the new pad!

well, i am finally moved in to the new pad! i’ve not yet entirely unpacked, but i am entirely living in the itabashi-ku… welcome to beautiful itabashikuyakushomae (which means: itabashi city/town/ward in front of the city hall)! i am conveniently located near the ward office, which i will probably only have to go once, and ive already gone to change the address on my gaijin card… but it is on the mita subway line which is the line closest to school and the neighborhood provides everything one would actually need. there are 2 grocery stores, 2 or more 100¥ stores, an indian curry restaurant, a japanese curry restaurant, a chinese joint, tons of ramen/udon shops, tons of produce/meat stores and yes, most important of all, a free petting zoo. i’m not sure why there is a free petting zoo in my neighborhood, but i’m not going to question it… i’ll go to the spot tomorrow and take some photos, but i kinda fear that it will make it look even more pitiful than it already kind of is… and to top it off i’m totally going to the ueno zoo tomorrow… the oldest zoo in japan. but i dont think i’m going to take photos because i think its pretty low to take photos of caged animals. i’d much rather go to the aquarium, but i dont know which aquarium to go to. needs more research.

anyways, welcome to my sweet (by japanese standards) pad!

my small stovetop and sink/dish drying tub

my fridge and washer.. and my radical rice cooker

kitchen/entry… note the three essentials of cooking… soy sauce, olive oil and tabasco… i really need to find some sriracha!

my spaceship airlock bathroom… i really wish it had an airlock!

my yet to be unpacked room… big ups to ikea for having relatively affordable comfortable designs! i need some kind of organizational system… so if anyone has the hookup on milk crates or cheap, stackable boxes and shelves… let me know

oh yeah, go to muji.net… i was gifted a beautiful teapot from there… everything they make is golden (design wise… everything is really some shade of beige.. but still incredibly radical.. better ikea with a much higher price!)!

ill post the neighborhood pics tomorrow

(ps: i would like to note that even though this is a nice western-style japanese pad… most (poor) gaijin are relegated to the few gaijin-friendly/focused realty companies and that there are probably nicer, bigger pads out there but 99% of japanese real estate companies are super anti-gaijin and won’t even talk to you, and then they want all this deposit money, “key money” which is basically 6 months rent, then this “gift money” to the landlord that you give to the landlord as a gift for being so gracious as to letting you rent his rental property… lame. im super stoked on this pad!)