Watashi wa Ido! (私は移動!)

For those of you not up to snuff on your Japanese grammar (shame on you), there really isn't a way to properly convey the difference between 'I am moving' (active present tense) and 'I will move' (future tense). Japanese really doesn't have a future tense, which can be quite troubling for those of us who grew up learning to conjugate verbs this way. My theory is that Japanese people don't believe in the future tense because they constantly LIVE in the future. But my theory is a little ridiculous at best.

The end result is the same. I have moved. I traded in my inexpensive apartment for a slightly more (yet still reasonable) expensive one. There are multiple reasons for this choice;

1. My new apartment is not directly between a highway an overactive train line. For someone who occasionally enjoys sleeping, it is not an ideal situation to be living between two loud modes of transportation.
New apartment 1, Old apartment 0.

2. There are stores, restaurants, shopping malls, and other social venues nearby (including a great jazz bar). A 20 minute bike-ride is not required to go to the convenience store. It's now a 30 second walk.
New apartment 2, Old apartment 0.

3. There is a significant lack of screaming babies next door. Again, this is beneficial for the beauty sleep I so desperately need. In fact, my new next-door neighbour is a fellow white person who will drink and entertain me.
New apartment 5, Old apartment 0.

4. Fourth thing!

So the math is there. For an extra 100 bucks a month, I get sleep, social activity, drinking buddies and genuine convenience. I win this round of the real-estate game.

Here are some incredibly invasive pictures of my new place;

 It comes with a bathtub! Good so far...

 Japanese sentient toilet... I'll live with that...

 Okay, it's a little small...

 But there's a balcony! With a view! (View to be added later)

The adorable flat screen TV was an added perk... but this is by far my favourite part;

It's a gimp closet! A little walk-in closet where you can probably keep up to 3 Japanese people captive, if you so desire. It's so adorably creepy and inappropriate! New apartment +10. I'd also like to point out that my bed is no longer 10 feet off the ground. My old place had a bed-loft that practically kissed my 10 foot ceilings. Makes getting up to pee in the middle of the night less dangerous. This was the drop from my old bed;

So in short, I'm pretty happy with the new living situation. I might even go as far as "stoked," although I really hate that word.

Pillow in a bag! Side note; this is actually how I bought it.

And this is a beautiful sunset I saw the other day;

I've also gotten very good at making paper cranes;

We had some down time at work, so I kept busy...

And then there's this;

"Please stop stabbing our children in the face with your giant man-sized tobacco sticks."

Japan has recently begun villainizing smokers, in an effort to keep people from smoking on the streets. In 90% of downtown Tokyo, it is now ILLEGAL to smoke on the sidwalks, and smokers are confined to predetermined corners to get their fix. Now, as a smoker myself, I find this decision a little ridiculous, but I conform to the local customs. I stand with the huddled masses and politely suck on my death-stick like a good little girl. The goal of keeping smoking to a confined area is good in practice, until you consider the application. This is Japan. There are more people on this tiny island than most countries in the world. These areas (especially in Tokyo) simply cannot accommodate the sheer VOLUME of the smoking public. So the end result is huge mushroom clouds on street corners that are completely unavoidable for non-smokers. The more delicate "anti-smokers" are now forced to inhale our second hand smoke periodically throughout Tokyo. Suck it in, pansies! (kidding).

On a completely unrelated note, tomorrow I will be going to "Home Center," which is just as exciting as it sounds. I am determined to domesticate my little postage stamp apartment as best I can.

おやすみ !