The New Apartment

Dear Blog,

I am no longer "Alone in Kudamatsu." Havent been for a few years, actually. I just moved with Motto from Tokuyama to Hiroshima. Yup, that Hiroshima, from your history book. But the name "Alone in Kudamatsu" stays. "Living in Sin in Hiroshima" is too wordy.

I love it here in the big city so far. Ive never lived in a real urban place with a population of over a million. Just today Motto and I were walking back from the grocery store and took a moment to notice how huge the high rise we past was. Like a couple of country bumpkins we stood there, noses pointed up, counting the stories. 33. So tall. We were impressed.

Motto: Can you imagine if you were building that?
Me: What do you mean?
Motto: Standing up there working.
Me: It'd be so windy.
Motto: Would you live on the top floor?
Me: Probably not, I'd think about jumping too much.

This apartment is a lot bigger than the one back in Tokuyama. We got a bedroom, a tatami room, a kitchen, a genkan, and a bathroom with a mirror and sink! I was so excited about that. The last apartment had a sink and tiny shaving mirror in the shower and that was it.

Strange noises:

• 10 p.m. church bells. Church, really?
• Upstairs neighbor plays loud 90's Alt rock on Saturday nights.
• Nightly slapping sound. Like someone is quickly whacking a fat man's back. Duration: approx 20 mins.

Good points:

• Living downtown and can get a burrito, Starbucks decaf iced coffee, falafel and Subway sandwich in one afternoon. I dont, but I could.
• Small American-themed cafe downstairs in my building. Serves coffee, cocktails, and Japanese food. The owner has big glasses and a motorbike and we say "konnichiwa" when we see each other.
• Okonomiyaki restaurant around the corner has a friendly cook who makes me vegetarian food.
• A young vegetable vendor guy stands downstairs with some cheap random veggies some days. Old ladies walk by and buy single cucumbers and slip them in their purses. They all seem to know each other pretty well.
• Squeezed 20 guests inside for my housewarming party.
• Someone keeps their wifi unlocked and it's super fast.

Bad Points:

• Raspberry-chan's new room is on one of our balconies. Motto got sick of being attacked by her and we cant let her chew up the floors and wooden moulding anymore. So she's outside like some sort of animal.

I bought some new furniture and now I finally own a bed. But too be honest I miss the futons.

Motto got that insane bookshelf (pictured left) at a refurbish shop. I told him if he wants to keep his million DVDs Antonio gave him he'd better find something to keep them in.

I tried to take pictures of the place. But a video tour will probably work better. I'll do that someday. Or you could come visit.

I should make a Drunk Vegetarian Guide to Hiroshima to accompany my Fukuoka one.

Wish I Saw This...

...before I moved to Japan!



My block is "Chikko-cho." I think.

Stuck in Suckuragi

I'm considering changing my blog name. My bicycle was stolen this week, leaving me even more isolated than I was. First of all, I live in Sakuragi, a small part of Shunan city (or Tokuyama)... next to Kudamatsu (where I used to live).

So Sakuragi wasn't all bad at first. I live next to my office, there's a UniQlo closeby, a 7-11, a KFC (Ive never visited), and there were some grocery stores. For reasons unknown to me they closed both the SU-PA's in the last two months. Now, my closest grocery store is a uphill (both ways) 20 minute bike ride away. When I had a bike! Now my closest grocery store is wherever I can get if I beg a friend or coworker for a ride. This "no car" thing is not feeling very hip anymore.

Not to mention, the buses stop at 8:30PM. So I have no options to go out after work. Like, right now for example, I could be drinking beers in the park and eating snacks from the konbini with my friends. Instead I spent the whole night on the phone yelling at Indian people who work for Delta on Skype (and Orbitz, I took turns with each).

So, I'm gunna finish this can of frosting for dinner. And maybe do some drawing or something while Im stuck here.

(P.S. I have an escape plan)

Reckless Boredom

Welcome to Tokuyama.

