It's hard to believe I've been here in Japan for only a month now. There are many changes that have been occurring within the past two weeks that I'm not even sure where to begin or what I should report in this post (seeing as it's 1:30 in the morning, this post's length will be limited by time and energy); so the following is a summary of the biggest change for me in the past two weeks - my new apartment!
I've moved into an apartment in the heart of Yokohama, a large city part of the greater Tokyo metropolis and home to 3.7 million people. With thousands of restaurants, shopping centers lining the streets, and a world-famous transit system, I'm sure I won't ever have to leave Yokohama for new cuisines and fun weekend plans.
Last Monday (a week ago), I signed a lease for and moved into my new apartment, called 'Silk House Yokohama'. With three bedrooms and a fair-sized living room, I have more space than I should ever need during my stay here. One of the three bedrooms is called a 'Tatami room', named after the (expensive) woven, grass mats lining the wooden floor. These rooms are typically used for dining during the day and sleeping during the night. I, in my attempt to experience Japanese culture and also due to not yet having a bed, am using the Tatami room for its intended purpose:
The grass mats breathe very well and, from what I hear, are especially useful for staying cool during the hot and humid summer nights.
The "bathroom" is separated into the toilet room and the bathing room:
The toilet, as you might be able to see in the picture, has a sink that drains into the toilet's basin. So the water that you dirty from washing your hands will be used for the next flush instead of going to waste. This is ingenious water conservation and efficiency if you ask me!
The apartment came with the washer/dryer machine as shown in the middle picture. I absolutely love this device! It washes and dries my clothes with the touch of one button (there are many other buttons with Kanji all over them that I'm afraid to test), which hardly gives me an excuse for not doing laundry since I don't even have to be home now to transfer clothes from a washer to a dryer.
The bathing room allows for me to follow the traditional Japanese-style bathing process in my own home. I had to look up online how this whole process was completed. First, you rinse off using the shower head and make sure you get all the dirt and grime off your body that you don't want in the bath. The tub is filled with near-scalding hot water and you 'soak' in the hot water for a while. After some time of 'soaking', you would get out and use the shower head to soap up, then rinse off again since you don't want any soap or suds in the bath tub. You then return to the hot tub and 'soak' for a while longer until you're completely relaxed. Cleansing process complete!
So I've actually tried this process this past week after a particularly strenuous day hoping that the bath would make for a good stress-reliever as it is claimed to be. However, not only did the bathwater make me feel a little less clean than had I simply showered as normal, but the process took entirely too long and became more of an exercise in patience and cultural understanding than in cleansing and relaxation. There's a good chance that tub will never be used again unless I decide I'd like a koi pond in my apartment. (Actually...that would be awesome!! Stay tuned for this developing koi pond idea...)
One last noteworthy future of my new apartment is the incredible views from my living room window and from my balcony. My living room window opens to a small Japanese shrine with a beautiful and wonderfully-maintained garden. This was huge selling point in my apartment hunting:
And I don't think the nighttime view from my balcony will ever get olde:
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| This picture doesn't do it justice. Hopefully, I'll be able to get a better photo of the skyline one of these days. |
As a parting gift from this post, here's a few photos I took during my climb up Mt Takao today:
I'm not one to enjoy too much time living in transition and until my furniture comes, I'm camping out in my empty apartment, feeling more like a squatter than a resident. But my feelings of impatience and restlessness are completely eclipsed by my gratitude to the Lord for this unique and exciting adventure, for the support of my loving family back home, and for all the new friends I've been getting to know here at my Yokohama church - they are all very kind to me and deserving of their own post sometime in the future.
I never cease to be amazed at the beauty of the Lord's handiwork in nature, at His provision in my life, and at the revelation of His Word. I am undeservedly blessed and can only worship in response to His goodness and mercy.
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