Once again, I will have a 7/11 on my street. Not just on my street, but only two buildings down from mine.

I lamented the loss of a relatively close 7/11 and then rejoiced when I found one a little closer. Well, how can I be happier unless the Lawson in my building was converted to a 7/11?

I’m not sure if the area needs another 7/11 or convenience store, but I guess someone did. Now I have an ATM just down the street. And two Lawson, and a Circle K.  7/11 is really the only place I can get money other than the post office, so it is nice to have one nearby.

Must come down. That’s right. I used to have a 20 story building across the street from me. This is what the view looked like when I moved in. I had a big white building obscuring the sun from my apartment. You can get a peek-a-boo view below. I mean, why take a picture of the building across the street?

A while ago I got a notice that they would be doing work next door. Apparently it is asbestos abatement (lovely). I figured they would just renovate and open the building up again. Scaffolding went up around the entire building. 20+ floors of scaffolding. It went up amazingly quickly as well.

Over time I noticed a larger scoop / backhoe (I have no idea what it is – it looks like the modern machines in “Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel”) pulverizing stuff on the site. Hmmm. The scaffolding also looked like it was getting shorter and shorter. Which made me wonder, “Are they tearing this building down?” Certainly my bike was covered in enough dust to know that something was happening across the street.

The picture below should answer the question. Indeed, they are tearing the building down.

This happens quite regularly in Japan. To the point where sometimes you are walking along a street and notice an empty lot. Wait, what was there before? Since I’ve lived here, three or four new 15 – 20 story buildings have been built in my neighborhood and at least two have been torn down.

And now, more scaffolding is going up just down the street. What is next for this building? Is it on the demolition list as well? I don’t know, but there are still people working inside.

Nagoya Basho

In other news, the Nagoya Basho has started. This is the annual sumo tournament in Nagoya that I went to last year and the year before. I do not have plans to go this year, although I have some opportunities for tickets and might end up going anyway. There is a big controversy this year linking sumo wrestlers to gambling and organized crime. Oops. NHK, the national network, has threatened not to televise the tournament. I didn’t look at TV today so I don’t know if they are getting true to their threats.
 

The Sound of Summer

I still have not heard my first cicada. Last year and the year before I heard them the same weekend as the sumo tournament. My colleague has stated that he’s heard one already, but I haven’t so I won’t claim it. I know it is summer when they cicadas start buzzing in my ears. That, and when it is horribly humid and hot. It is humid and hot now, just not horribly hot. I was in Tokyo all weekend, so maybe that’s why I missed the buzz.
 

Apple Update

I went to get an iPhone4 this weekend. Or, more appropriately, look at one. I found out that since Tomo and I are on the same plan, we can only order one at a time. So we ordered one for him and the wait is 2 MONTHS!?! Say what? I guess we should have signed up earlier. Maybe I’ll get one, maybe I won’t. I guess it depends on how much longer I am in Japan. I should be able to get by with a 3GS.

I finally bought an ironing board and iron. Before you say, “What?!? Have you been that wrinkled the whole time you’ve been in Japan” let me point out that almost all my shirts I wear to work are Brooks Brothers Non-Iron shirts. That’s not a plug, that’s not a brag, that’s just a fact. As you may have discovered in previous posts I am very brand loyal. That’s why I still use Tide in Japan. Back to my shirts … yes, I finally bought an iron. My ridiculously bad dryer has a tendency to wrinkle almost everything by tying them in knots. I’ve gotten some of the most amazing coupling of clothing out the dryer. My online review of the National NH-D502 – It sucks! I knew that before yet I bought it. My dryer definitely wrinkles things. I noticed my available wearable shirts started reducing over time, and I was tired of wearing the same shirts, so I admitted that it was time to buy an iron and ironing board. I really don’t like ironing, but it is one of the things you have to do on occasion.

Buying an ironing board presents a series of problems in a major metropolitan area when you don’t have a car. First of all, an ironing board is big. In Japan of course they have miniaturized versions of iron boards. However, I am an American, so I need a BIG and TALL ironing board. After consultation with Tomo, I decided to try Bic Camera because they have everything, Tokyu Hands, and maybe Muji (my favorite brand as you know).

