Month: June 2008

No, not in that way. I finally have more lights for the pad. I bought another Muji aluminum ring light for the guest bedroom. It is bright! (I think my upstairs neighbors must be playing Wii Fit or Tai-bo. I didn’t think anyone else lived here but I guess I’m wrong. A lot of thumping.). Most lights now are fluorescent lights – I’m trying really hard to get warm lights. Still, the warm lights are a little too bright and a little too cool. I mention “color temperature” to colleagues and they look at me as if I’m speaking Japanese.

Today was more of the same. But a good more of the same. The weather was amazing. Is this really rainy season? Relatively low humidity, nice temperatures, and good day for walking. And walking I did. I feel like the walking lady in my hometown, except I’m not eating ketchup out of a McDonald’s ketchup packet. The Lafayette folks will get my reference – all others just trust me. The morning took me to Tokyu Hands, Muji, and Franc Franc. Conveniently located in one building about 10 minutes from my house. Cool.

Tokyu Hands resulted in a new pot (smallest version – cause I’m cooking so much (NOT!)) and two notebooks for work because we’re too cheap over here to get real supplies. At Franc Franc I got some silk flowers and a vase. No real flowers for me at this point, but I needed something to dress up the place. Muji was supposed to result in the fourth placemat that was missing from the other store. But, darn it all, it was missing at this Muji. So I bought a light. I came home and installed the lamp and ate lunch.

I’ve learned not to put off purchases because styles change quickly here and things become unavailable. As a result, the afternoon was planned so that I could go to the third Muji in two days. I timed it poorly from a train point of view, so I decided to walk to Nagoya Station. About a 20 – 30 minute walk. I’m glad I did because I discovered a funky store my colleague told me about. If I ever need to host a party, I know where to get my supplies! I also stopped at an electronics store … I want to hook up my TV and Airport Express to some speakers. I’m having a hard time finding reasonably priced systems that I would consider using. Sigh.

At Muji 3 for the weekend I found one (and one only) of the placemats I wanted. Phew. To celebrate I bought some throw pillows, coffee / tea mugs, and some nice chopsticks. SOMEONE STOP ME!!!!!

From a consumption point of view, I’m still looking at bicycles (around $200), speakers for the living room, and some dining room light. Will I be done then?

The good news is that I played professional photographer tonight and took some photos of my apartment. I used the highest tech equipment and software I have to photograph my apartment. Aperture and Photoshop help color correct, and the original images are high resolution RAW images. But in the end, it is low res web stuff, so why bother?

I’m pretty excited about how the pictures turned out. I think you get a good idea of the space. Remember that this is with a wide angle lens (28 mm on a 35 mm format camera) so it looks like I have more space than I do.

Here’s looking out of my bedroom towards the living room / dining room with the kitchen in the back. I can literally move walls which I did to get this picture.

Here’s from the hallway looking at the dining room towards the living room. Fancy, huh? Actually pretty cold but I like it!

And here’s my office / sauna. I think I need another computer or two. Not enough power getting consumed.

And finally my bedroom. Check out the space between my bed and the wall. See why I didn’t bother with a dresser? If you have any questions, let me know.

Last Monday night I had a bit of an Ugly American episode. It turns out that I paid 18880 yen (about $180) for a monthly train pass to the wrong final destination. I thought it was right, but we take this little spur train that we never pay for and so I thought that the main train station was adequate for my pass. Turns out it isn’t. So I had to turn in my old pass and they deducted a TON from it, and then they reissued at full price (and a few more days) plus extra for the spur train distance. Say what? I just wanted to pay the difference for the new station but it doesn’t work that way. I told them I thought they had poor customer service. I should have kept my mouth shut but I was frustrated. I went on a long walk after.

Monday I get my alien registration card and try to open a bank account. Wish me luck!

Hmmm, what do I do now? You’ll be happy to know that I am actually doing laundry as we speak. Yes, the journal writing during laundry sessions have commenced. It makes sense actually. You are a little trapped doing laundry, so if I’m just sitting at home I should do something to occupy my time. That is cleaning (next), writing, reading, studying, or surfing the web.

My place is becoming more like my place every minute. Certainly it isn’t finished, but it has reached a livable condition. So now what do I do? Every minute up to now seems to have been consumed with either work (still really busy) or apartment stuff. I still have the apartment stuff but it is significantly less urgent than before.

My couch arrives today – so that means I’m done with the current big ticket items. I don’t really have any near term plans for more. I still have more things to do like lights and trash cans. Trash cans? What is so complicated about trash? Nagoya is ゴミばか or crazy about trash. Here’s a little link. I have to separate everything and put it in a specially colored plastic bag. Then I put it in the special trash area of our building. In our “mail corner” there are all sorts of notes about how everyone is doing their trash incorrectly. The foreigners will get blamed but I’m trying my best. I’ve gotten rid of most my packing material but I still have lots of cardboard!

I’m a bit paralyzed by light purchases. It is a commitment thing. Once they are in, you don’t really change them. Somehow a light is more difficult than a couch!

I’m looking forward to more days where I can just hang out and wonder, “Hmmm, what should I do now.” Clearly I still have life support activities (grocery store, laundry, cleaning) that require my time but that happens anywhere. It just seems that here it takes about 10 times longer because I can’t really read anything. I’m going to go to the big supermarket near Nagoya Station today. At least that’s the plan. Since I bought a monthly train pass that includes Nagoya Station on my route, I can go there using my pass. The pass was expensive (about $180 for one month between my apartment and work – the equivalent of 19.2 days) and it isn’t really that economical. But since I have been working Saturdays and since my route includes Nagoya Station it could pay off in the end.

Today I hope to get laundry done, get to the grocery store, maybe buy a trash can or two, ponder lights, get my couch delivered, organize, and finally get the pictures off of my new camera and in to my computer. Maybe I’ll go to dinner with colleagues as well. That’s a full day!