I’ve been living in this apartment for about three and a half years now, which, now that I think of it, is the longest time I have lived anywhere since I left the students dormitory to move abroad.
Anyway, finally after all these years, I have gotten tired of the state of my genkan. The genkan is the entrance to a Japanese home, it is usually very small and a little bit lower than the rest of the house or apartment. It is considered somewhere between the inside and the outside, and the place for people to take off their shoes.
Talking about shoes… I’m a woman. I love shoes. And even though I only have 30 pairs of shoes altogether (which means I’m practically walking barefoot), they do take up a lot of space. So far, I have put the ones in season in the genkan for easy access, the others were stored away out of sight. Well, easy access… with 15 pairs of shoes, things do get a bit tight and messy in a small entrance. But last week, I’ve finally had enough: I went to the Nitori and bought a shoe rack!
And it was delivered yesterday. At first I thought Nitori was just a Japanese version of IKEA, and in a way it is, with a subtle difference: The furniture comes almost assembled, and if you pay for delivery (only 1000 yen), it will be put up for you. So, when the two delivery men came yesterday around noon, they unpacked the shoe rack and put it right where I wanted it. All I had to do was to put in the shelves at the right position – and to apologise profusely for not having an elevator to get into my 5th floor…
Anyway, this is my genkan, before and after shoe rack: I am very pleased with the result, my entrance is now less cluttered and much easier to clean, and: I could fit almost all of my shoes into it! So: another room finished after office, kitchen, and bedroom. The biggest room is still a “work in progress” though: my livingroom. I’m getting somewhere with it though: A couple of months or so back I finally installed curtains. You see, I am indeed settling down!