When I went to Bic Camera, I was shocked to see the only ironing board available, a typical American style ironing board, was over $100. I know the yen is really strong now, but even if it was weak it would be one heck of an expensive ironing board. Yikes! I had to ask if they had others. They did, as a matter of fact. One was shaped like a torso, and one was kind of a strangely shaped collapsible board American style. The other American style board was only, ONLY, 5400 yen, or about $55. I said I would think about it. Actually, I said something that I thought was equivalent to, “Let me think about it.” Who knows if the translation was literal.

I went to Tokyu Hands and was confronted by the same torso boards and the exact model I saw at Bic Camera for about $10 more. Since Bic Camera has a big selection of irons too, it seemed clear that I had to head back to Bic Camera. Once back at Bic Camera, I requested the board that I had seen before. That is, I tried to request the board. How do you describe an ironing board that isn’t on display to the salesperson in Japanese? The first round I got a lot of Japanese style tabletop iron boards. I had to get creative in my Japanese … but finally he brought out what I wanted.

Bic Camera offered about 30 different irons. More choice, ranging from $9 to over $130. Clearly the $9 iron was out as was the $130 iron. I prefer cordless irons, I guess because I am left-handed and there always seems to be a complication for lefties with irons although right now I can’t figure out the complication because it seems you could arrange you, the board, and the iron to account for being left-handed. Maybe I’m just such an unskilled iron-er that I can’t deal with the cord (after all, I’ve admitted to hating to iron). How did I make my choice? I chose the best seller! Hey, if everybody likes it, it should be good. I got a Panasonic NI0CL406-H. I guess I know what I will be doing tomorrow.

Also, when I was at Bic Camera originally scouting the irons, I recalled that I wanted new cables for my DVD to AV set / television set. My current connection is strange – I got some strange interference in the video when I hooked up the video to the TV and the sound to the AV set? Huh? Checking out the original cables they looked poorly insulated so I thought better cables would help. More money. I bumped into colleagues while I was struggling over just what cable to buy. Luckily my DVD player is carried by Bic so I could check it out. It probably took me 45 minutes to choose the cables. Don’t worry, no pictures here. I hope they work.

Back to the ironing board … an ironing board is not something you can just stick in a bag. I was really kind of embarrassed how ugly the board was and thought, “What the heck, I’ll take a taxi home.” It is a little cold out, and the train station is really busy, and I thought it would be better if I just grabbed a taxi. However, the thought that I could spend $2 on the subway of $10 on a taxi made me say, “Screw it, I am PROUD of my ironing board. I have nothing to be ashamed of. I am a strong, confident male with a rather silly looking ironing board.” I made it home incident free. The entire shopping trip was over two hours.

Later in the evening I went out to get a new stocking cap because I don’t like my current cap. After shopping, my current cap seems a lot nicer. I went to Banana Republic and their knit caps were something like $50 to $100. I kid you not. Wow. I bought a coat at BR (30 years everyone!) in the US and it is about $120 more expensive in Japan. Approximately 40% more.

I think when I get lonely or depressed I make myself go out and shop as something to get me out. I need to make sure that I don’t become a spending prairie fire while I am over here. The past month with my trip to the States, the purchase of a new computer, and the vacation at Hoshinoya, I’m feeling a little out of control. Can I single-handedly take two countries out of recession? I don’t know but I sure am trying.

Who knew that buying an iron would result in over 1000 words.

No, not in that way. I finally have more lights for the pad. I bought another Muji aluminum ring light for the guest bedroom. It is bright! (I think my upstairs neighbors must be playing Wii Fit or Tai-bo. I didn’t think anyone else lived here but I guess I’m wrong. A lot of thumping.). Most lights now are fluorescent lights – I’m trying really hard to get warm lights. Still, the warm lights are a little too bright and a little too cool. I mention “color temperature” to colleagues and they look at me as if I’m speaking Japanese.

Today was more of the same. But a good more of the same. The weather was amazing. Is this really rainy season? Relatively low humidity, nice temperatures, and good day for walking. And walking I did. I feel like the walking lady in my hometown, except I’m not eating ketchup out of a McDonald’s ketchup packet. The Lafayette folks will get my reference – all others just trust me. The morning took me to Tokyu Hands, Muji, and Franc Franc. Conveniently located in one building about 10 minutes from my house. Cool.

Tokyu Hands resulted in a new pot (smallest version – cause I’m cooking so much (NOT!)) and two notebooks for work because we’re too cheap over here to get real supplies. At Franc Franc I got some silk flowers and a vase. No real flowers for me at this point, but I needed something to dress up the place. Muji was supposed to result in the fourth placemat that was missing from the other store. But, darn it all, it was missing at this Muji. So I bought a light. I came home and installed the lamp and ate lunch.

