Showing posts with label home. Show all posts
Showing posts with label home. Show all posts
Friday, July 17, 2009
cable damage
So many stories, so little time! The cable guy broke the molding as he was going into our attic last week...15 minutes later there were SEVEN Japanese men in our house taking pictures and writing up a report! The best part is I didn't have to point out that they broke it, no arguing about it being their responsibility to fix it, I didn't say a word (mostly because they couldn't understand me anyway) and they scheduled a repairman to fix the molding and wallpaper!
Let's talk trash!
Garbage - how much can you say about it, right?! Well, explaining the intricacies of the Japanese trash system could take hours. They take recycling to an entirely new level. Since Japan is such a small country they don't have large areas for landfills which makes recycling a necessity and it's mandatory if you live in town. Trash is picked up 5 days a week here and rather than coming to each person's house, there are community trash cages. Ours is only 3 houses down which is nice since you take out trash every day. The major categories are burnable (food, paper, etc...), plastic, nonburnable, and PET containers (cans, bottles, metal lids).
Which is why we have FOUR trash cans in our kitchen! Not to mention there is "group recycling" for items like wrapping paper, newspapers, cardboard, books, milk cartons, toilet paper tubes, and several other items that I've forgotten. Not fully clear on this, but community groups recycle these particular items. The major categories are required to be in clear trash bags, while toilet paper tubes and wrapping paper must be in paper bags with handles. Newspapers, cardboard, milk cartons can NOT be in bags, but instead must be tied with string. So, everything you see in the picture above is necessary just for our trash!
Now, only one category is picked up each day, so the calendar on the left shows what will be collected on any given day. The brochure on the right is a 10 page guide to ensure you put your trash in the appropriate category...for example, where would a chip bag go? (plastics), how about individual pizza boxes with the silver lining? (burnable), and a water bottle? (bottles, but the plastic lid goes in plastics). There are so many rules and exceptions to the rule that I could never list them all...but don't forget that in all categories except burnable items must be clean before throwing them away! (I think this is my absolute FAVORITE part...washing my trash!)
Now, only one category is picked up each day, so the calendar on the left shows what will be collected on any given day. The brochure on the right is a 10 page guide to ensure you put your trash in the appropriate category...for example, where would a chip bag go? (plastics), how about individual pizza boxes with the silver lining? (burnable), and a water bottle? (bottles, but the plastic lid goes in plastics). There are so many rules and exceptions to the rule that I could never list them all...but don't forget that in all categories except burnable items must be clean before throwing them away! (I think this is my absolute FAVORITE part...washing my trash!)The kicker to all of this is that if you put something in the wrong category they won't take your trash -which I'm assuming is why you have to put everything in clear bags. They leave a yellow flier on the bag telling you what you did wrong, only it's in Japanese. Most people say their neighbors will bring it to them and tell them what they did wrong, but as far as I know none of my neighbors speak English so this could get interesting! So far they've taken them all, WHEW!
Friday, July 10, 2009
Our home
A lot has happened since the last time I wrote! We moved into our house, Shane left to meet the ship, and I'm trying to get us settled in. We moved in on July 1st and Shane had to leave on the 3rd so it was a very hectic few days. I miss him terribly and wish he could come home, but under the circumstances I'm dealing pretty well. 
This is our home!!! We decided to live in town rather than on base to get the full experience here and I'm soooo happy with our decision! It certainly comes with some, um learning curves that don't exist in housing, but it's all part of the experience. For example, renters insurance, cable, internet, gas, etc...just imagine what it's like setting everything up when you move...then imagine if the people setting it up don't speak english! Oh, and the manuals (and bills) for everything are also in Japanese...some of the companies have english manuals, the cable company for example has a 5 page english guide. Funny though, the Japanese version is 50 pages, think there's anything lost in translation?! The only thing recognizable on bills is your name and (possibly) the amount you owe in Yen. We got our first bill in the mail last week, it was addressed to "Shame Price"! 
As you can see, houses are very close together here. We love that we're at the end of the street and back up to a wooded-hill area so we have some privacy.
You may have heard that the Japanese take their shoes off at the door. I didn't realize just how serious they are about this until we signed our rental contract and had to agree that we would not wear shoes in the house! It's actually in the contract! Conveniently there's a huge shoe closet by the door. The owner even left slippers for us to wear in the house!
There's something about this picture that I simply love. Maybe it's the site of our stuff that we haven't seen in over 4 months (every time you move with the Navy your belongings are packed into these wooden crates and you pray they show up on the other side.) Maybe it's the view of Japan from the front of our house. My absolute favorite part though is the expression on Shane's face - a funny combination of exasperation and amusement that I'm taking a picture rather than focusing on the movers.
This is the least amount of cabinet space I've ever had in a kitchen! You're seeing all of it in this one picture!
