October
18, 2004 - Dwelling
Local road crew cleaning up the garden strip behind our place
While the size of our home is even smaller than our Seattle place, it is well-designed and is plenty big enough for us. Luckily, it came furnished so we did not need to purchase any new furniture. Local swap meets, bazaars and 100 yen ($1.00) shops have flushed out our dish set quite nicely. Probably the most expensive part will be shipping all my favorite things home when we are finished here. As for the laundry and bathroom, we like having separate rooms for the sink/washer/dryer, the toilet (with hand-washing spigot on the back tank) and the shower/bath.
A glimpse into our mansion (yes, that is what this type of place is called) and at our new effects. We are on the 3rd floor so we have some views up to the hills and of a neighboring school. The kids practice everything from sports to band in the field every day, which makes for a lively sound-scape. The view from our living room window is of the earthquake museum, or as it is officially called, the Disaster Reduction and Human Renovation Institution. (It is a memorial to the damage done during the 1995 Kobe earthquake that registered 7.4 on the Richter scale.) Thankfully, most of the city, including our dorm, was rebuilt to modern standards after 1995.
Our closets are spacious and we love that we each have our own closet. Tim saved the one with the mirror in it for me. Nice guy. The bathroom and bedroom are each off the kitchen/dining area, but there is no direct pass-through from the bedroom to the bathroom. Yes, the stove is short, but luckily, the shower is perfect.
View toward the hills (out the back door).
View toward the water, if we were a couple floors higher we could see Osaka Bay.
October
18, 2004 - Circulation