I’ve learned not to put off purchases because styles change quickly here and things become unavailable. As a result, the afternoon was planned so that I could go to the third Muji in two days. I timed it poorly from a train point of view, so I decided to walk to Nagoya Station. About a 20 – 30 minute walk. I’m glad I did because I discovered a funky store my colleague told me about. If I ever need to host a party, I know where to get my supplies! I also stopped at an electronics store … I want to hook up my TV and Airport Express to some speakers. I’m having a hard time finding reasonably priced systems that I would consider using. Sigh.

At Muji 3 for the weekend I found one (and one only) of the placemats I wanted. Phew. To celebrate I bought some throw pillows, coffee / tea mugs, and some nice chopsticks. SOMEONE STOP ME!!!!!

From a consumption point of view, I’m still looking at bicycles (around $200), speakers for the living room, and some dining room light. Will I be done then?

The good news is that I played professional photographer tonight and took some photos of my apartment. I used the highest tech equipment and software I have to photograph my apartment. Aperture and Photoshop help color correct, and the original images are high resolution RAW images. But in the end, it is low res web stuff, so why bother?

I’m pretty excited about how the pictures turned out. I think you get a good idea of the space. Remember that this is with a wide angle lens (28 mm on a 35 mm format camera) so it looks like I have more space than I do.

Here’s looking out of my bedroom towards the living room / dining room with the kitchen in the back. I can literally move walls which I did to get this picture.

Here’s from the hallway looking at the dining room towards the living room. Fancy, huh? Actually pretty cold but I like it!

And here’s my office / sauna. I think I need another computer or two. Not enough power getting consumed.

And finally my bedroom. Check out the space between my bed and the wall. See why I didn’t bother with a dresser? If you have any questions, let me know.

Last Monday night I had a bit of an Ugly American episode. It turns out that I paid 18880 yen (about $180) for a monthly train pass to the wrong final destination. I thought it was right, but we take this little spur train that we never pay for and so I thought that the main train station was adequate for my pass. Turns out it isn’t. So I had to turn in my old pass and they deducted a TON from it, and then they reissued at full price (and a few more days) plus extra for the spur train distance. Say what? I just wanted to pay the difference for the new station but it doesn’t work that way. I told them I thought they had poor customer service. I should have kept my mouth shut but I was frustrated. I went on a long walk after.

Monday I get my alien registration card and try to open a bank account. Wish me luck!

I had a Saturday off! Thursday my boss told me to take Saturday off. Can I argue with that? This time I quickly said, “OK” and took today off. Well, I mean, it IS the weekend after all. I got to catch up with a few people in the morning and then sleep a little bit more. It was so nice to sleep in. Having a two day weekend is kind of like what a three day weekend feels like. I still have all day tomorrow!

First of all, I wasn’t anywhere near the 7.0 earthquake in northern Japan. Don’t worry about me there.

The couch arrived with no complications. It is bigger in the apartment than it was in the store. It is fine – no problem there. It is rather modern. Low and square. It fits the apartment. Some might find the apartment a little cold but I like it. Just need to get some black and white photos on the wall to dress it up a little bit.

As for my monitor and printing … I can happily say that my 23 inch Apple monitor is so darn close to the color test card that I really don’t need to update the color profile. Yeah! We’ll see how the black and white come out but I suspect they should be good.

Today was spent looking for more things I think I need in the apartment. First and foremost on the list were toiletries. I needed shampoo, toothpaste, and shaving cream. I have determined that I have very extreme brand loyalty. If I find something I like I just don’t deviate. At all. I brought two brand new tubs of Sebastian Molding Mud with me so I wouldn’t run out. Unfortunately L’Occitane in Japan does not sell shaving cream. Arm and Hammer do not seem to be present in the dental market here. And you can forget the usual shampoo. I think I shopped for about 1 hour in a specialty store just trying to find the things that I buy without even a thought in the US. Try to find deodorant in Japan. I don’t think I have!

I got a little seat for my shower / tub. Very Japanese. On the weekends I can take a leisurely shower sitting as if I’m at an onsen. It is really quite effective. If I did that on weekdays I’d never make the train. I also got a humidity gauge and thermometer for my office. It gets hot in here and so I’m trying to determine if I should turn on the AC. I bought lots of little things to help organize the office (mail sorter, coin boxes, bookends, …) I added coffee mugs and some placemats and coasters to the kitchen. And I finally bought another light! It is very simple. An aluminum ring with a white globe. Muji of course. I’ll buy one more light for the guest room. I need to decide what to get. Hopefully tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Well, I’m out of energy. Maybe more tomorrow.

