|
We live on the 2nd floor in a 3 floor apartment building with other foreigners who mostly work for NOVA. Below is a look at the street where we live... you can't see our apartment from here, but the entrance to it is after the white car on the right. We live in a very nice neighbourhood. Apparently it is a fairly affluent area (we kinda guessed that considering all the expensive BMW's, Volvo's, Mercedes', and Lexus' parked in every other driveway). It is about a 15 minute walk to the closest train station but a 5 minute bike ride to a more convenient station. 
Pretty trees at a nearby home. We feel really comfortable in our apartment and are thankful that it is quite large. We have sufficient storage closets in each of the Tatami Mat rooms, and only wish we had more shelving units to put our junk on. A bookshelf of some kind will probably be our next purchase.
Our kitchen isn't the greatest, but we're surviving. It's quite difficult to think creatively without having an oven. Our microwave and toaster oven have been life-savers! If you have any good recipe ideas... send them our way.
We do enjoy watching TV occasionally, but it can get frustrating after a while of not understanding what people are saying. Every once in a while we'll catch clips of English news or programs, but it's very rare. Allison really enjoys this particular Home Renovation program where the renovating team joins with a Japanese housewife to surprise her husband with the home's new look after he arrives home from work that evening. It's very amusing to watch the husband's reaction!! However, she does wish she knew what he was saying.
We're very thankful for the video store around the corner... they have a pretty good selection of English videos for rent. It's a great stress reliever to pop in a movie every now and then. Also, a big thanks to JUDY (mom) for sending us video tapes with English programs! Yippie. That's kept us busy lately. SHHHhhhh... don't tell us anything about Survivor... she's sending it to us all on one tape once it's over!
Our bed is a lot less comfortable than our Queen size back home... but we're lucky to have a Semi-double mattress as well as a fouton mat to sleep on, so we're not really sleeping right on the ground like most people do. We're super glad we brought our douvet comforter -- makes it feel a little more like home. |
