just have to believe me that it's delicious.  However, any time I get a craving I feel sure that I can help it pass by getting a hotdog or a burrito.  Also, I'm looking forward to visiting the tiny Japanese grocery in Greenville.  Fingers crossed they carry milk tea!!
4. Speaking of food, what I"m really, really, really going to miss are Japanese vending machines.  I've blogged about them before but they need to be on this list.  Not only do they have cold and hot selections (cocoa, hot milk tea!) but there is always a wonderful, ever-changing selection of juice, tea and flavored water.  I don't drink a lot of soft drinks.  I never drink diet drinks and rarely drink caffeine (weird, I know).  I am not looking forward to returning to the land of Diet Coke and Mountain Dew. :(
5. I can't leave out Japanese-style service.  My particular favorite is how the grocery store cart and bagging process works.  When we first got here it bugged me but I've come to love it.  For starters, you don't leave items loose, you have to put them into shopping baskets inside your cart.  And then the cashier will move them into an empty basket as he/she scans them.   Whenever I've grocery shopped on trips home I always feel so rebellious and slovenly just chucking stuff down in the cart.  If you really want to be Japanese about it you'll carefully arrange all your food Tetris-style.  But you won't be as good at it as the checkout person, so don't even try. (I have absolutely stopped on my way to the checkout just to rearrange my items in a neater manner.)  Reusable bags are much more popular here and are easier to use, in a way, because you bag your own groceries.  And you should also do that in a careful and Tetris-style manner.  I really want to keep using my reusable bags.  In general, I expect to be kind of a weirdo in the US grocery store for a while.  If you see me out, watch carefully and enjoy whatever obsessive-compulsive-grocery-arranging-bag meltdown I'm having.   And also listen for me to say "excuse me" to everyone in Japanese. :)
6. I am going to miss my house!  Wait, what?  OK, so I'm not going to miss my Japanese house except for one small part---the entryway.  Because of the whole take-your-shoes-off thing, Japanese houses almost always have really nice big entryways that function as what we would call a mudroom in the US.  As I've started looking online at houses (as we will need to purchase one pretty quickly) I am really disappointed in the lack of a mudroom in most.  It's really nice to have a place for shoes, coats, hats, stroller etc.  Plus bags, keys, mail, a mirror....the US really needs to step it up in the entryway department.  However, if I don't end up with one and I get frustrated I'll just go lovingly stroke my thermostat or run something through my garbage disposal and hopefully the feeling will pass. 
7. Japanese clothes.....O, how I shall miss ye.  I have been running around the past few weeks frantically buying up pants and jackets.  Clothing here is more well-made and better quality than in the US. You're much more likely to find linings, pockets, etc.  And I'm talking about just your typical department store clothes.  Nothing designer or super expensive.  And it's all cut for short, narrow-ish people.  I bought a blazer the other day that fit perfectly off the rack.  I swear I heard a chorus of angels sing when I put it on.  Usually I have to have almost everything, but particularly "work clothing", tailored down so I don't look like I'm playing dress-up in my mother's clothes.   A special shout-out to Uniglo and Muji, both of which I am going to miss dreadfully.  I think both have stores in the US but none close to Greenville.  And I have a feeling the clothing is probably cut differently.  If anyone has ever been to an American one, please let me know!

That's all for now, maybe once we get back I'll update this post with more things I miss!

Sunny Money

A few posts back I wrote about how Ota City had only one claim to fame--being where the Subaru car company was founded.  I have to make a correction now because that isn't entirely true.  If you run Google searches for Ota City you will probably run across a lot of articles about solar energy.

All of them are several years old and link to the same video:




Apparently I live in the "Solar City of the Future".  Who knew.  For the record, I have no idea where Pal Town or the strawberry fields are.  They must be on the other side of town.  I can confirm that many houses, even in my neighborhood, have solar panels on the roof.  Especially new homes.  Ours does not, but our house is a little older.

