Showing posts with label apartment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label apartment. Show all posts
Monday, May 16, 2011
My Apartment
This is actually the second video I've taken of my apartment, but the first I'm posting here. This was also a test to try out the camera function of my Android phone. I normally film with an old flip cam.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Golden Week
EDIT: BLOGSPOT CHANGED MY POST AND DELETED MY PICTURES SO I HAD TO RE-DO THIS ENTRY. ANGRY ANGRY ANGRY!
Oh god. So here I am behind in writing this thing. I really need to make sure I stay up to date with this otherwise you will continue to not hear from me for a week or so and then have a ridiculously long-winded post about the things I’ve been doing. I’m currently typing on a Japanese keyboard so forgive me if there are misplaced apostrophes, etc.
On that note, Golden week just passed. For those of you that don’t know, Golden week is a magical week where 3 holidays managed to land on the same week! Yay! That means I had Friday off and then the following Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I still had to work Monday and Friday, which was a pain, but that’s still better than having to work the whole week. During Golden week, I had plans to visit the zoo, Sankeien garden, Tokyo, and maybe go down to Enoshima to see the aquarium. Well, it rained on Tuesday and Thursday of Golden week. What a bummer.
Since I had Friday off, I went to the zoo. I figured I might beat out a lot of people in going because I figured some people would be traveling all day to their destination of choice (IE people from Kyoto visiting Yokohama). I’m not sure if I was right or not because Zoorasia was packed. I still had a lot of fun though. I was able to get very close to see a red panda and some tanukis; closest I’ve ever been.
Besides all of the cute animals, the zoo itself is cool. There is a huge natural area and the enclosures are quite large and nice for the animals. Zoorasia is a lot better than I’ve seen at most zoos at least.
On Monday night, I met up with Gwynnie and Jeff. They are both ALTs from Hamamatsu. I was really excited to meet them finally! I’ve been reading Gwynnie’s blog for almost a year now. I met them at Kannai station and we walked to China town from there.
We found the Seiryuu gate and Jeff was kind enough to take a picture of me with the Hello Kitty panda statue. It only took me 2 years to get that stupid picture. We bought bubble tea (mango) and Jeff and Gwynnie bought a fornicating panda sake set. I lol’d so hard. We also found a giant tea kettle.
On Tuesday, I moped around my area of town. It was rainy so I went to one of the local coffee shops and drew some pictures. The coffee wasn’t the best and neither was the cheesecake. I had fun though because the barrista was nice and they were playing old british music. Needless to say, I probably won’t be going back there. There is one other coffee shop locally owned in my area and it is attached to a book store. I will be checking that place out probably this weekend. On Wednesday, my couch arrived. Afterwards, I tried to make it to Sankeien, but there just wasn’t enough time. I decided I’d just go back to China Town. Back at Chukagai, I found the Genbu gate. All that’s left for me to see is the Byakko gate. I blame Fushigi Yugi for this obsession. I ate some delicious veggies and wandered back home.
On Thursday, I went up to Tokyo. I wanted to hang out with my friend Mat again, but my phone died and I was on the other side of town from him. I still feel kinda guilty about that; miscommunication and bad timing. This was my first time in Ueno in a really long time. I think the last time I was there was in 2006. I had been around the area (Asakasa, Nippori, Akiba), but not actually in Ueno; the park. The park was lively with street vendors and a lot of people hanging out and having fun. I was there to see 2 exhibits: Rembrandt and Tezuka.
The Rembrandt exhibit was amazing. I was able to see the same etchings printed on various papers side by side for the first time in my life. The etchings had been distributed around the globe and are in various collections. Having been to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Rembrandt House in Amsterdam, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and seeing a good portion of these pieces before you would think that the exhibit wouldn’t be as fascinating, but being able to see these pieces together was amazing. There were also pieces from the Louvre and various museums in France and Britain alongside some private collections in New York. This was one of the best Rembrandt exhibits I had ever been to. I wasn’t allowed to take pictures, so here are some pictures of the outside of the museum.
The Tezuka exhibit was not nearly as awesome and I also wasn’t allowed to take pictures. Having been to another Tezuka exhibit in 2009, this one didn’t hold up to the last one. The exhibit was on Buddhist art and featured works of Tezuka’s comic Buddha. The exhibit was small, but was very interesting and after having studied Buddhist art history, it was cool to see works from Pakistan and Afghanistan in real life. There were also various statues and sculptures from around Japan.
