I hope that answers some of your questions. If not, then just email me and I will answer 'em for you then. -JAMIE
For a humorous and more detailed look at my daily life check out the story in the archives
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| BACK TO BASICS II | |||||||||||||||||
| WHERE I LIVE... My apartment is traditional Japan style. This means that you must take off your shoes right as you enter. This also means that if you are above 5 feet tall you had better duck when entering or exiting any room or you will face serious pain. I have through repeated beatings around the forehead by random doorframes resorted to wearing a football helmet around the apartment at all times. The place is made up of a kitchen, 3 living rooms, a bathroom and a toilet. The toilet, no joke, is the size of an airplane bathroom without the turbulence. My knees almost hit the wall when I climb onto the throne. The bathroom is also traditional style, a small shower area to wash yourself off before sinking into a bath (traditionally taken every night by the Japanese). The kitchen and study (one of the living rooms) are normal Western style. the other two living rooms are floored in straw, known as tatami. | |||||||||||||||||
| INSERT APT PICS HERE | |||||||||||||||||
| This straw is supposed to keep the floors warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer, however if the tatami is of the samurai era like mine then all it does is get little pieces of straw everywhere around the apartment including every piece of clothing I own. Shoes cannot be worn on tatami, for fear of ripping it up. Perhaps some of the foreigners before me in this place didn't listen to this resulting in me finding straw in my toothbrush every so often. For the past year I slept on the floor on a futon which is really just a thick mat, which puts the comfort level a step above sleeping in the backseat of an open convertible in a hurricane, but still below the comfort level of crashing on a friends couch. After a year, I finally caved in and bought a bed, which of course is too short and although it is now very comfortable it still doesn't compare to the amazing confidant mattress (this is its actual manufactured given name, I assume because it tells no secrets) that accompanied me in my two years in D.C. and I swear has personal angels built into it. My sister Annie is now experienceing mixed results of wanting me to come home but not wanting to give up the confidant I so graciously have lent her. In the winter this apartment gets absolutely freezing, since the idea of wall insulation hasn't really taken off in Japan yet. I combat this with an oil heater and a kotatsu. A kotatsu is a staple for any Japanese family, it is a table with a heater attached to the bottom of it so that in winter you can sit beneath it with a blanket and keep warm while you eat or watch TV. The problem is that it is humanly impossible not to fall asleep beneath the kotatsu and also every once in a while you feel silly for huddling under a two-feet tall table for warmth. I hope that answers some of your questions. If not, then just email me and I will answer 'em for you then. -JAMIE |
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| NOTE: For a humorous and more detailed look at my daily life check out the story in the archives |
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