Our Apartment

We spent Wednesday morning in search of an apartment. We really wanted our own place with a bathroom and kitchen...so we took the train about 30 minutes into Yokohama city in hopes of finding something with a great realtor Nishibie. He showed us a place that was small (this we knew) on a bottom floor and with no view. It wasn't a big deal, the price was ok....the problem...public transportation in this city is so pricy it would cost the two of us $500 US a month for the train.



So, Nishibie mentioned that he had a guest house one stop up from our school on the train. It did not have its own bath or kitchen, but it did come fully furnished and had a full size bed. There was no down payment and everything including utilities and internet came with the 69,000 Yen a month price ($889 USD)

We took a look and decided it was a good idea to take it. It is a 10 minute walk to the train station and costs 120 yen or 150 yen ($150-$2) to get to the two different schools we work at. Then, a 5-10 minute walk to the school.

We spent the afternoon setting up and putting away our luggage. And this is our new place!

It just so happened on the night we moved in, in the common area, they were having a Chinese Dumpling (Gyoza) making party. So, we were able to have a few beers and meet some of our neighbors. Few spoke English, but we had a fun time trying to learn everyone's names.


There are 14 rooms on each floor...give or take one or two here and there for office and storage space, a toilet on each floor (1 squatter and one rimmed one, 2 urinals) and on the bottom floor are showers...4 stalls (1 for women only...there are 4 of us in the building)

The kitchen is industrial and a lot of fun to cook in. The dishes and cups and pots and pans etc. are all communal and then we have a drawer in the kitchen to keep spices or oils or whatever we may need down there. You just have to remember to pack all of the other foods and such you may need to bring it down to the kitchen each time.

It does stink that the hallways don't have a heater and in the middle of the night you have to bundle up, throw on slippers and make your way down the hall to the freezing cold toilets...but we intend to find big robes (we couldn't pack ours in the small space we were allotted)

The space is small, but it is very comfortable, we have a nice view out the window and signed only a 2 month lease so we can always extend or find elsewhere to live in a bit.


Our new mailing address is:


26-1 Chigusadai
apt. #213
Aoba-ku Fujigaoka 
Yokohama Kanagawa 227-0051
Japan


Thats all for now!