So that is the back story to my story.  A couple of months ago a Japanese friend of mine called me to tell me about some "money tickets" being offered by the city.  My friend's English is good but not so good that we didn't have to go around in a few circles to get on the same page about what "money ticket" entailed.  Come to find out, she was talking about coupon books, similar to those that are commonly sold during fund-raising drives in the US.  In my (American) experience, kids sell them door-to-door to raise money for school trips/supplies.  The coupons offer discounts to local businesses.

In this case, the city was selling the books, not to raise money, but to dispense it....albeit in a roundabout manner.  In the video above, they kinda mention government subsidies provided as incentives for using solar energy.  These coupon books are a way to dispense government subsidy money to the populace.  The number of books available is limited so you have to "apply" to receive them.   My friend applied for me as it required sending in a postcard with your name, address and age.  I am happy to say I was "accepted" to receive my requested two books.

Now, some of you might be thinking "yeah, you mean the coupons that wind up unused in your junk drawer because there are so many limitations and exceptions plus you don't even go to half the businesses anyway?". No?  Well, that's what I was thinking, even though I applied for the two books anyway.  Well, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that these coupon books don't exactly operate like the American ones.

I had to report to City Hall on a certain day to pick up my books.  My friend wasn't available to go with me so I went by myself but it was a very easy process to pick up the books.

this is Ota City Hall.....it looks like a City Hall

After I got them I was surprised to see that every coupon was exactly the same.  Turns out that each coupon is worth 500 yen (about $5) and can be used at any of the participating local businesses, no strings attached.  My friend had given me list of some of  the local participating shops and they are all places I shop at (part of the reason she called me).  Not only that, but you can use as many tickets at one purchase time as you want.  So basically it's like a book of five dollar bills.  Easy, huh?

So you're probably wondering how much money I'm getting/saving, right?  Well.....turns out that when you do the math you're getting about $15 per book.  Which isn't much, especially for all this work (rather than buying them from a kid on my doorstep) but that's Japan for ya.  Also each book is 10000 yen, which is about $100 so they're expensive on top of all this.

coupon book, aka money tickets.  if you can't make it out, that is a picture of solar panels

They're good for a year, I think?  And I've already used some at my regular supermarket.  Being able to use a bunch at once seems weird but so far I haven't had any trouble with it.  Anyone else out there have an alternative coupon book experience in Japan or another country?
  

Our Moldy Summer

Late summer got a little interesting for us because we had to have most of our upstairs re-wallpapered within a three-week window.  Why?  Well, I believe I've been clear about our issues with heating and cooling our house.  In the summertime it gets really hot and humid here so we run our air conditioners a lot.  This summer we ran the one in Cora's bedroom basically all the time.  It's where she sleeps and naps, you know?  And personally I believe that it wastes less energy to just leave it on all the time than it does to turn it on and off frequently.

So, anyway, there we are, running her air con constantly during really humid weather and uh....not really airing out her room much.

And then one day I was moving things around in her room and saw this.....

Now, Chad had already noticed that the wallpaper was bubbling so we weren't that surprised to find it (although I did shriek and pull my hair a little....wouldn't you?).  We had even already notified the maintenance people.  But after I found this we called them back and told them to step on it.

So Cora spent a few nights in the guest room and a dude came and re-wallpapered her room.  Everyone always asks me how he got rid of the mold.  After some lengthy and confused conversations with maintenance men, I finally learned that he sanded it off.

While he was working in her room we found a little mold in our room and ended up having it redone too.  And then we did the guest room because by that point we figured it was only a matter of time.  (For the record the guest room had no mold because we don't run the air con in it all the time.)

So, for anyone thinking about moving to Japan, or moving to a house with air conditioning difficulties, let the following be a public service announcement to you.   Don't be like us! 

1. Invest in dehumidifiers for the summertime!  They help a lot.

2. Air out your rooms regularly!

3. Give the air cons a break occasionally!

Our Backyard Project

Hi there, remember me?  My lame excuse for not blogging is that I've been sweating outside all summer.  Chad and I decided to tackle the most challenging aspect of our yard....the backside of it.  Off of our living room we have a small raised, fenced-area with a lovely view over the rice paddies.  Unfortunately, unlike our front yard, which came with nice landscaping, the back was a dirt and weed pit.  And by weeds, I mean dandelions which would literally reach 5' tall in the spring.  By May it was truly frightening to behold.  And if you'll recall from previous posts, the company sends some guys twice a year to beat back the worst of it but that still left a large portion of the year when it was a hot mess.

