Arranging Life in Tokyo, part 1: Accommodation
As I started this post, it was my honest intend to make several LJ-cuts and go over where I am in terms of all the different aspects of settling down in a new country, new city and new phrase of life. However, it soon became evident that such an entry would be of monstrous length, what with how wordy I am and also with simply how much content there is. Thus, this first entry of my magical adventure of living in Japan shall focus on one aspect and one aspect only.
When I departed for Tokyo, I already had an apartment reserved for myself and I was feeling quite good about it. It seemed like a huge stroke of luck that I ended up getting recommended this Japanese lady, who has studied in Finland herself, and who now rents places to Finns in Tokyo. Sure, the rent for the place turned out to be almost on the side of *too* expensive for what I can afford, but the location was convenient, the room was spacious, it had the basic furnitures, free internet and free laundry. It would enable me to get right into the swing of things, the moment I arrived~!
... The things that are too good to be true? Yeah, this was definitely one of those cases. Going quite against all my expectations, my accommodation has been the single source of most trouble, stress and frustration that I have had to experience here.
There are certain aspects of the apartment that I am not too fond of:
-For one, the hot water is erratically available at the best. Now, this was something I was somewhat prepared for, at least mentally. I mean, what apartments don't come with some "cute" little personal quirks, right? And while I do love my hot showers, it is probably better for my monthly water bill that I do not get too comfy in the shower.
-Another charming little detail is that the airing system of the bathroom is not actually efficient enough to handle the overall moisture in the air *and* dry the bathroom at the same time. This I have been able to somewhat solve by getting myself some equipment to wipe the bathtub after each use. Again, it's somewhat annoying, but not a huge discomfort.
-Thirdly and possibly much more importantly, I also faced a bunch of problems with the free internet connection; mainly the fact that it was not working. My computer did find the network and I did manage to get a connection, but I would get disconnected every half a minute or so. It probably doesn't even need to be mentioned, but this would be reason I didn't update sooner. Now, with a trip to Akiba and over 10 meters of LSD cable later, the connection seems to be stable and working fine. *crosses fingers*.
However, the little things, such as the ones mentioned above, were indeed things that I was expecting. Sure, I didn't foresee these specific issues, but I was more than mentally prepared to face somewhat annoying complications to my daily comfort and some speed bumps in the beginning as things got sorted out. That's how life tends to be and I do so try to be a realist in my expectations. The truly upsetting and stressful things were on quite different level, though.
The first thing that caused me serious distress was how absolutely unclean the apartment was. It was messy, per say, just very unclean. Since Japan is pretty famous for its obsessive level of hygiene, I was not at all prepared to find my apartment dusty, stained and slightly stinky. Every surface was dusty, the sink and bathtub had bunch of stains and the over all odour of the place was not a pleasant one. However, while upsetting, it was not the end of the world. After recovering some from the initial wave of distress and appalled shock, I headed out to start buy cleaning supplies and start my long process of disinfecting, washing and scrubbing the place from the floor to the ceiling. (Though in all fairness, I have not washed the ceiling, just the walls and floors and every single item on said floors) Starting from the most urgent, aka bathroom, I worked my way through the place, today finishing up with kitchen, which was the final thing.
Unfortunately, as my scrubbing proceeded, the odour of the apartment did not seem to improve the least bit. Extensive airing of the room did not help, so I figured that it was probably the textiles. After first trying to get the situation sorted out by some de-odorizing and sanitizing spray, which seemed to do little to no good, I more than happily packed away the ugly, not to mention dusty and icky, carpets into airtight compression bags. Then I went ahead and bought myself a brand spanking new futon and pillow, washed all the linens and gave the old futon the same treatment as the carpets. Ta-dah~! It was all quite a lot of effort, since them futons aren't exactly the lightest things and the air tight bags turned out to be quite a bit smaller than their package promised, so it was only with a lot of trial and error that I managed to finally squeeze everything into their designated bags. Once done with this whole ordeal, I was very much prepared to move on and start truly making a home for myself.
Of course, this was not to be. The smell stayed around and after careful sniffing and inspecting, I could only conclude that the culprit is the tatami. My room has a raised tatami covered area for sleeping and my current educated guess is that the tatami is moldy. When I brought this up with my landlady, she was fairly dismissive, saying that the tatami have been placed last December, so they are fairly new and that the two previous tenants have not complained of the smell. Hmm, could this be because, oh, I don't know, one (or both) of them are indirectly the cause of the smell?! There is a futon shaped, clearly darker, more grey and green area on the tatami. One that would be created by, say, someone leaving their futon out on the tatami for all the time. In turn, this would make the tatami unable to breath, creating a nice little environment for some mold to settle down and start a family.
I have yet to be able to convince my landlady to do something to the tatami. I half suspect she might be stalling in hopes that I sign the lease agreement and thus make renewing the tatami my own problem, seeing how there is such a clause in the paper. With tatami prices being roughly $200 a piece and the room needing 3, I'm determined to not take that expense on myself. There is a very real possibility that the landlady simply will conclude the tatami are fine and that she won't do a thing, in which case my only real option is to start all over again and try to find a new place to live. Mold really is neither good for my allergies nor for my asthmatic tendencies, so prolonged co-habitation with it is just not an option. Especially not when the smell is making that whole area of the room unusable; I can't place anything there, because the smell will stick to especially textiles. I also have to keep the A/C system constantly running, because otherwise the air in the room will go stale and the smell will be everywhere.
