Jinja and Shoga: Life in the Land of the Rising Sun

   Well, it's official. We applied for a contract on a new apartment, and Yuki's background check was accepted yesterday. So some time around the end of next month, we'll be moving into our new place!
  Perhaps this doesn't seem like huge news, but it's colossal news if you've been living in a place that's 242 feet square (not including upstairs storage space, at least, I don't think it's included--as small as this place seems though, it very well may be) for the past 3 years. And now, we get to move into a place that's 710 feet square!! Yes, still dinky by American standards, but it's a quite decent apartment if you're in Japan.
 Plus, it's a 2-story duplex, so we get 2 bedrooms upstairs along with (of course) a bathroom, kitchen, and living/dining area downstairs. This is pretty typical for Japanese apartments, and as much as I'd like a 3-bedroom, this place allows pets and is situated in a quiet area, right next to a rice field but only about 10 minutes' walk from the station. Good location trumps extra bedroom any day.
  We took a few pictures of the model apartment that we saw on Sunday, since ours is still occupied for the time being. About 5.5 weeks to go until I can walk across the room without tripping over Yuki, the cat, or both!

            A galley kitchen by US terms, but huge in comparison to what we have now!

            The only reason I'm showing this is to point out the panel that lets you select the exact temperature of your bathwater. I love Japanese technology!


                  If I'm going to break another leg, you know where it'll happen!