Hmmm, what do I do now? You’ll be happy to know that I am actually doing laundry as we speak. Yes, the journal writing during laundry sessions have commenced. It makes sense actually. You are a little trapped doing laundry, so if I’m just sitting at home I should do something to occupy my time. That is cleaning (next), writing, reading, studying, or surfing the web.

My place is becoming more like my place every minute. Certainly it isn’t finished, but it has reached a livable condition. So now what do I do? Every minute up to now seems to have been consumed with either work (still really busy) or apartment stuff. I still have the apartment stuff but it is significantly less urgent than before.

My couch arrives today – so that means I’m done with the current big ticket items. I don’t really have any near term plans for more. I still have more things to do like lights and trash cans. Trash cans? What is so complicated about trash? Nagoya is ゴミばか or crazy about trash. Here’s a little link. I have to separate everything and put it in a specially colored plastic bag. Then I put it in the special trash area of our building. In our “mail corner” there are all sorts of notes about how everyone is doing their trash incorrectly. The foreigners will get blamed but I’m trying my best. I’ve gotten rid of most my packing material but I still have lots of cardboard!

I’m a bit paralyzed by light purchases. It is a commitment thing. Once they are in, you don’t really change them. Somehow a light is more difficult than a couch!

I’m looking forward to more days where I can just hang out and wonder, “Hmmm, what should I do now.” Clearly I still have life support activities (grocery store, laundry, cleaning) that require my time but that happens anywhere. It just seems that here it takes about 10 times longer because I can’t really read anything. I’m going to go to the big supermarket near Nagoya Station today. At least that’s the plan. Since I bought a monthly train pass that includes Nagoya Station on my route, I can go there using my pass. The pass was expensive (about $180 for one month between my apartment and work – the equivalent of 19.2 days) and it isn’t really that economical. But since I have been working Saturdays and since my route includes Nagoya Station it could pay off in the end.

Today I hope to get laundry done, get to the grocery store, maybe buy a trash can or two, ponder lights, get my couch delivered, organize, and finally get the pictures off of my new camera and in to my computer. Maybe I’ll go to dinner with colleagues as well. That’s a full day!

Well, I wanted to take you on a tour of my place.

Here’s what you see when you first walk in …

Looking good. When you turn around, you get the typical beautiful Japanese front door …

But … look at all the closets there! Lots of places for shoes. I guess I need to buy some shoes. Just to the right side is the toilet.

The seat is heated. To the left when you walk in is the master bedroom that I am using for storage. Then comes the powder room and the shower / tube.

They don’t look that big but they are good sized for a Japanese place. Out of the picture is the space for my washer and dryer.

Next comes the fuller view of the living room / dining room, with my office off to the early left and my bedroom at the far end.

The wide angle lens make it look bigger than it is.

Here’s the office:

And here’s the bedroom:

Then as you step onto the balcony …

Not bad, huh? Finally, here is the space completely violated by boxes:

Honest to blog, it has been a lot of work today. (“Honest to blog” is a phrase Tomo has started using from “Juno”). I have my apartment, as y’all know. It is been 9 years since I really tried to make a house. Sheesh, it is a lot of work.

I went to the office on Saturday morning, but Saturday afternoon I had scheduled delivery of all my purchased things. My colleague offered to help ferry some things from the hotel to the apartment. What a great help. I really appreciated that. There are definitely some nice folks at work. Thanks MJ.

I would LOVE to show you pictures of my new place. As a matter of fact, they are in my camera. But I can’t seem to find my cable to connect it to the computer. Darn! I’ll look again tomorrow at the apartment. Anyway, I have some pictures of my pristine apartment and the craziness that it is now.

Once of the nice things about delivery in Japan is that usually the stores have the delivery folks assemble the item you purchased and then they remove the trash. I didn’t really realize how much packing material is used. Wow. So Furniture Dome was the first to arrive. Bed, mattress, duvet$$, pillows, nightstand, TV board, dining room table. I caught them assembling my bed with the headboard backwards. But … we got that turned around. Literally. The mattress was a little taller than the demo mattress so with the mattress and the pillows it is kind of hard to see the design of the bed. But I like it.

