Apartment Tour

It's been a busy couple days around here with another festival going on in town (more to come on this) and lots of welcome meals with various members of Jason's research group. They have been so incredibly kind and helpful and hospitable - we can't help but feel thoroughly welcomed to Sapporo!

Yesterday afternoon, Fiona and I had a little down time when it started to rain and we were forced inside, so we decided to take some pictures for the apartment tour some of you have requested. Jason and I have been trying to guesstimate the size of our two-bedroom unit. We've settled on somewhere between 700 and 800 square feet. From what we understand, it's rather spacious by Japanese standards and is definitely plenty of space for the three of us. We're on the 17th floor of a 34 story high rise building - the tallest building in the center of the picture below.

From the doorway looking in to the unit, there is a hallway on the right that leads to the toilet room, the bath/shower room, and one of the two bedrooms. The opening on the right wall above the dining table is a pass through to the kitchen. To the left, past the dining table, is the living room, and off the living room is the second bedrooms. Aside from a few quirks, it's really not that different from an apartment you'd find in the US.

Looking down the hallway to the bath and toilet rooms and the first bedroom. I thought about putting the laundry away, but then it occurred to me that the the purpose of the request for an apartment tour was probably more about wanting to see what daily life was like, so I decided to keep it real. :) This is where we dry our laundry - on a drying rack hanging from the door stop on the outside of the toilet room door.

On the right is the toilet room (which is separate from the bathing room). There is literally nothing in this room except the toilet.

One interesting thing about this toilet that we haven't seen anywhere else in Japan is the faucet on top. Any time you flush, the tank refills by this faucet turning on and running through a hole in the top of the tank. We think it may be a water saving way to wash your hands using the water that will then fill the toilet. It seems like a pretty ingenious way to make extra use of the water, but the design isn't great. There's no place to put the soap so it would have to be kept on the floor next to the toilet which just kind of grosses me out. I mean, there's a six-year-old using that thing regularly...who know's what's not making it in the toilet!

The arm on the edge of the toilet offers all kinds of bum-cleaning options. Somehow we've avoided Fiona even questioning what these buttons do. I'm thankful - I fear as soon as she does, the toilet will become her new favorite place to hang out. On this arm, there is also a control for how warm you'd like the seat to be!

Across the hall from the toilet room is the bathroom. It has a sink and large/deep bath tub in addition to more drying racks. This room is my least favorite room in the apartment because at various times throughout the day (and there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to when this occurs) it smells like something died in there. It's the strangest thing because at other times it smells 100% normal. You just never know what you're going to get when you open the door. It's an adventure every time. Luckily, the toilet isn't in there and we can wash our hands and brush our teeth in the kitchen, so we really don't have to go in there very often.

Also of note in the bathroom is the shower...or rather, the lack there of... That small shower wand (I can't even bring myself to call it a showerhead) has a holder for storage mounted on the wall, but you have to hold it in your hand to actually use it. I think the design is like this because bathing is much more common in Japan than showering, but who wants to lounge in a stinky bathroom? In any case, it doesn't look like we'll be taking long, luxurious showers this summer.

The bedroom at the end of this hallway has three single beds.

This was not the original plan, but Jason has very graciously taken this room to share with Fiona. Before renting this apartment, we corresponded with the apartment manager who assured us all beds in the unit were western style as opposed to traditional tatami mats (a type of flooring material made using rice straw, compressed wood chip boards, or polystyrene foam  to form the core and covered with a woven soft straw) topped with futon mattresses. Well, her assurances were a little misleading. The flooring in the room is not tatami mat, but rather, the beds are individual platform tatami mats topped with futon mattresses. They are so hard, there's no way I could sleep on one. Jason SAYS they don't bother him, and there are no complaints from Fiona, so either they are being very kind to make me feel better, or I'm just really lucky to have two others able to tolerate firm beds in my family.

Tatami hybrid platform:

Futon mattress:

Back down the hallway and directly across from the entry is our tiny kitchen and laundry:

Pictured here is the entirety of the work space in the kitchen, but that's really not such a big problem given that I can't find much to cook in the local markets. I thought I'd hit the jackpot the other day when we were desperate for some comfort food and I found some pizza crusts, sauce, and cheese at the grocery store. I got them home, made the pizzas up, went to put them in the oven, and realized we don't have one! So that pot you see sitting on the cook top?...yep, heated a pizza up in that! I'd say thus far finding things to eat has been the biggest challenge for us.

This box is on the kitchen wall. It turns on the on demand water heater. After pushing the appropriate button, it takes about 5 minutes for the system to heat up and start making hot water. It times itself off after being idle for 15 minutes. This has also taken some adjusting, so it's nice that the heat up time is quick since we can't seem to remember to turn it on in advance of needing hot water!

There is a pass through in the kitchen that looks out onto the living room. The living area is a nice size for the three of us and the views from those windows are great!

From the living room looking toward the kitchen, there is a small dining table and to the left of the table, some shelving that represents the majority of our storage. It is now Fiona's book shelf, craft storage, pantry, and bathroom supplies.

And just off the living room  is where the very spoiled mommy sleeps all by herself in a nice, soft, comfy bed with a REAL mattress. It's glorious!

And finally, a few views from the balcony. Looking south toward the beautiful Nakajima Keon (Park) just across the street from our building:

And looking northwest...can you spot the attraction we can't wait to check out? It's cloudy and a little difficult to make out, so I'll give you a clue, it's on the right hand side of the picture!

And to the northeast you can see the Sapporo TV tower (point just to the right of the tall building at the left edge of the picture) at the east end of Odori Park where we have spent lots of time hanging out.

And there you have it...more than you ever wanted to know about home for the summer! Up next, the Hokkaido Shrine Festival and so many new and interesting foods and activities!