This year we waited until the yard guys showed up and pulled up the weeds, leaving a bare dirt pit.

And then we attacked.

Our plan was to cover in in Bermuda grass except for a small flower bed by the house foundation.  This led to some discussion about how to identify grass seed in the home improvement store. 

Now, I've spent my fair share of time in the local home improvement stores and I knew that I had always seen squares of sod in the summer.  And I knew that when a new house went up in the neighborhood they always laid the tiny little yard with sod squares.  I mentioned to Chad that grass seed might not be an option here but he took off to the home improvement store determined to buy bags of seed.

He came home defeated (he doesn't shop here much, bless him) and made me go back with him.  Here's where it gets interesting.....I ended up asking someone in the garden department for "grass seed".  I looked up the kanji on my phone to show him.  Long story short, it ended up with two workers scratching their heads, looking at us like we were crazy and leading us over to the sod squares.

So, the moral of the story is, if you want to create a lawn in Japan, you're probably going to have to sod it.

AND.....it's best to get in done as early as you can because we ended up having to order ten stacks of sod to finish the yard because when we went back for seconds they were out and told us they didn't carry it past May.  Chad had to get a co-worker to help him order it.

But, in the end it worked out....ta-da!

 

 

and during

My Technology Rant

I recently read this post by another expat blogger referencing a Cracked.com article on popular misconceptions about Japan.  It really speaks to me.  Particularly the first two items about the myth that Japan is a high-tech wonderland of robots and hover boards.

Because whenever someone asks me about the awesome futuristic innovations of Japan.... well....I get a little peckish. And I feel compelled to dispel that particular myth in the strongest terms possible.  I've mentioned several of these things several times before and I will continue to do so until people no longer ask me what it's like to live like the Jetsons.

I believe this particular myth was started by a foreigner who discovered a heated toilet seat in a Tokyo hotel. What he/she didn't understand is why the toilet seats are heated. It's because in most houses the rest of the bathroom isn't. So while your rear end is warm, the rest of you is frozen solid.   I wish I had been a fly on the wall when someone long ago thought, "Wow, it sure is cold in the bathroom. Wonder what I could do about that?" and instead of figuring out how to, oh, I don't know, heat the bathroom, they came up with heating just the toilet seat.  I have no idea how I'm supposed to potty-train a toddler here.  How do I convince her to go to the bathroom when I don't want to go myself??

And let's not forget that half of the country's toilets are holes in the ground.  Personally I would give up the fancy heated toilets for an entire country of plain, garden-variety toilets.

When they had the problem with heating in the rest of the house, they came up with a gadget called a kotatsu which is basically a heated table.  It's a low table (like a coffee table) that has a heater on the underside.  You put a blanket over it, and then sit on the floor with your legs in under it.  And you watch TV.  And hope you don't have to go to the bathroom.  You might be thinking "Well, that sounds like a pretty neat invention!".  No, no, it's not.  You know what are neat inventions?  Insulation.  And thermostats.

As for robots, I'm only gonna care about one when it's Wall-E and will dispose of my garbage for me.  Because I have no garbage disposal.  And can't get one for less than $4000 and a piece of my soul.  We've been told that "the sewer systems weren't designed for it".  Which is a total load of garbage (no pun intended) if you ask me.

The laundry machines here (a combo washing machine/dryer) are ridiculously small and do a terrible job of actually drying your clothes.  It's more like strangling the clothes to dampness.  So everyone hangs their laundry outside.  When you go down the street it's like a scene from The Grapes of Wrath.  I dream of high-efficiency washers and dryers.

Our house came with a fax machine.  They are very popular.  And every week or so I have to go to a cash machine and get out a fat wad to do my grocery shopping.  Because no one uses debit cards. 

