The New House

It's been quite a flurry of activity the last few days but we've managed to get moved in an unpacked successfully. Not long to enjoy it though as I'm off to pick watermelons tomorrow. It's been blazingly hot here the last couple of days, so I'm hoping for some serious cloud cover once I get out into the patch.

Here's the lowdown on the new place. It's still a bit sparse but we'll get to the decorating after our trip to the States.

So, this is our dining room. Through the slider on the right is our giant sunroom which gets so hot during the day that I'm worried the clothes that are drying might go up in flames.



Here's the kitchen. By Japanese standards we actually have a lot of counter space, i.e. we can fit a cutting board and a dish rack on the counter AT THE SAME TIME. The downside is that everyone can look into our house really easily through that nice big window. We're looking for the perfect curtain for it, so for now the peep show continues.



We've also got a small tatami room with a slider. This is probably where we'll stick guests for the night (on futons), if anyone over comes to visit us.



I wouldn't normally bother with a picture of the toilet, but this one is pretty impressive. It's got the whole array of bidet/washlet/anal spritzer/heated toilet seat, and yes, that is a remote control on the while.



Upstairs, the holiest of holies, my very own guitar room. This is also where Chieko is making keep all of my 'crap' that she doesn't like looking at, like my Voltron model.



This is our living room, again very sparse at the moment.



Here's the bedroom. I love having a slider in this room and a balcony outside. Despite the recent heat we've not had to use the air conditioner in here yet because there seems to always be a steady breeze moving through.



And lastly, our supremely overgrown yard. I'm already brainstorming what do in this space. I'm looking forward to cleaning it up when we get back from America. Whoever lived here before had some sort of garden going on, as there's already asparagus, daikon radishes, and some herbs growing among all the weeds.



It'll take some time to get used to the new place and also living in a neighborhood where people actually talk to each other and interact. The first night we were there the neighbor across the street gave us a bunch of clams they had dug that day. The next morning one of our side neighbors brought over a bunch of vegetables from their garden.

The area is beautiful though, and once the sun goes down and all the kids go back home (did I mention that the place is crawling with kids?), it's really, wonderfully quiet. I'll get out roaming with my camera and get up some shots of the surroundings once we get back. For now, here's one from the local train station:



There probably won't be much action around here for the next month. I had planned to do some blogging from the farm but have decided I won't be taking my computer with me. But I may manage to check in from time to time if I have anything I deem worth saying. Otherwise, enjoy the rest of our summer and look for action to resume here around the end of August.