Apartment Life

My Air Conditioner. This one is actually facing the right direction cools the entire apartment.	My clothes dryer system. You just hang them outside and let them dry.	My A/C remote control. There's actually no way to control it without the remote.
My single burner stove unit. Hey it works, just small.	My rice cookers / bill holder. I use the white one more often. Japanese people always comment they've never seen a red cooker.	My "microwave" which is also my oven. Kinda strange and I often melt plastic by pressing the wrong button.
A typical light switch in my apartment. Sometimes they have a little light on them that comes on when they are off.	The breaker in my apartment. Seems so small and pathetic. In fact it pops when I run the A/C TV and Microwave.	A single plug outlet, some have two, this one has a grounding thing.

My bed area.		My closet and TV area.
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My kitchen area.
My table and shelves and computer.		The view from my balcony.
The shinkansen and train view from my balcony.		My too small bathroom
My Muji shelving system.		Some wooden dolls famous to this region.
If I were laying in bed watching TV (the Hong Kong airport video)		See the building door on the right and the vending machine just across the way?
The doorway, I took this mainly so I could practice writing the name of the building.		The front of my building.
See how close I am to my CC Lemon? HEY GET AWAY !!!		My balcony with my little flower I bought from the Meisei (may say) students.
The shinkansen tracks from my balcony.		Did I mention I was close to the tracks?
Some pictures are missing, I am investigating this. Most Pic links disabled. Old Apartment
My little genkan. This is the area where I should take off my shoes when entering my house, but since I am not Japanese I rarely do. When I am here with native Japanese I always do, but alone or with other friends, I just walk right in. The shoe thing really gets annoying sometimes and home should be home for me.		My quaint little TV area. The chair is one of those $20 things you buy from Radio Shack or Wal Mart that folds up and then folds out into a reclining chair with a foot rest. It's great. There's a blanket draped over it now for comfort and warmth.
The infamous inflatable couch. It's actually semi-comfy, but I never would have bought it for myself unless I was really broke. I still might buy that couch I wanted in a few months since I can't really stretch out on this one and it doesn't fold out into a bed like the other.		My bathroom area includes the toilet room, a washing machine, a sink, and then a separate shower/tub room to the left. Notice the separate pair of toilet slippers in the toilet room. I never use them, but when actual Japanese come over they freak if there are none.
My shower and tub room. There's more room on the left but I wanted you to see the water heater and tub. The tub is like 100 gallons or more and it's for soaking in hot water only, which I will do in the winter. You bathe in the shower part and then get in the tub and soak for a few minutes. You leave the tub water in there for several days. To get hot water I have to turn five knobs and click a wheel to light something and then wait and twist another knob. But it's infinite hot water, heated on demand.		To the immediate left of my genkan, is my sink and hot water heater. To heat water for the sink or for food, I press the round wheel on the white thing and the flame lights and out comes hot water. I have no central hot water heater and not central heating and air. Not sure the benefits or disadvantages of that yet.
To the immediate left of my sink area is the stove, which is also gas. I haven't use it yet, but I imagine it will be fine. I had a gas stove for a year or so in college and managed to cook a few things in-between burning things. My brother in-law is a good cook and I think he prefers gas to electric. Something about it cooks more even [evener]. I'm losing my English.		Taken from inside the toilet room, but rebelliously not wearing the slippers. This is my small fridge which is only about chest high on me. It's actually a decent size for one single person. The freezer is on the bottom. On top of it is my microwave/oven/food plastic melter thingy that I haven't quite got the hang of. Ignore the clothes stacked up ready for the cleaners. To the left of that is my kitchen table.
Taken from the door of the station looking out at the statue and the hotel behind that.		Turning to my left from the previous picture shows the front of Fukushima Station, the three Characters beside the words Fukushima station are the kanji for "Fuku Shima Eki" or Fukushima Station. In the distance, the big red wall/door is the Station Onsen which I will visit soon.
Turning right from the above picture shows the cool walkway cover and taxis lined up for passengers. You get in the first one and the door automatically opens. They are very clean and there is no tipping.		Hundreds of bikes in the bike lot near the station. During peak times there will be thousands. the lot goes on to the left. There are probably 20 other lots like this that I know of. There is a parking garage dedicated only to bikes. I would guess there are 100,000 plus bikes in Fukushima. And they are all ugly.
How do they get the first crane up there? It's huge, maybe too big for another crane, plus its so high. I would like to see that.		Vending machines are everywhere, this is  one of four vending machines (in Japan) with a trash can near it. There are more within 100 feet of this one. People were watching me take a picture of a vending machine so I moved on.
The small branch of the post office near my apartment. They dropped off a letter from home on Sunday at 10 am. How's that for service. Plus they deliver until 9pm at night.		Another closer pic of my unit. Notice the clothes drying on the balcony. That's not going to be fun in the winter.
A view looking the opposite way from the first apartment pic. There is a smaller unit with 4 apts next door then a house on stilts. It's on stilts not for floods, but for parking space under it. You'd be amazed how many cars they can pack into little areas.		I had two videos here, but the hosting company deleted them because they censor what you have on your site. NO VIDEOS. So sorry to have videos of my neighborhood. I can see how that might be offensive.