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Things I Did Not Expect about the Apartment

July 11th, 2007

Now that we’ve been living here for ten days, there are a few impressions of the place I figured I’d share.

  1. The Size. Honestly, I felt it would be bigger. It’s 73m2, which is just 11m2 less than my Inagi place. But the hallway eats up a lot of that space. I dunno, maybe they’re counting the balcony in that as well?
  2. The Bathroom Door. You swing it shut and let go, and it closes perfectly, ending with a firm but quiet click. They couldn’t have balanced it better.
  3. Lamp Switch Tags. They put the TV, phone and Internet jacks in one side of the room, but the switch which turns that light on is labeled “Dining Room.” The other end of the room, devoid of any media outlets but with a wide bay-window view perfect for a dining table, is labeled “Living Room.” Hello?
  4. Mirror Defogging. The mirror outside the bath/shower has a heated defogging mechanism; the mirror inside the shower doesn’t. Somebody call an electrician–they got that reversed, too.
  5. Easily Maintained Kitchen. At first I fretted about the usability of an all-electric kitchen–I’m still not sure how well I’ll be able to cook popcorn, it’s hard to find the right pot that’ll work with the electric “burners.” But it’s a dead cinch to keep clean. Just wait for it to cool and wipe it all down. Sweet.
  6. 24-hour Supermarkets. I have found no fewer than three within easy walking distance of the apartment now. One on our building’s 1st floor; another, Seiyu, on the other side of Sunshine City; and one more, Maruetsu, down Kasuga Boulevard a bit. That said, I thought I’d be using them a lot more during the odd hours of the night. Not yet, but it’s still early.
  7. Convenience Stores Galore. Just how many can you pack into a neighborhood? It’s pretty astounding, really. Just Family Mart alone counts for a dozen stores within ten minute’s walking distance, mostly between us and the station. They seem more ubiqutous here than vending machines, fer chrissakes. Or would be, if there weren’t stupendous numbers of vending machines, especially when packed in groups of a dozen or more all along one side of a building along a block.
  8. Soft “Hardwood” Floors. I was surpised how easily they could be dented in by the rollers on my computer chair. They seem more like soft plastic than hard wood.
  9. Elevator Quirks. It doesn’t take too long to wait for one to arrive, usually–not too surprising with three servicing each floor. All too often there’s one on the first floor and one on a higher floor. But if one is coming your way, push the button quick–if you push the call button when it is less than five floors away, it won’t stop for you, even though you pressed the button about three seconds in advance.
  10. Balcony Cleaning. I thought the windows would be hard to keep clean and the balcony floor easy. Strike that: reverse it.
  11. Layout Hiccups. I thought that my furniture layout plan for the place would need revising; it only took a few tries on the computer to lay out the furniture the way I thought would work, in advance. And whaddaya know: it does. We’re doing wonderfully with stuff laid out the way it is. Cool.

One other thing–these places tend to frown on drilling holes in the wall, though they gave us a wall cradle for the air conditioner remote control which has to be drilled into a wall. More to the point, I need to ask them about drilling into walls to secure furniture in preparation for an earthquake–otherwise a couple of my cabinets are going to fall rather heavily onto my computer chair.

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  1. Andy
    July 11th, 2007 at 11:49 | #1

    Luis-

    How high are your ceilings?

  2. Luis
    July 11th, 2007 at 11:56 | #2

    Andy:

    230 cm (7′ 6″)in the kitchen and hallway, and 260 cm (8′ 6″) in the bedrooms and living/dining room. Not bad.

  3. July 11th, 2007 at 23:32 | #3

    I think you’re supposed to use the sorts of braces that hold high pieces in place. Amazon has them at: tinyurl.com/yo42m5.

    They look pretty crappy but you don’t have to drill holes in the walls. Sachi could probably place some decorative objects on any shelves in such a way as to mask the braces and they’re not all that pricey.

  4. Luis
    July 12th, 2007 at 00:00 | #4

    Hey, those actually look pretty good. I have stuff stored on top of the dressers as well, so they could even act as bookends of a sort. I’ll probably order a set, soon. Thanks!

    One question, though–on Amazon, it’s not clear to me whether you order one per 1500 yen, or is that a set of two? It looks like they’re sold singly, but that doesn’t make much sense, since they should be used in pairs…

  5. July 12th, 2007 at 00:24 | #5

    I believe they are sold in pairs. This part of the description seems to indicate that:

    ?????

    * ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????200kg?
    * 2?

    Mind you, my Japanese is pretty bad but even I can read “ni hon”. 😉

  6. July 12th, 2007 at 02:31 | #6

    Yep… Ni-hon it is. So I’ll get two sets.

  7. ykw
    July 12th, 2007 at 03:21 | #7

    The mirror in the shower may be near water, and they may not want to mix water and electricity and a person, for of killing the fellow shampooing his hair.

  8. Luis
    July 12th, 2007 at 09:24 | #8

    YKW: They do just fine putting an electrically-charged panel in the same room to control water heating. Just set the mirror snugly against the wall and have a hermetically sealed heating element resting against it.

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