Which of course meant I had to make a trip to Homes (it's similar to Home Depot) where I sucessfully purchased and assembled the metal shelving you see here! Simple right? Well, as I'm quickly learning here everything is an adventure. First I had to convert from cm to inches so I knew what size I needed (I also took a tape measure to be sure). Then I had to ask someone for help because the size I needed wasn't there - lots of pointing and hand motions were involved. While the lady was searching in the back a manager walked by and thought I needed help even though I was trying to have a I'm-completely-content face. Since he didn't speak English he brought two other ladies over to help, but I couldn't get across to them that I was already being helped. Fortunately she came back with my shelf and they understood what I was trying to tell them. Luckily assembly was easy and tada - I've more than doubled our kitchen storage!
As you can see, we are clearly moved in but NOT unpacked! I'm making progress though, just need to keep up the motivation!
One of our toilets...yes, that's a sink on top for washing your hands. Anyone else a little grossed out by this? It also has a seat warmer and two water features that are unrelated to the sink...I'll just live it at that.
Our shower/bathtub room...the shower is for cleaning, bathtub is for soaking only. I haven't tried the tub yet, but it has some kind of circulation system that keeps the water hot as long as you want. Due to this system no soap, shampoo, bubble bath, etc... in the tub. I'm not really clear how it works though...the faucet is in the shower area and there's no visible spout in the tub...I've also been told that if you turn on the heater/circulator when it isn't filled with water it will break it...there's a digital pad on the wall that works the tub but I'm afraid to start pressing buttons so I guess I'm going to fill the tub using the shower sprayer and then start experimenting!
Last but not least, the tatami room!!! The straw mats on the floor are called tatami mats. The window/door have the traditional paper covering. I think this room is beautiful!
This is our home!!! We decided to live in town rather than on base to get the full experience here and I'm soooo happy with our decision! It certainly comes with some, um learning curves that don't exist in housing, but it's all part of the experience. For example, renters insurance, cable, internet, gas, etc...just imagine what it's like setting everything up when you move...then imagine if the people setting it up don't speak english! Oh, and the manuals (and bills) for everything are also in Japanese...some of the companies have english manuals, the cable company for example has a 5 page english guide. Funny though, the Japanese version is 50 pages, think there's anything lost in translation?! The only thing recognizable on bills is your name and (possibly) the amount you owe in Yen. We got our first bill in the mail last week, it was addressed to "Shame Price"! 
As you can see, houses are very close together here. We love that we're at the end of the street and back up to a wooded-hill area so we have some privacy.
You may have heard that the Japanese take their shoes off at the door. I didn't realize just how serious they are about this until we signed our rental contract and had to agree that we would not wear shoes in the house! It's actually in the contract! Conveniently there's a huge shoe closet by the door. The owner even left slippers for us to wear in the house!
There's something about this picture that I simply love. Maybe it's the site of our stuff that we haven't seen in over 4 months (every time you move with the Navy your belongings are packed into these wooden crates and you pray they show up on the other side.) Maybe it's the view of Japan from the front of our house. My absolute favorite part though is the expression on Shane's face - a funny combination of exasperation and amusement that I'm taking a picture rather than focusing on the movers.
This is the least amount of cabinet space I've ever had in a kitchen! You're seeing all of it in this one picture!
Which of course meant I had to make a trip to Homes (it's similar to Home Depot) where I sucessfully purchased and assembled the metal shelving you see here! Simple right? Well, as I'm quickly learning here everything is an adventure. First I had to convert from cm to inches so I knew what size I needed (I also took a tape measure to be sure). Then I had to ask someone for help because the size I needed wasn't there - lots of pointing and hand motions were involved. While the lady was searching in the back a manager walked by and thought I needed help even though I was trying to have a I'm-completely-content face. Since he didn't speak English he brought two other ladies over to help, but I couldn't get across to them that I was already being helped. Fortunately she came back with my shelf and they understood what I was trying to tell them. Luckily assembly was easy and tada - I've more than doubled our kitchen storage!
As you can see, we are clearly moved in but NOT unpacked! I'm making progress though, just need to keep up the motivation!
One of our toilets...yes, that's a sink on top for washing your hands. Anyone else a little grossed out by this? It also has a seat warmer and two water features that are unrelated to the sink...I'll just live it at that.
Our shower/bathtub room...the shower is for cleaning, bathtub is for soaking only. I haven't tried the tub yet, but it has some kind of circulation system that keeps the water hot as long as you want. Due to this system no soap, shampoo, bubble bath, etc... in the tub. I'm not really clear how it works though...the faucet is in the shower area and there's no visible spout in the tub...I've also been told that if you turn on the heater/circulator when it isn't filled with water it will break it...there's a digital pad on the wall that works the tub but I'm afraid to start pressing buttons so I guess I'm going to fill the tub using the shower sprayer and then start experimenting!
Last but not least, the tatami room!!! The straw mats on the floor are called tatami mats. The window/door have the traditional paper covering. I think this room is beautiful!
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