Next came the Tokyu Hands office furniture. That, unfortunately, was delivered as boxes. Honest to blog, there is a LOT of cardboard. I’ve been working over the last two days trying to build up that stuff. I am generating so much cardboard waste. Nagoya is crazy about trash, so I can’t recycle that with the regular recycling. I have to do something special with it. So it is gonna pile up in the guest room until I figure out how to get rid of it. I’m the least excited about the office furniture. I’m not sure how I want to arrange it. I have tables, chairs, a file cabinet, and book shelves. I could have done without the file cabinet. I’ll figure something out.

Next Eiden came with the refrigerator, washer, dryer, TV, and microwave. See, I really did get all this stuff planned for the same day. Pretty darn efficient. For those that miss my laundry stories, well, I did do a load of laundry. Eiden set up all the appliances as well and removed the boxes. I had them leave the TV box though so I can easily ship it. My TV has about a zillion channels but I can’t tell if there is a special weekend of free cable because I had everything. I kept getting an info box that looked like they were running some campaign so we’ll see later what the story is.

Finally, BoConcept delivered my dining room chairs. To quote Borat, “Verry Niiiccce.” Until I started tearing into everything it looked really good. I bought a duvet cover (thanks Mugi) washed it (ha!), and made the bed. It looked really nice for about 5 minutes. Then I started building up stuff. I only had the light from the living room at the time, so I was working in the dark. Anyway, got started.

Today I learned how difficult it is to run errands and buy big things without a car. This morning before I went to the apartment I bought dishes. Those were heavy! So I took a taxi with three heavy bags and dumped them in my kitchen untouched. But I wanted to get as much as I could since it is so hard to actually get to shops after work. I bought some tools as well. I wanted to get some chair mats, but apparently they were sold out. After much bad Japanese, I was able to get them to call another store and but two on hold there.

Once I got to the apartment, I started working on breaking down the cardboard. Then I kept building. Around 3:00 pm I went to lunch and got the chair mats and curtains for every room as well as shears for my room. I won’t buy custom curtains here, so the size doesn’t really work. So be it – it is what it is. I dumped that at the apartment and then went BACK to Nagoya station and bought an overhead light (and some power strips) for the office. I went BACK to the apartment, dumped that, and then went to the Apple Store and bought my new monitor ( ), some speakers, and an Airport Express. Once again, on Saturday I had Visa issues, so it was all cash except for things reimbursed by work. I caught a taxi back home (it is walkable to the Apple Store but not burdened with a monitor … do you hear that Ben, WALKABLE to the Apple Store!).

Once I got back home I hung the light, and kept working. I hung the shears and decided I liked it in combo with the curtains. Then I ran out of time.

Now I’m going to concentrate on getting the curtains up, getting everything built, and getting the kitchen clean. Then at least the place is livable. Only when I have internet will it really seem livable!

It is going to be nice. As long as I don’t look at my bank account.

Yeah! I got the keys to my apartment today. Everything went without a hitch. I was starting to freak out and wonder if I had made a mistake. After all, 800 sq ft with three bedrooms was seeming smaller and smaller and smaller. I started wondering if it was going to be a rotten place, and uncomfortable to live. After all, I had not seen it since April 8 or whatever day I first went apartment hunting (and the only day I went apartment hunting).

I am happy to report that I think I made the right decision. The apartment is really nice. Indeed it is small, but not at all small by Japanese standards. As a matter of fact, I’m sure calling it small would be offensive to many people. It is certainly more than enough for me. It has all mod cons as well. Heated floor, nice bathroom with real tile, a travertine entry way. AC in two rooms, a modern kitchen, some recessed lighting, and even a dishwasher (that I didn’t know … really not important to me but I have it). There is even a special box for residents when they receive large packages, so you don’t have to be home for that.

I am going to be very comfortable there. The noise from the street below is detectable, but remember I live near an airport and a fire station in LA, so what’s some street noise?

I’m really excited to be getting my furniture on Saturday. Yippee!!!! I’ll try to get some pictures and post them ASAP. Then Sunday will be filled with further purchases to minimally complete the place (lamps, drapes, duvet cover, etc). What a nice feeling.

Well, it looks like I was able to move up my apartment key date to May 22. That is quite convenient and the timing works out well with my work schedule. The only problem is Tomo is unavailable that weekend. He has to work. Bummer.