Our Apt and Our 'Hood

I realized recently that I don't have any good pics up of our apartment or neighborhood. We live in the second and third floor of this building. The sign post says pea-atoriumu, this is the name of our building.





















This is the living room and my current work space (which Cherine and Carys are away) to write my thesis. We get a lot of morning sun in this room and so the room warms up quite a bit. Since the dryers at the local laundromat are 100 yen/10 minutes (about 80 cents for 10 minutes) we tend to hang our laundry outside on the veranda that stretches the length of the apartment
















Here is my room. I usually pick up my bed (fold up my futons and blankets everyday, unless I am lazy) and put the futons out over the railing on sunny days to air out and keep them fresh. The floor is tatami, woven bamboo mats that have a wonderful earth smell to them that I will surely miss when I leave.





















This is our kitchen. It doesn't get direct sunlight so is often on the chilly side but is big enough to cook in and prepare meals for the gang from time to time.
















This is an unagi (eel) restaurant nearly across the street from our place. It has random hours and I've actually never been there since eel is pretty expensive - but tasty. Also right in our 'hood is a cute little bakery called Happy Deli, and a Korean Barbeque restaurant called Saran-pan which sells my favorite Ginga Kogen Beer from Kyushu (southern Japan).