After the museums, I went to Akiba to try and find this maid cafe Sara (bffl. XD) told me about. The cafe I was searching for was staffed by men dressed as women. SO! I thought I found it. I ended up going to a cafe called Mai:lish. Now, if that doesn't sound like the right place... Anyway, it turns out all of the staff were women and the place is well-known from being in an anime series called Stein's Gate, which I've never heard of. So that was the 3rd maid cafe I've been to (@home cafe, Cos-cha, Mai:lish).
Friday I worked and Saturday I cleaned my apartment, bought groceries and chatted with a friend who just graduated from my college. Congrats Ringling 2011! YOU DID IT! Saturday was crappy cause it rained all day and I thought I was going to do laundry. On Sunday, I was able to finish cleaning my apartment and do laundry. I left my laundry out to dry and made my way up to Shimokitazawa to see my old dorm manager/ friend and his wife. It was the first time I had seen them since 2009. They just moved from Osaka up to Shimokitazawa and were having a sort of house warming party. It was a lot of fun seeing them again. We had coffee and donuts and Miyuki cooked some amazing food. I have to get her recipes. OMG. SO GOOD. :D
I found that I really like Shimokitazawa. There are a ton of indie shops and cool people with really laid back mentalities. It reminded me a lot of Boston. Hopefully I will be hanging out with Justin and Miyuki more often ‘cause going up there was a lot of fun. Shimokitazawa concluded my golden week. I may not have made it to Sankeien and Enoshima, but I still had a lot of fun and met some awesome people.
Oh god. So here I am behind in writing this thing. I really need to make sure I stay up to date with this otherwise you will continue to not hear from me for a week or so and then have a ridiculously long-winded post about the things I’ve been doing. I’m currently typing on a Japanese keyboard so forgive me if there are misplaced apostrophes, etc.
On that note, Golden week just passed. For those of you that don’t know, Golden week is a magical week where 3 holidays managed to land on the same week! Yay! That means I had Friday off and then the following Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I still had to work Monday and Friday, which was a pain, but that’s still better than having to work the whole week. During Golden week, I had plans to visit the zoo, Sankeien garden, Tokyo, and maybe go down to Enoshima to see the aquarium. Well, it rained on Tuesday and Thursday of Golden week. What a bummer.
Since I had Friday off, I went to the zoo. I figured I might beat out a lot of people in going because I figured some people would be traveling all day to their destination of choice (IE people from Kyoto visiting Yokohama). I’m not sure if I was right or not because Zoorasia was packed. I still had a lot of fun though. I was able to get very close to see a red panda and some tanukis; closest I’ve ever been.
Besides all of the cute animals, the zoo itself is cool. There is a huge natural area and the enclosures are quite large and nice for the animals. Zoorasia is a lot better than I’ve seen at most zoos at least.
On Monday night, I met up with Gwynnie and Jeff. They are both ALTs from Hamamatsu. I was really excited to meet them finally! I’ve been reading Gwynnie’s blog for almost a year now. I met them at Kannai station and we walked to China town from there.
We found the Seiryuu gate and Jeff was kind enough to take a picture of me with the Hello Kitty panda statue. It only took me 2 years to get that stupid picture. We bought bubble tea (mango) and Jeff and Gwynnie bought a fornicating panda sake set. I lol’d so hard. We also found a giant tea kettle.
On Tuesday, I moped around my area of town. It was rainy so I went to one of the local coffee shops and drew some pictures. The coffee wasn’t the best and neither was the cheesecake. I had fun though because the barrista was nice and they were playing old british music. Needless to say, I probably won’t be going back there. There is one other coffee shop locally owned in my area and it is attached to a book store. I will be checking that place out probably this weekend. On Wednesday, my couch arrived. Afterwards, I tried to make it to Sankeien, but there just wasn’t enough time. I decided I’d just go back to China Town. Back at Chukagai, I found the Genbu gate. All that’s left for me to see is the Byakko gate. I blame Fushigi Yugi for this obsession. I ate some delicious veggies and wandered back home.
