My Apartment Fiascal
Trip Start
Jul 27, 2006
1
6
93
Trip End
Ongoing
Kobe,
Japan
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
When I got here I was delivered by taxi to a wonderful apartment. The place was very large and very spacious consisting of nearly 3 separate rooms. It was beautiful and clean and had a quiet location but (and there is always a but) the bedroom had tatami mats. For those of you who do not know what tatami mats are, they are straw mats that make up the flooring in traditional Japanese homes. They are considered very sacred (you never walk on them with your shoes) and lovely. I however, am allergic to straw and therefore was having trouble sleeping on my Japanese futon which put me about 2 inches above the bed of straw.
I called the director and explained the situation to him in English (or so I thought) and he said he needed time to think about it
Bathroom
. Fifteen minutes later a Japanese man showed up at my door with a toolbox to fix my tatami mats because they thought there was something wrong with them. I attempted to re-explain the situation to this fellow in Japanese. He called up the director again and the director apologized for his misunderstanding and told me he would need some time to relocate me. I accepted this fact and agreed to sleep on the floor of my spacious kitchen until he found a new place without tatami mats. The Japanese man in my apartment had other ideas though, he took my by the wrist and led me to 3 different apartments on the other side of the station. All of them looked the same: small, dirty, and shoebox-like. I was very disheartened but attempting to accept my misfortune since they were trying to do me favor. That night I started to move my luggage (yes the same luggage that took 4 of us to carry into the hotel in Chicago) to the new apartment. I didn't get very far before I was exhausted and went back to the original place to sleep on the kitchen floor since that was where my futon was (the Japanese fellow had told me he would come with a car and move the futon the following day.)
I was very bummed that night as I lay in my old apartment relishing in it's cleanliness and traditional Japanese features. From tomorrow I'd be living in a whole in the wall... But when I got to the KEC (the place where we do all the business) for a day of paperwork I found out I had been moved again. The director had found a place that was entirely wood floored (not half wood, half carpet like place #2) and thought that would be even better for me. I was ecstatic! Perhaps this new place would be the apartment style I had heard so much about- the one just like my first apartment (size, space, location) minus the tatami
Bedroom
. I was very eager to go see my new place and was told I could not go out with friends that night or go with the group that was purchasing cell phones because I needed to go with the director to move my stuff. But when it came time for us to leave he just handed me a key and wished me luck. So I had the pleasure of trucking back home with all my goods from the day to wander around trying to find my new place and attempt to remove all of my stuff by myself. By the time I got home and found my new place it was dark and everyone else had gone out for the night. I made endless trips (probably more than 10) through the streets carrying my stuff from my old apartments to my new one. I drug an entire futon set down the street in the dark wrapped in a tarp. I think the locals thought I was trying to get rid of a dead body....
But to end the long story- I am finally home. I am moved in to a lovely place. It is smaller than the first place, but definitely larger than the second. I am very close to the station- so close I can hear the announcements some times. My new style of apartment is a one room apartment and is consumed mostly by the western style bed that folds out of the wall. I'm not sure if it's a delight or a curse. But after seeing the shoe box... I cannot complain :)
Comments
Nice apartment
Brianne,
This place is huge compared to the place we stayed at in Tokyo when your Mom and I were there. It is really cute! I'm sure you will make it your own in no time. Congratulations on having an apartment!
Dawn