Adventures in Japan

Movin' on down

We've found a new place to live. It's called Orange House and we move in on Monday (which is a national holiday here, by the way). It's dingy and a little smelly, and we'll have to share a bathroom with a pay shower, but the pluses outweigh the minuses. First of all, it's cheap. About a third of what we're paying to stay in the hotel. Our room has its own "kitchen" so we won't have to eat out all the time, plus a closet so we'll finally have somewhere to hang our clothes. It's on a pretty little side street and there's a lounge on the roof. The TV up there has cable (including the Cartoon Network). But the real selling point was the high-speed internet in our room. That would cost us an arm and a leg if we were in our own self-contained apartment. Plus it would take a long time to set up. So I think that with a little elbow grease and some strategically placed air fresheners our new room will be 100% livable.

I tell you, I am really looking forward to getting all my stuff unpacked. And now that we have an address, we can look after getting the all-important Alien Registration Cards. Once we have those, we can get Japanese bank accounts and phones and all sorts of other good stuff. If you're a foreigner in Japan without one of those cards, you essentially don't exist. Or are a tourist, which is almost the same thing.