Cribs - Japan Style

Yeaaaaaa, we have internet!  Yeaaaaaa, we moved into our house!  Booooooo, we are still using government issued furniture and our stuff won't be here until for another few weeks.  LOL.

Now that we are moved off base and into our new house, the anticipation is killing me as to when our own stuff will arrive.  I'm already bored of the plain white walls and boring government furniture and can't wait to decorate up the house with all our belongings. :)

But, the great news is, we love the house!  As I mentioned, we are living in Zushi, a quiet little beach resort town about 20-25 minutes from base.  We have been having fun exploring the neighborhood and going shopping for some essentials to hold us until our stuff gets here, as well as some new things that were needed in the house.  Now that we have been cooking more, I have been able to shop at the local markets - and the produce and fish/meat is exceptional, and at fairly reasonable prices too.  It has been fun to try new things out - and try to order how many kilos of meat/fish you want! 

Without further ado - here is the official house tour (B.S. - before stuff!)  :)

It was built in 2006, which is very new for Japan, and you can definitely tell when you walk up and down the streets of our neighborhood.  As you will notice from the pictures, the houses are crammed into each other, so it is rare to find a new build.   Only 25% of Japan is livable land, so with a population of 127 million living in an area equivalent of 1/4 the size of California - you know you are going to be close the people around you.   And thus, because of this, most of the land is already used up for housing, so it is very rare to see a new house being built; or new communities popping up around town.  

Alright - moving on: 

Our lovely entrance way.  HUGE closets that I am using for my very expansive shoe collection.  Most Japanese houses have large closets like this in the entrance way, because they do take their shoes off and leave them there, putting on slippers or going barefoot/socks in the house.  It is actually written into the lease that we are not allowed to wear shoes in the house.  

The living/dining room area.  Which is currently also our bedroom.  The Navy would not move a queen size bed up the staircase, so until our own bed gets here and they hoist it up over the balcony, we are basically living in a studio apartment.  :)  And yes, the car parking is so close to the house if you forgot something in the car, you can open the sliding door and reach it without even going outside. ;)  The entire house is hardwood flooring, expect the kitchen and baths which are tile.   The hardwood they use here however, is incredibly soft and even if you drop the littlest thing, it will often make a dent or a mark.  We have to have coasters put under all the furniture so it doesn't make dents. 

The kitchen!  I love how bright it is - I feel like most of the apartments I have lived in, the kitchen is always the darkest room.  Not much counter or cabinet space though - so we bought the shelving unit on the wall by the fridge.  We are going to try out the open cabinet style and see how we like it - maybe it will make an appearance in our future dream kitchen (yes, I watch too much HGTV).  

Now, I have to say - it is a luxury to have this next item in a kitchen in Japan.  I am extremely lucky to have found it.

A DISHWASHER!!  Hard to find in Japan.  And I hate doing dishes.  Thanks for volunteering, Kenny! :)

Japan takes recycling to a whole new level.  Maybe it's just because I didn't recycle at all in the States (except in Michigan, where you could get your 10 cent deposit back), but we need to have FIVE garbage cans to separate everything.  There is trash pick-up every single day of the week.  And, if you don't separate things correctly, your trash gets put back on your doorstep.  We have survived a full week, and no bags returned yet - phew! :)  Here is part of the recycling instruction sheet:

Another thing that is different is that you turn off/on the hot water when you need it.  There is a controller in the kitchen that controls the kitchen and bathroom sink and one in the shower room that controls the shower and bath.  You can adjust how hot you want the water, you can put it on a timer, or just about anything else.  I'm not sure why they have this - my thought is that with so many earthquakes, the less active gas fuses the better.? 

Onto the bathroom - one of the main difference between American and Japanese houses.  The 3 main parts of the bathroom (shower/tub, sink, toilet), are in 3 separate rooms.

The first room is the shower room.  You don't shower in the tub.  You stand next to the tub and shower.  I don't know why, but the first time I used this, I was cracking up laughing the entire time because it was just so funny to me that I was standing in a room that could easily hold 5 people, showering - with a bathtub next to me.  The tub is actually a circulation bathtub - it fills up with water at a certain temperature, and will keep it at that temperature all day if you want it to.  Standard practice here is that the whole family will all share one bathtub of water.   You place a cover over the bathtub, and then shower and cleanse yourself.   Then you get the tub and enjoy a soak.  Then, the next person goes.  For everyone coming to visit us - the visitor does get first crack at the tub ;)  

The toilet room is not even connected to the other parts of the bathroom.  Notice the spout on the top of the toilet?  After you flush, the water that is going to refill the tank comes out of the spout and that is how you wash your hands.  Talk about water conservation.   The Japanese toilet has to be why some people call the toilet a throne.  This is the controller box for the toilet:

You can wash yourself anyplace you like, adjusting the temperature of the water that is washing you and the pressure of the water.  You can control how warm the seat is, and you can make the toilet make flushing noises if you want to cover up other noises that might be going on in the bathroom.  ;)  Fancy. 

Speaking of fancy, everything electronic in the house is powered by a talking remote control, such as the ones below for the main level A/C unit and the hot water.  Our real estate agent had to draw us lots of maps so we know how to control everything.

Okay, going upstairs - the winding staircase:

3 Bedrooms:

1st bedroom - The guest bedroom

2nd Bedroom - Workout/Office Room

3rd bedroom:  Master Bedroom

And - possibly my favorite feature of the house:

The walk-in closet!  :)

Probably my other favorite feature:

Typical yard in Japan:

Probably a good thing our backyard is rocks.  I hate yardwork almost as much as washing dishes and I don't think Kenny is fond of it either.  

So, that's our house!  I will post some A.S. pictures when we get our stuff (After Stuff).  A few more pictures to close this blog post.  

First, this is our street.  It is 2 way traffic.  It's fun.  There are also lots of telephone poles on corners that make turning very entertaining.  Kenny already scratched my car.  Good thing he has his own now which already has a lot of scratches so we won't notice any new ones. :)

Everyone loves McDonald's.  This is a line out the door on a Friday night.  Apparently, they do have some interesting options such as a teriyaki shrimp burger which I might have to try.  

And my latest vending machine find:

Beer anyone?  Why not, it is so convenient.

There are some fun festivals going on this weekend around town that we are planning on going to - more posts later!