My Newest Apartment

We'll start with the cricket.
He came out of nowhere one night, jumping in front of me, while I was watching a particularly creepy episode of Lost. Im pretty sure it was just as John didnt press the button or something. I screamed profanities and ran around in circles, then finally got myself together enough to trap him in a bowl. I left him there next to the television for over a week.
A few days ago while I was vacuuming I figured he was dead, so I lifted up the bowl. He wasnt.
Back to the bowl for you!
I contemplated just vacuuming him up, but then I realized that all my recent bad luck may be due to my imprisonment of the creepy little thing, so I let him go. How vegetarian of me.
Then, today as I was walking up the stairs I saw him sitting where I'd released him. He doesnt move. I think he's dead.
I'm screwed.

Here's my front door and washing machine. Doing chores is even more fun when you have to face the elements (and neighbors).
Walk in the front door, take off your shoes. Then notice the shower door as you enter. Hopefully I never have a house guest that I dont want to see me nude (and vice versa). The to the left is the toilet room. The glossy picture inbetween them is one of Fredrick's prints. And there's the edge of my fridge on the right (so you can orient yourself).
The box on the top right is where they control the hidden cameras.
Here's the window that overlooks my washing machine. I put the shelf and curtain up. It's nice to sit in the bath and here your neighbors coming and going. No peeking, dudes!
And the tub, the most important part of any home. Mine is square and metal. I sit indian-style in it and try not to lean my back on the cold steel before the whole tub fills.
And one of the most fun rooms in the house, the toilet room!
Mine has this nice paneling, so when I close the door and take a seat sometimes I imagine I am in a lemon-scented forest. Note the sink. That happens to be the only bathroom sink in the apartment.
Now hold on. Think about that.
I dont mind washing my hands there, but what about brushing my teeth? And everything else you should only do in your bathroom sink? I dont know. So Ive stopped doing it all.
Oh, and a mirror! Where do I give myself a look-over? You'll see.

My kitchen. All the cabinets are either too high or too low. Like me.
Dining area. Note the trash heap. I have to make a post explaining the crazy sorting system here. It may help me figure out when I should take the unburnables out.
If you look out my window you can see the school I'll be working at. Yup, right up on the fifth floor. They'll be getting a naked wave every morning (when I get out of the shower and walk through the kitchen to my bedroom).
Here's my living room, with a sliver of the dining room on the left. You can see my bookshelf, ramen flag, and all the pieces of my comic book.
My bookshelf, filled with books from all over. Again, thank you to everyone who sent me something! It's one of the best things that's happened to me since Ive been here.
My sittin' pillow on the rug I bought (on sale) at the Loft in Tokyo.
View of my living room with a peek into the bedroom on the right.
My desk. Where no magic happens. If On My Desk could see me now!
What you've all been waiting for... my bedroom. You can see where I dry my clothes when I dont want my neighbors and coworkers to see them. Actually, there's more sunlight there than off my balcony. And you can see my sad little futon and a sleeping Owl Skunk.
This is the only closet in the place. So it holds my clothes, cleaning products, art supplies, my suitcases, stuff I stole from the old apartment, etc.
You can see the futon you'll be sleeping on folded on the bottom left.
Finally, at the foot of my futon, the place where I put myself together. I got the mirror at the 100 Yen shop, but it was 1,260 yen. I cant get the price stickers off. That really bugs me. Actually, I only tried once.
The green bag is filled with pharmaceuticals.

So that's my new place. I'm living alone and I anxiously await your arrival. Make sure to bring a board game or something to do. The internet connection is a bit spotty. This post has taken over five hours (Im not kidding). But it's not like I had anything better to do today.

Did I mention the dead bat that was in here, too?

