Nippon no katei seikatsu

So let me explain a little bit (what little bit I know so far anyways) about domestic life in Japan.

Tatami Mat Floor Apartment

Japan is known for its fantastic use of space.  Standard apartments are usually one room (some with a sliding partition) and a small kitchen and bath area.  Traditional style apartments have woven tatami mat floors and this is the unit of measurement instead of say, "square feet"- you would say "its a 6 tatami mat room" or something like that.  The average size is about 183sqft which makes my downtown Artshare living look luxurious.

When you apply for an apartment in Japan you pay a large deposit AND something called key money.  Its very rare that you ever get any of that money back.  You also pay first and last months rent.  A cool thing is that you can pay all your bills at the 7-11!

One annoying thing about Japanese apartments is that they literally come with NOTHING in them.  You have to buy your fridge, stove, A/C, etc.  Any appliances you must buy and they aren't keen on 2nd hand items so sometimes this can be expensive. But sometimes as a foreigner you can find people leaving the country that just want to get rid of their stuff because it costs money to dispose of large things...which leads me to another thing that I'm trying to get used to: sorting trash.

You have to buy special color coded bags in Japan and sort the shit out of your trash.  Red bags are for burnable garbage like food scraps, non-recyclable papers, cardboard, etc.  Blue is for recyclable items- each type must go in its own bag: PET bottles, plastic, paper and glass.  Green is for something else. And, almost EVERYTHING in Japan is recyclable, which is awesome, but sorting the trash takes time- cutting the boxes up, rinsing things out, separating paper stickers from plastic food wrap, etc.  

typical trash bag

Even trash bags in Japan can be cute

Depending where you live you have to drop off the bags at different recycle centers on certain days by certain times, but not too far in advance.  Otherwise, you can drop off bags the day of, before 7am or 8am in this cage thing.  I guess there's a huge crow issue with the garbage.  If you have it sorted wrong or put the wrong color out on the wrong day, they leave it with a big message for you.  

I didn't know my days until yesterday, and had tons of garbage just hanging out having a rotting party in my kitchen.  Awesomepants!

And, they don't take electronics or anything besides what goes in the bags.  You have to arrange for a special pick-up that costs money.  

So my apartment is a modern Japanese apartment with a security entrance, front and back balcony (with built in clothes drying racks), hardwood floors and a little sleeping loft.  There's no storage, two shelves and I can't nail anything to the walls.  I have a one burner kitchen with no counter space, and a toilet separated from the washing area.  I'm saying washing area because my whole bathroom is plastic.  It has a sliding door, plastic walls, plastic floor and the sink is halfway in the shower.  The bathtub walls are about 2 or 3 times higher than in the States.  The shower head is connected to the sink, and you have to twist a knob (That's what she said) to change the flow of water from the sink faucet to the shower head.  

When I asked for a shower rod and curtain, I felt stupid.  I was informed that Japanese people a) don't put the mat in the bathroom, but outside and b) don't shower in the tub.  The bath is only used to relaxed not for cleaning, and so you step out of the bath area and shower standing up in the rest of the bathroom.  I mean, looking now, it makes sense- there's a drain in the floor by the sink.  There is also a very low seated soap dish under the sink that keeps me perplexed as to its purpose.  Sometimes I picture Cleo lathering up a bar of soap down there getting so fresh and so clean. 

Oh! That's another thing- in Japan I think you can't have animals unless you have a big enough place, or else its considered animal cruelty.  Kinda cool, kinda sucky.  There are two stray cats that hang out by the bike rack and I want to take them inside so bad.  The cats here are smaller, and have round faces.  I guess people do resemble their pets.  OH SNAP.  No, but really, the cats are ADORE. 

Japanese Business Cat

Back to the apartment.  So the toilets have little faucets on top of them (and what a bummer I don't have an electric toilet seat that warms my bum or makes fake flushing noises to hide farts or the sound of plopping turds).  Call me crazy, but I can't bring myself to wash my hands in the toilet faucet.  

So, a week in, and I'm waiting for my washer and a chance to get a table.  The cardboard box is working ok now, but I feel like moving on up soon. 

 Here's a video of my apartment. Come in, and take off your shoes.

But watch at your own risk, its more "Cloverfield" and less "Forrest Gump"