Did I go through a time warp in Narita airport?? Is it 1990?

And one last tip: if you ever come here don't think you can get super cheap and fabulously advanced electronics.  You might be able to, but they are manufactured for the Japanese market which means there are no English settings.  So unless you plan to also learn to read Japanese just buy your GPS/printer/camera etc. at home.

So the next time we meet, do yourself a favor and do not ask me about all of Japan's technological wizardry.  Just....don't.  Please.  For my sake and yours.

Architectural Progress

I think it's a shame that all the new house construction here looks like this.....

...instead of like this.....



....but then neither one has insulation or a thermostat.

 

More on that later.... 

Hokora

 

Here's another photo collection I've started....hokora.  Hokora are tiny "household"  or roadside Shinto shrines that people have in their yards.  They enshrine minor spirits.  They're cute and make me think of fairy houses.  All of these are in the neighborhoods around my house.....hopefully I'll keep finding more and continue this as a series.

 

 

this one is inset into someone's perimeter
wall.....kinda unusual

this one really looks like a fairy house

wonder if the spirit likes to be exposed in the
sun like this? and on cement blocks?

Random Stuff

I had a post planned about all the girl's bars that were down on the main street near our apartment.  I had photos and everything....but somehow they got deleted in all the baby excitement.  Girl's bars, so you know, are not strip clubs but more of a Hooter's type situation.  Maybe a cross between the two.  Scantily-clad girls are paid to entertain men.  But not "entertain" men, if you catch my drift.  Supposedly, anyway.....it depends on what you read about them.  I read an article recently about how law enforcement is cracking down on them (to make sure they're on the up and up) so as to "clean up" Tokyo for the 2020 Olympic bid.  Which implies that some "entertaining" does go on.  Anyway, there were a bajillion of them down the hill....and as far as I know it wasn't an area known for them.  My photos were just of the signs, particularly the ones that say "girl's bar".  Hopefully I'll revisit the topic one day....for now just amuse yourself with the mental picture of a hugely pregnant girl taking careful photos of pseudo-strip clubs.

We moved back to Ota this weekend and are having to re-adjust (mostly to not having cleaning ladies).  For now, I can only blog on my iPad.  Mainly because there's always a baby in my lap.  The only catch with the iPad is that I can't add photos.

I miss the garbage disposal in that apartment.  They aren't popular here at all.  Chad tried to get one installed for me here as a "thanks for having my baby" present (it's what I requested when asked---I wanted it way more than jewelry etc.) but he learned that it would be over $4000 (not a typo) and we would have to have it uninstalled when we leave.  So I might get jewelry after all, because I'm not getting a disposal.  :(  Japanese people are really not into creature comforts in their homes....

City Slicker

This weekend we moved to our apartment in the city. As I mentioned awhile back, we'll be here for two months so I'm close to the hospital and my doctor. Chad is driving back and forth from Gunma which, so far, is going pretty well.

We didn't get a ton of information about our apartment (it was arranged for us by the company) until just before we came because, well, that's just how they roll.  But I'm pleased to report that they came through for us again....the apartment is in a great location (just south of Ueno Park which I first mentioned here) and is very nice. 

apartment building

apartment

our view

As you can see it's small (one bedroom) but suits us just fine.  The bathroom and bathtub are surprisingly large and Western-style, most of my appliances are in English, it's easy to cool and it comes with two nice Japanese ladies to clean it twice a week.  So far the only con is that it's on a hill.  And as great as the location is, I'm not going to be able to take as much advantage of it as I would under normal circumstances.  Normally I would be down in Ueno Park every day but since I currently have the mobility of a large arthritic duck, I'm not sure I can make it that far (probably less than two miles but the park is huge).

