Abode

After more than a month of search and rejection (both on my and on the owner’s side) it finally worked: I found a wonderful apartment fulfilling all requirements – and the owner likes me too! Yesterday, I signed the contract, and now… I have to wait again: for the owner to sign and for my guarantor to sign. If everything runs smoothly, I can get the keys next Wednesday and then start to move in, getting gas, electricity, water, and internet. And buying furniture and a futon and a rice cooker and…

This is my new apartment: In Japan this is called a 3LDK – one combined living/dining room/kitchen and three independent rooms with sliding doors that can be fully opened. The green rooms have tatami straw mats, the LDK in the middle has a hard floor. The red thing is the genkan entrance area where you must take off your shoes. The blue part is the bathroom area and white are the two balconies, the hallway, and the built-in closets, one for each room. The room sizes are given in tatami – which are much smaller than in my house now – and altogether the place has 60 m^2 or so.

The building is from the mid-seventies and lacks an elevator, and as I said in last week’s post, both kitchen and bathroom would benefit from renovation… But the whole thing appears clean and well maintained, and the place has everything I was looking for.

I can’t wait to move in. I have already started cleaning my room here, tossing things (mostly paper, again) and thinking of how to arrange the move in the smoothest possible way. I’ll keep you posted!