new apartment
It's a been another frustrating week. But not too bad, thankfully; not sure I could handle a lot more if it kept on the way it was going.
I found an apartment. Sort of.
It's actually a "guesthouse," which means I share a bathroom and a kitchen with all the people on my floor. Which I thought would kind of suck, but doesn't so much. It's like living in the college dorms again, but I'm a lot less shy, so it's not horrible. It's cheap, gives me a permanent address, and there is no contract, so if I DO decide it sucks I can move because I haven't tied myself to it beyond a month at a time. It's also kind of nice because of all the things provided for me. Somebody else takes out the trash every day. So I don't have to worry about which day and which bag. Is today clean plastics? or burnable? etc. There is a small gym (the manly kind with nothing but weights though), a small library (books people leave behind, I suppose), laundry room, etc. And my rent includes all utilities, cable tv, and internet, so I don't have to worry about those either.
My room before I moved in. Now the shelves are mostly full.
The view from my window = typical Japan as far as I can tell.
dining area.
kitchen.
I live on the same floor as the "roof-top" area. So I frequently have breakfast and evening dessert/drink out here. It's too hot to purposely go outside anytime after breakfast though. haha. The sun and I have never gotten along.
Of course, the problem with living on the same floor as the rooftop deck is that it's 6 floors up and there is no elevator. As it is now I start breathing hard by the time I reach the 4th floor. So my first goal, be able to climb all 6 floors without feeling like I'm going to die. Small goals are achievable goals and I don't think I'm asking for too much here.
Anyway...
Since I finally got a place to live I went to register my new address with the City Ward Office. But they required an official certificate from Fukuchiyama's City Office stating that I had indeed lived there before. So the dude told me I would have to go to Fukuchiyama to get it. I looked plaintively at him and another dude came by and was like, "or you could just fill out this sheet and get it mailed to you." So I did that.
Mail takes longer than the train, but costs about 3000Y less and I don't actually have to do any work besides dropping the envelope in the mail box.
Basically this means I have to wait to receive the official certificate though before I can do anything else. (i.e register new address on gaijin card, on health insurance, and Driver's license.).
So...
at the rate of about 1 thing per week I may actually officially live in Japan again by about....September. lol. Freakin' bureaucracy needs more paper to push.
Since I'm not actually making any money right now I'm trying to live somewhat cheaply, but also trying to enjoy myself at least a little. (and by that I mean yes, I bought concert tickets, but I'm still mostly living on 18Y Udon noodles and the occasional vegetable)... :D
I found several Japanese classes on the city's official website, so I'm going to try to join 1 or 2 of those once the weekend is over.
I also found a yoga class and am trying to convince myself to join. I feel like it's kind of expensive, but I do really enjoy yoga. It's pretty much the only physical exercise I actually choose to do...on purpose. Also, sadly, I feel like I'm too fat to join...gotta' lose weight before I can exercise in public...>.< stupid brain has dumb thoughts sometimes.
Part of my saving money and staying out of the sun plan has included lots of tv watching. Almost finished with Gossip Girl and just started a new KDrama called "BIG." If you watched the Tom Hanks movie--you know, boy in the body of an adult--well, it's kind of like that, but not at all. But watching it made me wonder if Jang Keun Suk has anything new out so I was looking him up and found that he's released a couple of albums in Japan.
but also,
(he likes LMFAO)
His music label is Pony Canyon, same label as LM.C. The colors in the first video kind of hinted that to me.
All this idol gawking made me think back to Jiro Wang, the Taiwanese idol that introduced me to the Gazette. And since I have nothing but time I checked out his blog too. Well he changed the soundtrack song from Crucify Sorrow to Reila, but pretty much everything else seems to be the same--lots of commercial photo shoots and referring to himself in the third person. I guess that's idol life.
I found an apartment. Sort of.
It's actually a "guesthouse," which means I share a bathroom and a kitchen with all the people on my floor. Which I thought would kind of suck, but doesn't so much. It's like living in the college dorms again, but I'm a lot less shy, so it's not horrible. It's cheap, gives me a permanent address, and there is no contract, so if I DO decide it sucks I can move because I haven't tied myself to it beyond a month at a time. It's also kind of nice because of all the things provided for me. Somebody else takes out the trash every day. So I don't have to worry about which day and which bag. Is today clean plastics? or burnable? etc. There is a small gym (the manly kind with nothing but weights though), a small library (books people leave behind, I suppose), laundry room, etc. And my rent includes all utilities, cable tv, and internet, so I don't have to worry about those either.
My room before I moved in. Now the shelves are mostly full.
The view from my window = typical Japan as far as I can tell.
dining area.
kitchen.
I live on the same floor as the "roof-top" area. So I frequently have breakfast and evening dessert/drink out here. It's too hot to purposely go outside anytime after breakfast though. haha. The sun and I have never gotten along.
Of course, the problem with living on the same floor as the rooftop deck is that it's 6 floors up and there is no elevator. As it is now I start breathing hard by the time I reach the 4th floor. So my first goal, be able to climb all 6 floors without feeling like I'm going to die. Small goals are achievable goals and I don't think I'm asking for too much here.
Anyway...
Since I finally got a place to live I went to register my new address with the City Ward Office. But they required an official certificate from Fukuchiyama's City Office stating that I had indeed lived there before. So the dude told me I would have to go to Fukuchiyama to get it. I looked plaintively at him and another dude came by and was like, "or you could just fill out this sheet and get it mailed to you." So I did that.
Mail takes longer than the train, but costs about 3000Y less and I don't actually have to do any work besides dropping the envelope in the mail box.
Basically this means I have to wait to receive the official certificate though before I can do anything else. (i.e register new address on gaijin card, on health insurance, and Driver's license.).
So...
at the rate of about 1 thing per week I may actually officially live in Japan again by about....September. lol. Freakin' bureaucracy needs more paper to push.
Since I'm not actually making any money right now I'm trying to live somewhat cheaply, but also trying to enjoy myself at least a little. (and by that I mean yes, I bought concert tickets, but I'm still mostly living on 18Y Udon noodles and the occasional vegetable)... :D
I found several Japanese classes on the city's official website, so I'm going to try to join 1 or 2 of those once the weekend is over.
I also found a yoga class and am trying to convince myself to join. I feel like it's kind of expensive, but I do really enjoy yoga. It's pretty much the only physical exercise I actually choose to do...on purpose. Also, sadly, I feel like I'm too fat to join...gotta' lose weight before I can exercise in public...>.< stupid brain has dumb thoughts sometimes.
Part of my saving money and staying out of the sun plan has included lots of tv watching. Almost finished with Gossip Girl and just started a new KDrama called "BIG." If you watched the Tom Hanks movie--you know, boy in the body of an adult--well, it's kind of like that, but not at all. But watching it made me wonder if Jang Keun Suk has anything new out so I was looking him up and found that he's released a couple of albums in Japan.
Click to viewbut also,
(he likes LMFAO)
His music label is Pony Canyon, same label as LM.C. The colors in the first video kind of hinted that to me.
All this idol gawking made me think back to Jiro Wang, the Taiwanese idol that introduced me to the Gazette. And since I have nothing but time I checked out his blog too. Well he changed the soundtrack song from Crucify Sorrow to Reila, but pretty much everything else seems to be the same--lots of commercial photo shoots and referring to himself in the third person. I guess that's idol life.