street right in front of apartment

down a very steep hill

nearby elementary school (surrounded by trees)

another neighborhood street

down the other side of the hill to the local grocery

The only other thing of note is that it's been a little hard to figure out where to get food, considering we limit ourselves by eating very little Asian food.  So far we've mastered pizza and burger delivery and we have our eye on a couple of local restaurants where hopefully we won't wind up with a plate full of sea urchin.  And then there's groceries.  Tiny little local city supermarkets/bakeries/butchers are a little hard for a country girl to wrap her mind around.   Although again, I wouldn't be nearly as concerned about figuring it out if I were able to explore more.  On Monday I had a disastrous experience trying to find what I thought was a large international supermarket on the other side of the city.  Long story short, it was tiny and didn't deliver.  But with Chad's help I finally located a small but adequate supermarket about two blocks from us and I'm currently waiting to see if a delivery boy actually brings the groceries I bought this morning to my door this afternoon.  Fingers crossed.  And then I get to try to make dinner in my tiny little city-folk-don't-cook kitchen.

the grocery store....it ain't Wal-mart

And one last thing....we didn't bring our full computer setup with us so blogging is a little more difficult.  So if things get a little rough around the edges for the next coupla months, that's why. ;)

See How My Garden Grows

Awhile back I bought some corn.  As in tiny corn stalks.  Three for about $1.50.  They're planted in my front yard.    You don't see much corn growing around here and the ears they sell in supermarkets taste like plastic.  If I get so much as one ear I will be thrilled.  Heck, at this point, if I can just get it to grow to a respectable sized stalk I'll be pretty happy.

I'm much more confident about my cucumbers, although this is also my first time growing them.  They're growing as fast as the baby.  Is this not the prettiest little cucumber you ever saw?

Tomatos and I are old friends.

And my herbs (basil, oregano, parsley) are doing nicely, except that the empty space on the end has had a couple of cilantro (called coriander here) seeds buried in it for almost two weeks.   The other herbs were bought as tiny plants.  I don't do very well with seeds for some reason.  I always thought you just put some seeds in dirt, watered them and set them in the sun but apparently I'm wrong. ;)

The Great Outdoors

Since this is the time of year in which we first arrived in Japan, many things are reminding me of that time.  Things such as the deafening sound of a bajillion happy frogs in a rainstorm, the state of my yard, and the merchandise being offered in stores.

One thing I did not know before I moved here is how much Japanese people love to camp and cook out.  And they have the cutest, tiniest camping paraphernalia here.  In Aeon there is currently a display (the exact same one that was there last year) of camping equipment complete with mannequins.

they look like they're having a good time, don't they?

the telescope is a nice touch

In the first photo, see if you can find the teeny tiny grill. 

Don't see it?  Here.

This is pretty much the only style of grill available here.  Charcoal only, from what I've seen.  I actually finally bought us one yesterday (after eyeing them for a year) but I got the deluxe model that is twice as wide and has a tray attachment for small food.  But it's still a teeny tiny grill.  Hopefully we'll get around to actually using it.

Update 6/22/12: I saw big American-style grills at Costco recently.  But the Japanese people weren't paying them that much attention.  You can also get other large camping equipment (i.e. tents) at Costco in early summer.

I also purchased another thing that I have been eyeing for a year.  The company sends some dudes to mow our yard twice a year, but it just hasn't been quite enough.  By the end of last summer my front yard was a mosquito-infested jungle.  So I bought a lawn mower.  Not just any lawn mower, but a Japanese lawn mower.  It may be the most awesomely ridiculous and adorable thing I have ever purchased.

In the photo above are the two styles of lawn mowers available here.  One is old-school manual, but another expat got one of those with her house and reported that it wasn't that great.   So I bought the yellow electric one (approximately $175).  It's child-sized.  And it plugs in.  Like a vacuum.  It's awesome.   (It really bothers Chad when I talk about it like that so if anyone else out there thinks I'm a moron, YES, I realize it has a blade in it.  It's the same as the manual mower, but with a tiny little motor in it.)

yes, I scalped it a little

And you have to squeeze the handle to make it cut--because it's a toy--so I think it would be really hard to cut off an appendage.  I think the biggest problem I'll have is keeping the cord out of the way--because it's a vacuum cleaner.  In fact, I'm probably going to call it the yard vacuum, because "lawn mower" is pushing it a little.

The only bad part about it? 

