Our Apartment

For those of you that are curious I thought I would share about our living situation in Japan. As many of you know we are spectacularly fortunate to have been placed in the city. Our apartment it one train stop  from the city center which is about a 15 minute bike ride. We have a "Wester Style" apartment which means we have hard wood floors instead of the traditional tatami mats. 

The Entry Way- all outdoor shoes must be removed before stepping up onto the wood floors. there is conveniently a shoe cupboard for shoe storage and a place to set keys and mail.

After turning right, there is a short hallway which holds the shower/wash room. In Japan the toilet and the washing areas are always separated. Our sink and shower head use the same pipe so you can either be using the sink or the shower but not both at the same time. There are no shower curtains or doors inside the washroom, it functions as a giant wet room because of the drain in the floor.

After going through a door that separates the entry hall from the rest of the apartment you reach the toilet room. All it contains is the toilet but there is a unique feature that most Japanese toilets have; a tiny sink that drains into the toilet holding tank. the idea is that you wash your hands after flushing and the hand washing water is used for the next flush, therefore saving water. it is incredibly convenient! 

 This is the main living area the door on the right is the toilet room door. we are currlnt sleeping in this area because it is the coolest part of the house. Our futons (traditional Japanese beds) are on the flattened out couch which is made specifically for this purpose. We have a tiny TV that has 2 Japanese news channels and shopping channels. None of which we yet understand, but the commercials are very entertaining! The large curtains are the door out to the patio which holds our washing machine and clothes drying area. The small table on the floor is a kotasu http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kotatsu I am very excited to use it when it gets cold. Th the right of the kotasu is a very steep set of stairs, its really more like a ladder that leads to a loft area.

Outside the patio doors is our small patio which holds the air conditioner fan and the washing machine. Here is the view form the patio, a beautiful Japanese garden.

From this perspective, standing by the patio doors, you can see the loft area and the entrance into the kitchen. The loft is big enough to stand up in and has a lot of room. we will eventually use the space for more than holding our suitcases but for now it gets WAY too hot up there. 

 This is a good picture of the kitchen area. you can see the pantry shelves on the left as well as the toaster oven, rice cooker, fridge, and dish cabinet. on the right is a little table/peninsula and then the cooking/washing station.  The area is very small and im still figuring out how to make it work.

This is a close up of the cooking/washing station. Its is sooo much smaller than any kitchen I have ever cooked in. It is taking some time to adjust. particularly to only having one (electric) cooking burner.

Here is another perspective of the kitchen from the stove area. You can see how it opens up to the living area.

Aside form the kitchen which will take some getting used to the apartment is working great for us. We have plenty of space for all of of things and don't feel to cramped. If you have any questions about the space leave comment below!