[Sangetsu]

My first apartment in Japan wasn't much more than a matchbox. It had a "kitchenette", which is a single electric burner for cooking, and a sink too small to hold an American size dinner plate, unless you put it in sideways. The refrigerator would hold a 6 pack of beer comfortably, but without leaving room for anything else. The shower/tub was small enough that I often bumped my elbows when trying to get clean. It had a single room, which was where I ate, slept, and lived.

I then rented a new house in the countryside which was much nicer. The stove was upgraded to a 3 burner gas model which worked wonderfully well. Unfortunately, Japanese cooking stoves don't include the large oven which come with stoves commonly used in America, only a small broiler for cooking fish. The bathroom had a much larger tub, with a modern inline water heater which keeps the bath water at a constant temperature. The rooms were large, with sliding doors and hardwood flooring.

Then I was transferred to Tokyo and I moved into another small apartment, not much different from the one I got when I first moved here. Unfortunately, in the city things are not well laid out, homes, apartment buildings, factories, and office buildings are all mixed together. My apartment was located between a copy machine repair center and a bicycle shop, with a hotel across on one side, and the railroad tracks on the other, noisy didn't begin to describe it.

Recently I moved to a new apartment in Shirokanedai, which is one of the better districts in Tokyo. The apartment is a 1LDK, about three times the size of my old apartment. It is in a new building, so it has a lot of modern touches, like an automatic bath. The tub itself is a modern version of the old claw-foot tubs popular in America and Europe in the 18th century. It's nice to be able to lay back in the tub instead of sitting upright in it with my knees under my chin. The kitchen is also nice, with a big sink, stone counter tops, and a 4 burner stove. The refrigerator (a moving-in gift) is large, with an ice maker and a large freezer. The bedroom is upstairs, similar to a loft, but with a high ceiling, and it has a nice view of the living room. The best feature is that the apartment has a washer and a dryer. For some reason clothes dryers have never caught on in Japan, and most people still hang their laundry outside. All in all, I love the new place, but it's not cheap, the rent works out to about $2200 USD per month.

One of the good things about the new apartment is that it is in a residential area, with no businesses very close. What I don't like about it is that it doesn't include a parking space, and I need to buy a car next year. I'll have to rent a spot, which is far from cheap in this area.

Ah yes, the best thing is that this apartment actually has insulation. My old matchbox apartment was as poorly insulated as many Japanese places tend to be. In the summer I had to keep the AC on all the time just to keep it a little cool, and in the summer the heater couldn't keep it warm enough to allow me to walk around without a sweater. Running the AC or heater all the time was expensive, and my monthly electric bill was about 9000 yen per month. My electric bill for last month at my new apartment was only 1800 yen.

But after all is said and done, I miss my house in Miami. The kitchen in my old house was bigger than some people's apartments in Tokyo, and I miss having large front and back yards with large trees in them.