small move. part one.

OK, so forgive me, people, we've been a bit busy.  We officially moved everything out of one place on Wednesday and are still trying to get it all to fit in our new place.  Here's the update.  Well, as the title indicates, some of it.

The best part of the move (the only good part?) was getting to drive in Tokyo.  That's right, little old me in a big white truck driving on the wrong side of the car on the wrong side of the road.

First disclaimer:  While Tokyo may be a bigger city than New York, it is much much easier to drive in Tokyo.  It feels more like driving in the city of Syracuse.  That is, if cyclists and motorcycles were found weaving through traffic and trying generally to cause chaos in the streets of Syracuse.  Surprisingly, Tokyo drivers are ok with forty-year-old women on their bikes, talking on cell phones, flinging themselves and their two (helmetless) children in front of moving vehicles any moment. This would not stand in Upstate New York.

We picked the truck up early near the new place, drove back to the old place to load as much stuff as we could, drove back to the new place, unloaded everything with no particular attention paid to what was going where, went back to the old place, ate unappetizing bento lunch, loaded the rest, and went back to the new place.  Interestingly, while we had less than half the amount to load the second time around it took twice as long.

This is our apartment empty (it came with a bed and coffee table and Jeff).

The mess we are now trying to deal with.

After we had moved all of our earthly possessions to the other side of town, we really didn't feel like unpacking anything so we decided to instead head out and take advantage of the day long truck rental by picking up big items we still needed for our new place. 

Second disclaimer:  Most of our earthly possessions are, in fact, not in Japan, but rather stored away in America.  In spite of this, we have a ridiculously huge volume of things that we are now trying to arrange in a 13 square meter room. 

At this point, needing to obtain a variety of household items of superior design and quality at a low price, we did what anyone would do - we headed to IKEA.  Yes, Virginia, there is an IKEA in Japan.

And it was glorious.  I felt like I was back in America Sweden.  Interestingly, IKEAs everywhere are exactly the same.  Same shape on the outside, same layout on the inside, and conveniently located just off the highway exit.

After dropping off our new goodies and returning the truck, we were starving and headed out in the new neighborhood for some stewed tofu and a beer.  When we got back to our new home, it was all we could do to pull out the couch and fall asleep.  There was much to be done the next day, and we'd need all our energy.

For the record, we shared this big beer.

Tomorrow: unpacking, arranging, and celebrating with a friend and several pounds of raw fish.

Mata ne,
Melissa

the next move

Tomorrow is moving day.  We're moving from our big, old, cold house to a very, very, very small apartment.  I don't think I can express in words just how small this place is.  tiny.  teeny-tiny.  Let's just say that every dorm room I lived in during college was bigger than this. 

Right after we got the key the other day we stopped by the place.  I realized I had forgotten how small it was when we were planning our decorating attack.  I was very excited to open the door with my new pink key, though.  Somehow being pink makes keys more exciting.  You can thank Jeff for the fuzzy focus on this one.  I left his thumb in for effect.

More to come on the new place after I terrorize Tokyo with my wrong side of the street driving tomorrow. 

Mata ne,
Melissa

eight crazy nights

Happy Channuka!!

On this night we lit three Channuka candles.  We have had to improvise our menorah as a menorah did not make the cut when we were packing our lives away to travel around the world.  My cowboy boots are another story (there are some things a girl just can't live without).

Fortunately for us we found these cute double-duty candle holders that on one side hold a tea light and the other hold a tall candle and were around 50 yen each (about 50 cents).

And they are cute so we can use them even if it's not Channuka.  Bonus.  And they remind us of a beautiful glass menorah we got from a friend for the wedding.  Double bonus.

This is how we configured them for the holiday:

Notice our lovely kitchen towel tablecloth?  We're working with what we've got here folks. 

Here is us lighting our first Channuka candles together as married people!

We've gotten pretty good at the self-portrait thing, but not as good at the self-portrait-with-object-in-background thing.  I swear there is a lit candle back there.  Right behind Jeff's big head. 

What did we get ourselves as our first married Channuka family gift?  Any guesses?  Looks like you'll have to wait to find out...

Mata ne,

Melissa

slow down, you're moving too fast

Every once in a while, if I time it right, and I'm really lucky, and I actually go out for a run, when I'm going along the river path by my house, I pass a turtle.  A big one. That's probably older than my mom.

This is not the kind of animal one is accustomed to seeing while running.  Especially not in a major city. At least he's wearing booties (which is more than we can say for Barefoot Jeff some days)!

He ambles along very very slowly behind his friend, an old man who I think secretly likes the attention.  They do make a cute old pair, though.  I imagine a Simon and Garfunkel song playing in the background whenever I see them.

I have about ten thousand questions for this man about how this human-turtle friendship came to be, but the language barrier limited me to "sumimasen" while pointing at my camera in a "can I take pictures of your funny pet?" questioning tone.  As you can see in typical man fashion, they don't stand too close to each other so as not to appear as if they actually came together.  I bet they leave a seat open between them at the movies too. 

Also, is this even a turtle?  Has anyone ever seen a crazier pet in a big city?

talkin' trash

Let us discuss the ridiculousness that is the Tokyo garbage collection system, shall we?

Garbage is collected every day of the week except Sunday.  That's right.  Everyday.  All over Tokyo.  Maybe they want to ensure that they have a lot of city jobs available?  (Also, it's not like people are in church so I don't know why Sunday was decided as the day of rest, but it is so.  This is for another time, however.)

It's not so much that it is collected everyday that makes the system ridiculous, but rather way items need to be sorted and set out on specific days.  AND no one puts it out the night before.  So you have to get up and put it out before 8 a.m.  Now if you have a job and need to leave the house in the morning, this may seem totally reasonable to you.  But hello, people!  We have no jobs!  We like to sleep in! 

This is the chart provided for us to make sense of the program:

Burnable garbage is the most basic and makes up the majority of our trash.  Maybe this is why it gets picked up  twice a week.  Jeff and I look at it as the first try and our second chance.  And if we miss it again- hey, it'll get picked up in another few days!  Unbelievably, things like plastic and styrofoam packaging are supposed to be put in this trash.



There is recycling, which is exactly what you'd think.  Glass bottles, cans, plastic bottles, etc. each have a color coded box at the garbage collection site for sorting. 

One annoying thing is that you are supposed to bundle your paper and cardboard by type and tie it up neatly before putting it out.  Needless to say, Jeff and I have four weeks of paper recycling in a bag in our house.



Then there is "non-burnable" garbage.  This is basically everything else.  Metal packaging, and um... other stuff.  We're busy acquiring things right now, not getting rid of them, so we haven't dealt with much of the extensive list of "non-burnables" provided to us.  Not surprisingly, we haven't taken this garbage out yet either.  And even if we had enough to bother, it only goes out the second and fourth Tuesday of each month.  We have enough trouble with the stuff you can put out almost any day.  There is a fourth Tuesday next week though.  I think.

Ok, and the last part of this ridiculous garbage collection situation is mostly due to the location of our house.  We are right on the line between two districts of the city: Toshima-ku and Bungyo-ku.  These wards have different garbage collection schedules and drop-off locations (fortunately, however, not different rules - then we'd be in trouble).

As you can see the drop-off locations are directly across the street from each other. Basically, if we forget to put the trash out on one side of the street, we can get up the next morning and put it on the other side of the street.  Unless it's cold and we want to stay in bed.

Mata ne,
Melissa