Facts of Life

Ok, I guess it's getting confusing to some readers (more like lurkers, stalkers and family members). Or maybe it's your first time here (you probably Googled Gaijin Showers and found my blog by mistake). Anyway, here's what's going on with me and the fiasco-that-is-Japan, presently:


I am sitting at a table I stole from my last apartment, writing this offline while waiting for the unsecured wireless internet signal to bless me with it's presence once more tonight. I cant stop thinking about the fact I only have 272 MB of free disc space left on my hard-drive. A balloon in the right hand corner keeps reminding me. This just leads to thoughts about buying an external hard-drive, which leads to thoughts about just buying a new laptop, which leads to thoughts about paying for internet service so I dont have to hold my laptop up with one hand at a 30 degree angle while facing northeast to get a connection. But then I remember my credit card bill. And how I havent worked in three months.

I came here in September, wide-eyed and ready to love Japan and all it's backwards kookiness. Some things helped me steer off that path; in mid-October company I worked for collapsed and filed for bankruptcy. Also, the food sucks.


It was all fun and games for a while (in between panic attacks and chocolate binges) and being unemployed and not paid for a month's work was OK because there was a big group of us going through it... having tea parties, OC marathons, and countless nomihodi. Of course, one-by-one parents stopped sending money and people started going home. Being the newest of the bunch I was determined to stick it out and have my year in Japan. I would not going back home to retail.

I went job hunting. My internet service at home was cut off, due to not paying the bill. So whenever I had ¥472 to burn I'd bike twenty minutes to the nearest internet cafe and send off my resume and headshot. The job market was flooded with thousands of gaijin newly looking for work. But by early November I'd received a few offers. One of them was at a school in Korea. I didnt want to uproot myself again so I chose an English school in Tokuyama. It's right next door to Kudamatsu and where I spent most of my time anyway.

There was one problem though, the position didnt begin until January 22. I had a brilliant plan of working at a Korean winter camp for the two months in between, but even after a phone interview I was unable to work it out.

So, to make a long story longer, I spent a few months squatting in my apartment (no one paid the rent, no one made me leave). The days went by slowly. I spent them reading books, taking baths, cooking, meeting people, drinking and trying to get private English lessons. Poverty and stress took the fun out of unemployment, but there were some adventures.


Jon came in early December and saved me from total despair (temporarily), he left for Australia, came back, and we met up in Tokyo. After a week I went back to Kudamatsu, packed up my stuff and moved into my new apartment in Tokuyama. I have two weeks before my new job begins. I have two months before I receive my first full paycheck. And I never got the money owed to me from the first school I worked for.


Right now I'm stuck in Japan, financially. I refuse to leave before paying off the debt accumulated by coming here.

I live in Japan out of spite.


(Christmas party photo)

Maybe OK

I got a job offer! The position starts January 22. It's a good school around where I'm living now. Pay is good, hours are short, company isnt bankrupt... everything I've been dreaming of. I have also had a phone interview for an ESL winter camp in Korea, to fill the time (and wallet) until the other job starts.

We'll see, we'll see. I'm totally expecting something to go terribly wrong so I wont let myself get too happy yet. But, yesterday after the interview I celebrated by buying myself this ￥300 kawaii tiny fake cookie set.

So if I dont think about how I havent paid any of my bills this month (and wont be for the next two) and how I could possibly be kicked out of my apartment at any moment-- I am totally pumped.

Never Have I Ever...

A synopsis of last night.

Where I Live

First, you can see our front door and "adopted" plant, that was acquired on a late night boredom induced walk. Then there's the entry way, with the shoe-take-off-spot. And you can see my bedroom, illuminated in blue. With my futon on the floor... and that's about it.



My toilet and a short filmed based on it:








The toilet, shower, and sink are in different rooms. The cool thing about the shower and tub room is you bathe in the whole space. And there is some sort of crotch mirror (actually, I guess most Japanese sit while showering, so I guess it is a face mirror).



The whole place is a lot bigger than it looks in these photos. We dont have any stuff and the apartment is actually pretty sparse. And with the insane garbage sorting you have to do here, we always have plastic bags filled with trash somewhere (I think there are five on the balcony right now).



My Flickr page and YouTube page have both been updated, too.

*Busting Myths: 1)I am not [more] depressed [than usual], 2)Im being sarcastic about The Mall, 3)I do not want to leave.