The Move to Greenhouse

We survived our move to our apartment. The movers did a superb job. They walked fast and/or jogged/ran the entire time! The apartment is called Greenhouse; probably because the outside color is green. The apartment is 6 years old and was recently remodeled. We’re the first to move back in after remodel. It is a 2-story apartment with 1 unit on the bottom and 1 unit on the top. We are renting the top apartment. It’s a pretty typical Japanese apartment inside. It has 2 bedrooms that are about 9’ X 9’. Each bedroom has a good sized closet for storing clothes and futon. Additionally, it has a combined kitchen area and living/dining area. This apartment size/configuration is called 2LDK for 2 bedrooms, living room, dining room, and kitchen. Total size is around 602 sq ft. It’s a little small for a family of 4, but not bad for Tokyo. We did not want to get much bigger as we are not planning to live here forever and did not want to pay a lot in rent. The apartment also has a separate toilet room and a Japanese style bathing room next to the laundry room.

As you can see in the photo, most Japanese hang dry their laundry as there is little space for a dryer and electricity is expensive. Therefore, laundry is done first thing in the morning and hung out to dry. We purchased a new washing machine that also dries clothes, but running on 110V, the dryer takes hours to dry a small amount of clothes. It’s used for the rainy season or when laundry is done later in the day and can’t wait to be hung out the next day. In other words, we’re still Americanized.

Michael and Tommy’s favorite part of the apartment is the bathing area. The tub is about 4’ X 3’ X 3’ deep. You wash outside of the tub and when you are all clean and free of soap, you get into the tub and soak. It’s like sitting in a hot tub. The boys love to soak in the warm water and relax. It’s all automated so you punch in how much water you want and what temperature to heat it at and it does the rest. Since the water doesn’t get any soap in it, you can use the water a couple of days before changing it. There is a cover for the tub to keep the water clean. It’s not kept heated when not in use, so the next day you simply tell it how warm you want it and in a few minutes it’s ready. And thinking environmentally, the washing machine comes with a long hose to put into the tub so you can use the water the next day for laundry. It seems to be a pretty popular conservation measure here as all the washing machines come with the hose and are equipped to pump the water from the tub.

It will take a while to get all situated and comfortable. While we have much less stuff than in America, we still have a lot of stuff compared to Japanese folks. Moving from the house into a smaller place also contributes to the excess amount of stuff. The movers came by the house to make an estimate on the move and decided they needed to bring their ‘big truck’ to move us. They were right. We packed the truck completely full.

The new neighborhood is about 4-5 minutes’ walk from the house we were living in. It’s actually a bit closer to school for the boys. It’s about the same walk to the train station for Terry. The neighborhood is a little quieter and a bit more upscale feeling. The people living downstairs have a girl in the same grade as Michael. She’s in a different class, but they recognized each other. We gave them a box of laundry soap to introduce ourselves the day we moved in. Japanese custom is that the new people give a gift to the neighbors to introduce themselves. Luckily we only have 1 direct neighbor. The neighbors downstairs also have a boy in the 6th grade. So, hopefully it should be OK if we make a little noise since they have kids too.

Several people have asked us what it costs to move into an apartment in Japan. We had to pay first month’s rent ($1200 at current exchange rate), finder’s fee (2 month’s rent), commission to the realtor ($1400), and deposit (2 months’ rent). All together, it cost us just over $7000 to get the key for the apartment. All of this is extremely standard here. On top of that we purchased a new, but cheap, refrigerator ($500), a mid level washing machine with integral dryer ($700), cheap vacuum cleaner ($70), ceiling lights for the rooms ($150, many Japanese apartments do not include lights or curtains), a heater/AC unit for 1 room ($500), and then the usual cups, bowls, silverware, a few pots/pans, and so on ($300). There will be more to come, but this gets us in and able to eat and sleep.

It is already feeling like home. Everyone is feeling comfortable and quickly adjusting to our new digs.