It terrifies my frogs.

he's not too alarmed, because he's up high, but his friends on
the ground were freaking out

Brrr.

As winter is fast approaching, I thought it time to illustrate the situation in which we find ourselves here.  Namely, that we do not have central heating and air-conditioning in our house.  I don't think it's popular here.  Neither is insulation---in general, Japanese houses are constructed in as flimsy a manner as possible so that when an earthquake hits and your house falls on you, you aren't squished flat.

Nor do we have a fireplace.  (I'm not sure if they have those here either, come to think of it....wouldn't want a chimney falling on anyone either....)   But never fear, we probably won't freeze because our house came with an astonishing variety of contraptions to heat it up.  I'm trying not to see this as an ominous sign.

We have five air cons (two downstairs, three upstairs) that are expensive to run but do a good job.  We used them this summer to cool the house (they blow hot or cool air to adjust the temperature) and on all but the hottest days they were able to keep up.  We do only keep them turned on when we are actually in a room which is slightly annoying to keep up with.....and still might put us in the poorhouse this winter.

air con: they also have handy remote controls

We have two oil, correction, gas heaters downstairs.  We had to get a lesson on how to use them, but so far we haven't tried them yet.  Apparently gas is a little pricey too.

oil heater

We have three kerosene heaters which terrify us.  They are very popular here because kerosene is cheap.  And they are supposedly very safe.  Sure.  We also got a lesson on them, but if I know us, we will have to lose a couple of toes to frostbite before we resort to them.  Also, they stink.

death trap kerosene heater
(I can practically see the flames licking up the wall)

We have three wheeled radiator-type doohickeys.  Supposedly they are good to use at night in the bedroom.

doohickey

And just in case that's not enough, we have three small under-the-desk type plug-in heaters. 

heater miscellany

Curiouser and Curiouser

As I am still suffering from horrible jet-lag, (not having a job to go to during the daylight hours hinders recovery--I know, I know, cry me a river ;) I am going to phone in a post I've had on the back-burner for a long time.

Most of the houses in our neighborhood (but not ours) are surrounded by concrete walls that are about, oh, six or seven feet high.   For some reason that is unknown to me, almost everyone has a tiny little door (I would have to hunker down pretty low to go through them if that gives you any idea) built into their wall.  Chad and I disagree as to what is on the other side of the doors; I think it's Wonderland but he thinks it's John Malkovich's mind.

Side note: I asked someone about who owns the paddy fields near our house and was informed that they are the property of small-time local farmers.  I also received what I refer to as the "foreigners-sure-do-ask-ridiculous-questions" look.  I get this look a good bit (along with vague answers and/or laughter) which is why sometimes I just don't ask. 

I also call them the "hobbit doors" in my head

 

 

 

 

Update: Since I wrote this post, I have learned that these are "kitchen doors" that were put into older houses as a place for deliveries to be made.  So there you go.  Mystery solved. :)

Interesting Things About My House

1. Our doorbell has an intercom and video camera. So you can see and talk to your visitors from the living room. (I would totally give this up to have a garbage disposal.)

2. Our downstairs toilet is heated (awesome) and has a bidet (not so awesome). The upstairs toilet is just heated.

3. There are strange compartments under our kitchen floor.

4. My oven has a tray just for cooking/steaming fish. (Unused and likely to stay that way.)

5. You adjust the water temperature with a unit on the wall. One for upstairs, one downstairs.





New Digs

We have a wireless network at our house!  Tokyo D'Esposito is officially open for business.

It's been a long two weeks.  When we arrived it was almost dark at 4:30pm (the sun comes up early and goes down early here - no daylight savings time) and our driver piled us in our car and took off across Tokyo.  It was completely dark when we arrived at our house and all I could see was a maze of a neighborhood and a very urban landscape.  So I pretty much freaked out all night.  Chad won our bet about who would lose it first and I didn't even care.

Good news is that I'm much better now and not freaking out at all.  Not even at the earthquakes. ;)  But more on those later....for now here are some long awaited pictures of our house.

in the light of day

dining room

living room

the kitchen

from the back, across the rice paddy - the one in the middle