Our new residence

Our new home is an apartment on the 7th floor of a 12-story high-rise. We're getting to know our way around a little. It's in a great neighborhood, though nothing like any place we've ever lived. It is called Minami Azabu. "Minami" means "South"; "Azabu" seems to be a reference to silk cloth, so perhaps they once produced that kind of thing around here. Now the area houses many embassies. The Korean embassy is visible from our balcony, and we have also come across the Bulgarian, French, German, Iranian, and Qataran embassies.

Across the street to us on the north is Azabu-Juban ("Tenth" Azabu). There are many shops and restaurants there, and it's where we've done most of our exploring. Last night, on our date night, Cindy and I found a tiny noodle shop. We liked it and will be returning for more.

Thursday night we walked over to the LDS Temple to see it (we are LDS, so this is an important place for us). It's about a 15-minute walk. I'll try to get a good picture of it to post. In the building right next to it are housed the LDS meetinghouse, Japanese MTC, and housing for temple workers and patrons who come from out of town.

Getting back to our residence: Thursday we moved in and had our orientation. We took a taxi from our hotel, and a fellow from the property management group met us at the apartment. He showed us how to operate the place. That may be a funny way to express it, but there were a number of things to learn. We have a key that lets us into the apartment building downstairs. Then up the elevator and down an outside (but covered) walkway to our door. There we use the key again.

There is a very small foyer with a marble floor. Here we remove our shoes (custom, and it's in the lease agreement) and put them in a small built-in cabinet. Leaving the foyer, we enter a short hall. A door to the right is C.J.'s bedroom. A door to the left is the powder room.

The only thing in the powder room is the toilet. Japanese toilets are really something. We Yankees lag behind in this department, I'm afraid. In the first place, the seat is heated to a toasty temperature. Then, after one finishes one's business and flushes, one has the option of an array of buttons which will direct mists, sprays or streams of water in various directions--with varying degrees of force. Finally, there is a "drying" button. There are even buttons we haven't figured out yet. They are all helpfully labelled, but of course the labels are in Japanese. Oh, yes--there is another feature. On top of the toilet's tank is a small, built-in basin with a tiny spigot. When you flush the toilet, the fill water comes out of the spigot and into the basin, then drains into the tank. So you can wash your hands in clean water without the need for a separate sink. This is good, because there's no room for a sink.

Continuing into the apartment, there is a sliding door on the left which leads to the kitchen, and door straight ahead which divides the hall from the living room. The kitchen contains a small refrigerator, a gas cooktop with three burners, the smallest oven you ever saw. Cindy has seen toaster ovens larger. She says the oven can only broil. There is also a very wide, very deep sink, and cupboards. We keep our trash cans in the kitchen, too. We have to separate trash into "burnable" and "non-burnable."

The kitchen also has an opening into the living room. The first thing you come to in the living room is a small dining table with four chairs. Behind them is a sofa, coffee table, chair, and entertainment center. Beyond that are the sliding glass doors to the balcony.

Out on the balcony is the clothes dryer--the smallest I've seen, though our agent said it was out on the balcony because it was so large. Our view faces west, so we get the sunset.

Also opening onto the balcony is our bedroom, through similar sliding glass doors. Our bed is not as large as queen size, but seems a little larger than a double. There is a nightstand with a lamp and clock, and a closet. Our room also opens onto the living room.

Between our bedroom and C.J.'s is the bathroom complex, which is different and interesting. It consists of two rooms. The first has a sink and mirror on the right, and the washing machine--tiny but new and hi-tech. Through a tightly-sealed door is the bath. The forepart of that room has a shower hanging on the wall. You take a shower there--the water goes all over the room. A gutter runs through the room to take away the water.

Before you shower, you fill the bath (you can do this by hitting a remote button in the kitchen, if you wish. The bathtub is short, but very deep. I can't lie in it; I can only sit. But I can fit almost entirely inside it because it's so deep. So the concept is: take a shower to clean off, then sit and soak in the tub. The whole system is ingenious because one person can be bathing while another shaves or brushes teeth, and yet the toilet is still available for use.

The Japanese like wood. All the floors except for the room with the bath are of wood, with a high polish. All the doors are of wood, stained to a deep brown.