A Tour of our Accommodations

Before we left for Japan many people asked us about where we were staying, how big it was going to be, what was provided, etc, etc...  I've decided to provide a picture tour of our place so that everyone can experience our inviting, fully-furnished, homey, basic living environment!  I don't want to seem like we don't like it, we're actually very glad that we choose to live in a larger place, but it is DEFINITELY a minimalist environment, complete will all white walls and birch-colored furnishings.

A view of our living room from the dining room/kitchen.  You can see that there is a sliding partition between the two areas.  We tend to keep this open all the time, but when people come to visit, we can shut it and give them their own room!  ::hint, hint::

The main bathroom is located off of the living room.

The dining room with the main storage behind the table.  This has also become a bit of a dressing room for us, because there is little-to-no closet space in our bedroom.  

The kitchen.  We actually have a dishwasher, an oven, microwave and toaster oven.  Evidently, having an oven is quite the luxury here in Japan, who knew?!

The front entrance and hallway, you can see the kitchen is on the right, the washer/dryer is next to that.  Our bedroom is the only door on the left and there is a tiny bathroom across the hall.

Our bedroom.  We ended up buying a set of sheets (as well as a pillow for me, they only provided one) when we arrived here.  The sheets that were provided were just not doing it for me and we figure that it is an investment in our ability to sleep for the next four months!

Our lone dresser. Yep. That's it.  You can see why most of our things are in the dining room.

Our tiny, tiny bathroom.  There's no mirror and no hot water.

Finally, here is the view from our sliding glass door:
 

It's not great, but we are happy to be on the ground floor.  There is only one elevator in each tower and we've heard the wait can get very long!

So there you have it!  We have yet to see the inside of the other places people are staying here, but I'm interested to see how they differ.  I do know that almost everyone is having to buy some basic kitchen necessities (can opener, spatula, silverware, dishes) because these places have provided very little for us.  We got two place settings, we've heard other people only got one!

In other news, I got pretty sick yesterday. :-( We were actually on our way to see the largest Buddha in Japan when I thought I was going to be sick.  My wonderful husband immediately brought me back to our apartment and took care of me. I felt terrible about missing the group outing, we were supposed to meet some of Tim's coworkers, but I don't think I would have made the trip too fun for everyone else. Thankfully, I am feeling much better today and I'm hoping it was just a 24-hour bug!