On Thursday, I went up to Tokyo. I wanted to hang out with my friend Mat again, but my phone died and I was on the other side of town from him. I still feel kinda guilty about that; miscommunication and bad timing. This was my first time in Ueno in a really long time. I think the last time I was there was in 2006. I had been around the area (Asakasa, Nippori, Akiba), but not actually in Ueno; the park. The park was lively with street vendors and a lot of people hanging out and having fun. I was there to see 2 exhibits: Rembrandt and Tezuka.
The Rembrandt exhibit was amazing. I was able to see the same etchings printed on various papers side by side for the first time in my life. The etchings had been distributed around the globe and are in various collections. Having been to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Rembrandt House in Amsterdam, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and seeing a good portion of these pieces before you would think that the exhibit wouldn’t be as fascinating, but being able to see these pieces together was amazing. There were also pieces from the Louvre and various museums in France and Britain alongside some private collections in New York. This was one of the best Rembrandt exhibits I had ever been to. I wasn’t allowed to take pictures, so here are some pictures of the outside of the museum.
The Tezuka exhibit was not nearly as awesome and I also wasn’t allowed to take pictures. Having been to another Tezuka exhibit in 2009, this one didn’t hold up to the last one. The exhibit was on Buddhist art and featured works of Tezuka’s comic Buddha. The exhibit was small, but was very interesting and after having studied Buddhist art history, it was cool to see works from Pakistan and Afghanistan in real life. There were also various statues and sculptures from around Japan.
After the museums, I went to Akiba to try and find this maid cafe Sara (bffl. XD) told me about. The cafe I was searching for was staffed by men dressed as women. SO! I thought I found it. I ended up going to a cafe called Mai:lish. Now, if that doesn't sound like the right place... Anyway, it turns out all of the staff were women and the place is well-known from being in an anime series called Stein's Gate, which I've never heard of. So that was the 3rd maid cafe I've been to (@home cafe, Cos-cha, Mai:lish).
After Akiba, I met up with my friend Matt (not Mat who I mentioned before) who lives in Hadano and is also an ALT with Interac. After some frustration about trying to find him and his friends, we met up briefly and discussed how things have been going. It’s interesting to hear just how different our experiences here have been. I think it’s mostly due to the fact he is a man and he’s living in a small city.
Friday I worked and Saturday I cleaned my apartment, bought groceries and chatted with a friend who just graduated from my college. Congrats Ringling 2011! YOU DID IT! Saturday was crappy cause it rained all day and I thought I was going to do laundry. On Sunday, I was able to finish cleaning my apartment and do laundry. I left my laundry out to dry and made my way up to Shimokitazawa to see my old dorm manager/ friend and his wife. It was the first time I had seen them since 2009. They just moved from Osaka up to Shimokitazawa and were having a sort of house warming party. It was a lot of fun seeing them again. We had coffee and donuts and Miyuki cooked some amazing food. I have to get her recipes. OMG. SO GOOD. :D
I found that I really like Shimokitazawa. There are a ton of indie shops and cool people with really laid back mentalities. It reminded me a lot of Boston. Hopefully I will be hanging out with Justin and Miyuki more often ‘cause going up there was a lot of fun. Shimokitazawa concluded my golden week. I may not have made it to Sankeien and Enoshima, but I still had a lot of fun and met some awesome people.
Friday, March 4, 2011
My Apartment!
I'm ridiculously excited right now! My apartment has been secured! So after a lot of confusion, anger, cultural barriers, and linguistic misunderstandings, my housing has been finalized! One huge chunk of stress I don't have to worry about! I will be living here (google map image is the only one I have b/c the listing was taken off the website):
My place will be about a 10min walk to Kibogaoka station and a 14-18 minute train ride to Yokohama station. It's located in the Asahi ward and is a whopping 13.5 square meters! It has a loft bed, bathroom, air conditioner, fridge, 1 stove burner, and coin washer (that I have to share w/ the other tenants). The best part about the place is that it has fiber optic internet. :P
Aside from the apartment, I've spent time comparing furniture expenses should I have to buy things new from several websites. I'm hoping to be able to get some things at sayonara sales, but it's always good to have a back-up. Things are moving along pretty fast at this point. It's hard to believe I'm leaving in 10 days. It's hard to believe I'm turning 23 in 5 days. Crazy life.