In conclusion, almost two and a half weeks in and I am still unable to get comfortable in my apartment, which does not bode well for the weeks and months to come seeing how this is supposed to be my sanctuary and the one place where I can feel at least somewhat at home.
When I departed for Tokyo, I already had an apartment reserved for myself and I was feeling quite good about it. It seemed like a huge stroke of luck that I ended up getting recommended this Japanese lady, who has studied in Finland herself, and who now rents places to Finns in Tokyo. Sure, the rent for the place turned out to be almost on the side of *too* expensive for what I can afford, but the location was convenient, the room was spacious, it had the basic furnitures, free internet and free laundry. It would enable me to get right into the swing of things, the moment I arrived~!
... The things that are too good to be true? Yeah, this was definitely one of those cases. Going quite against all my expectations, my accommodation has been the single source of most trouble, stress and frustration that I have had to experience here.
There are certain aspects of the apartment that I am not too fond of:
-For one, the hot water is erratically available at the best. Now, this was something I was somewhat prepared for, at least mentally. I mean, what apartments don't come with some "cute" little personal quirks, right? And while I do love my hot showers, it is probably better for my monthly water bill that I do not get too comfy in the shower.
-Another charming little detail is that the airing system of the bathroom is not actually efficient enough to handle the overall moisture in the air *and* dry the bathroom at the same time. This I have been able to somewhat solve by getting myself some equipment to wipe the bathtub after each use. Again, it's somewhat annoying, but not a huge discomfort.
-Thirdly and possibly much more importantly, I also faced a bunch of problems with the free internet connection; mainly the fact that it was not working. My computer did find the network and I did manage to get a connection, but I would get disconnected every half a minute or so. It probably doesn't even need to be mentioned, but this would be reason I didn't update sooner. Now, with a trip to Akiba and over 10 meters of LSD cable later, the connection seems to be stable and working fine. *crosses fingers*.
However, the little things, such as the ones mentioned above, were indeed things that I was expecting. Sure, I didn't foresee these specific issues, but I was more than mentally prepared to face somewhat annoying complications to my daily comfort and some speed bumps in the beginning as things got sorted out. That's how life tends to be and I do so try to be a realist in my expectations. The truly upsetting and stressful things were on quite different level, though.
The first thing that caused me serious distress was how absolutely unclean the apartment was. It was messy, per say, just very unclean. Since Japan is pretty famous for its obsessive level of hygiene, I was not at all prepared to find my apartment dusty, stained and slightly stinky. Every surface was dusty, the sink and bathtub had bunch of stains and the over all odour of the place was not a pleasant one. However, while upsetting, it was not the end of the world. After recovering some from the initial wave of distress and appalled shock, I headed out to start buy cleaning supplies and start my long process of disinfecting, washing and scrubbing the place from the floor to the ceiling. (Though in all fairness, I have not washed the ceiling, just the walls and floors and every single item on said floors) Starting from the most urgent, aka bathroom, I worked my way through the place, today finishing up with kitchen, which was the final thing.
Unfortunately, as my scrubbing proceeded, the odour of the apartment did not seem to improve the least bit. Extensive airing of the room did not help, so I figured that it was probably the textiles. After first trying to get the situation sorted out by some de-odorizing and sanitizing spray, which seemed to do little to no good, I more than happily packed away the ugly, not to mention dusty and icky, carpets into airtight compression bags. Then I went ahead and bought myself a brand spanking new futon and pillow, washed all the linens and gave the old futon the same treatment as the carpets. Ta-dah~! It was all quite a lot of effort, since them futons aren't exactly the lightest things and the air tight bags turned out to be quite a bit smaller than their package promised, so it was only with a lot of trial and error that I managed to finally squeeze everything into their designated bags. Once done with this whole ordeal, I was very much prepared to move on and start truly making a home for myself.
Of course, this was not to be. The smell stayed around and after careful sniffing and inspecting, I could only conclude that the culprit is the tatami. My room has a raised tatami covered area for sleeping and my current educated guess is that the tatami is moldy. When I brought this up with my landlady, she was fairly dismissive, saying that the tatami have been placed last December, so they are fairly new and that the two previous tenants have not complained of the smell. Hmm, could this be because, oh, I don't know, one (or both) of them are indirectly the cause of the smell?! There is a futon shaped, clearly darker, more grey and green area on the tatami. One that would be created by, say, someone leaving their futon out on the tatami for all the time. In turn, this would make the tatami unable to breath, creating a nice little environment for some mold to settle down and start a family.
I have yet to be able to convince my landlady to do something to the tatami. I half suspect she might be stalling in hopes that I sign the lease agreement and thus make renewing the tatami my own problem, seeing how there is such a clause in the paper. With tatami prices being roughly $200 a piece and the room needing 3, I'm determined to not take that expense on myself. There is a very real possibility that the landlady simply will conclude the tatami are fine and that she won't do a thing, in which case my only real option is to start all over again and try to find a new place to live. Mold really is neither good for my allergies nor for my asthmatic tendencies, so prolonged co-habitation with it is just not an option. Especially not when the smell is making that whole area of the room unusable; I can't place anything there, because the smell will stick to especially textiles. I also have to keep the A/C system constantly running, because otherwise the air in the room will go stale and the smell will be everywhere.
In conclusion, almost two and a half weeks in and I am still unable to get comfortable in my apartment, which does not bode well for the weeks and months to come seeing how this is supposed to be my sanctuary and the one place where I can feel at least somewhat at home.