The text of this post was originally written in April, 2004 as part of an online diary I kept before I actually started my blog. I'd forgotten about it until I ran across it in February 2008. I inserted it into my blog then, assigning dates appropriate to the content instead of to the time I actually added it. Thus, these April 2004 posts show up as my “first posts” in my list of posts, even though I didn't actually start a blog until a year later with my first post about buying a car in Japan.
There's nothing here of interest to anyone but me; I insert it here so that it's together with my other posts (which are also of little interest to anyone but me :-)) Any comments I add while posting this to my blog in February 2008 appear like this.
This was originally written just after we moved from California to Japan, so our days were dominated by jet lag, and trying to set up our life and newly-acquired apartment. Anthony was 18 months old.
Anthony woke up at 5:15 again, getting only half the sleep he should have. He was monumentally fussy during the morning. Luckily, once Fumie got up at around 7:30, I was able to pass out for a couple of hours, getting some much-needed extra sleep.
Mom watched Anthony again so Fumie and I could drive up to the apartment to deliver a load of stuff, such as the light we'd bought the other day. We brought our new cell phones with us, although we didn't really know how to use them. This was the third time for me to go the apartment (the first having been Apr 10th when Mom drove, and the 2nd by train the other day). I was happy that I could make the hour-plus drive directly — my years of tooling around Kyoto on my motorcycle were not for naught.
I installed the light, and we did other putzing-around stuff. Fumie had a moment of doubt about the fridge color, but in the end decided to keep it as is, and in doing so, firmed up her decision on the microwave oven.
I also got the forms for applying for the in-apartment internet service. All the advertisements I've seen so far have said one gets 10MBit service for free, but it turns out that it's 100MBit service for 30 bucks a month, with five IP addresses. Although infinitely more expensive than what I thought, it's still a fantastic deal. I'll submit the paperwork tomorrow.
On the way home, we stopped by a different electronics store (Midori-denki) to compare prices, and more importantly, selection. We looked for a nice simple Japanese-style light for the one Japanese-style room in the apartment, and found some nice ones (Yamada-denki had nothing appropriate). I bought one for $130.
We visited a futon shop as well. They had a massage chair that we partook of, but at $6,500, we decided not to buy :-). They showed us some special futons that help relieve an aching back. At 3.5x the price of a normal futon ($700ish rather than $200ish), the new lightness of one's wallet may be enough to relieve the backache!
On the way back from there, we once again stopped by Yamada-denki, this time to buy a washer/dryer and microwave oven. She choose the Toshiba TW80TA, a top-of-the-line washer/dryer combo (in one unit with one drum). As a bonus, it was on sale at a hundred or so dollars off, and so was only $1,600. Yeah.
(It didn't take us long to find out that this washer/dryer is horrible. It takes four or five hours to do a small load, and once the drying has started, your clothes are held hostage because nothing short of a reciprocating saw will get your clothes out until it decides to let you have them. Not long into the drying cycle, the time-left readout might indicate 47 minutes left, but when you look again in an hour, it indicates 34 minutes left. We hate this Toshiba washer/dryer.
She also got a microwave oven. I think she got a Toshiba ERB6, which is a combo convection oven and microwave oven. A bargain(?) at $650. They'll both be delivered on Friday, along with the fridge.
We stopped by the bento shop for dinner, and came home at 9:30ish to find Anthony, yet again, sleeping in the stroller. When he starts to get tired, Mom brings him for a stroll to let him sleep. I ate dinner, and brought him up to bed (futon), where he's sleeping beside me now, as I type. Time for me to join him.
Hi there,
I have just moved to Japan as my husband has started his PhD here. It is nice to see your blog with all the details required for settling into Japan. I was particularly interested in the washing machine combo you have mentioned here. I want to buy a combo that is not too expensive and works well. Any ideas? Thanks a lot 🙂
I highly recommend against that combo, or perhaps any combo. We now use a stand-alone washer (Panasonic NA-FS80H2) and dryer (Hitachi DE-N55FX), and are very happy with them. —Jeffrey