My place will be about a 10min walk to Kibogaoka station and a 14-18 minute train ride to Yokohama station. It's located in the Asahi ward and is a whopping 13.5 square meters! It has a loft bed, bathroom, air conditioner, fridge, 1 stove burner, and coin washer (that I have to share w/ the other tenants). The best part about the place is that it has fiber optic internet. :P
Aside from the apartment, I've spent time comparing furniture expenses should I have to buy things new from several websites. I'm hoping to be able to get some things at sayonara sales, but it's always good to have a back-up. Things are moving along pretty fast at this point. It's hard to believe I'm leaving in 10 days. It's hard to believe I'm turning 23 in 5 days. Crazy life.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
CoE, Visa, and a Busy Week!
Early on Monday (President's Day), my Certificate of Eligibility (CoE) arrived in the mail. My dad had to sign for it because I wasn't home, but I got it! Here's what mine looks like. I blocked out the important details for security purposes. Let me just say, I'm really glad I've been losing weight since the first photo was taken. ^_^
After work on Monday, I received my TB test. Not feeling too great (I'm terrible with needles) I called the embassy only to realize it was closed (yay for federal holidays!). On Tuesday morning, I was awoken by a call from the Japanese Embassy. They answered all of my questions so I could make sure I had everything I needed to get my Visa. On Wednesday morning, my mom and I drove downtown, presented my CoE, passport, photos, and filled out visa form to the nice ladies at the Japanese Consulate office in Houston. We decided to have my passport mailed back to me since gas prices were skyrocketing and it was more convenient not to have to go back down there. When we got back from downtown (and a quick little trip to the galleria) I had to get my TB test read. I'm negative for TB! Yay! Of course, the day after I got my test read, my arm turned red around the injection area and it still looks like a bug bite. I hate having sensitive, Irish skin.
I worked another half day on Friday and went to the bank after work. Realizing that the exchange rate is sucky, I got a little nervous knowing that I would have to earn even more money than I thought I would. Thankfully, I got a commission from word of mouth (I have good friends) and I've been working on that since Friday. I also received a small sketch commission, which might lead to a larger piece, but for the moment was enough money to put into paying for some skype credits. Financially, I think I am going to be ok (assuming I get another 5 or 6 substitute teaching jobs before I leave). *crosses fingers*
Yesterday, I picked up deodorant; the last thing I needed before leaving for Japan. Knowing that I had everything I needed for the trip (packing wise) made me feel pretty awesome. I'm slowly going down my checklist. Today, my mom came home from her handbell class and handed me the yen she picked up from the bank! So another thing was done! The other thing that happened this morning is my passport with my visa arrived! Here's what it looks like. The folded piece of paper on the other side is the CoE stapled in my passport. I think I'm required to have both pieces of information in my passport for validity. Again, things are blocked out for security reasons.
I have to say it's pretty funny that they cut my picture into a circle. I don't know why they did that. On another note, my housing has been resolved (so I think). I will post more information about where I will be living once it is completely verified. There are some loose ends (work, finishing commissions, finishing altering some clothes, sewing my coat, packing), but those won't be resolved until a couple days before I leave. Right now, I'm happy that the things I once found problematic are resolving themselves with time and effort.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Apartment. Ugh.
Apartment hunting makes me feel incompetent.
I have Mr. Ueno (who works for Interac), who is great and is helping me search for apartments and is DESPERATELY trying to get me to understand all of these "hidden" fees that aren't listed anywhere on the web, but I'm having a hard time understanding.
I'm sure everyone has to go through this at least once when trying to find an apartment, but it just makes me feel like a complete fool. I knew about Key Money and deposits, but I didn't know about doorlock replacement charges, cleaning fees, fire insurance, guarantor company fees, common area charges, neighborhood association charges, and I still don't understand what a "daito kentaku" charge is. >_<;;
I'm sure the real problem is that I'm trying to find an unreasonably low cost apartment since I have to send 700USD home a month to pay off student loans. I also want to be able to save money in case of an emergency and have enough money to visit Texas for Christmas break.
If anyone has any suggestions, helpful hints, etc. Please let me know.
BTW- This is the apartment I like the most so far and is at the high end of my budget (and for all I know I can't actually afford). I'm guessing it's 47,183¥ a month (including deposit and fire insurance fee):
On a positive note, I was informed last night that Interac has lodged my application for eligibility with Immigration and they expect to receive it around February 10th. AWESOME NEWS! They said they will be sending it as soon as they receive it. I'm glad that my paperwork is going well.
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