My home away from home

I live in a 16m^2 apartment. If that is hard to imagine in metric units, the conversion is 172ft^2. To get a better idea, think of the size of a 13ft x 13ft room. This room would include your bedroom, living room, dining room, kitchen, laundry room, and bathroom. Initially, the place felt really cramped and unorganized. The bed was on the left wall, jutting out into the room, with the bookshelf between the bed and the back wall (on which the sliding balcony doors are). The desk was on the back wall directly in front of where you enter the apartment, to the right of the sliding glass balcony doors. The dining room table, fridge, microwave, rice maker, and water heater, were all on the right wall. I never took a picture of the apartment because I could never get it to look neat enough. I hated having to walk around my bed over getting ready in the morning: the bookshelf serves as a shelf for my food, preening equipment, papers/books, socks, and underwear. About two weeks ago, I moved the furniture around and immediately felt so much better. Now the bed is the only thing on the right wall/back wall to the right of the doors. Everything else is pretty much on the left wall. The room feels so much larger now and the traffic flow is much better. The only problem is that the air conditioner drips water only my bed now.

The bathroom is possibly the tiniest full bathroom ever. The toilet is set at an angle so that you can squeeze past it, the bathtub indents in the middle so you can stand in front of the little mirror, and the tub is as wide as the little sink. Conveniently, the ceiling in the shower comes down to 5'5" for 75% of the width so I have to keep my head in the narrow space between the ceiling and the shower curtain; I pretty much have my face in the curtain. Thankfully, I have yet to hit my head on the corner of the ceiling, though it does tend to get shampoo on it from the occasional brush-by. Yes, the shower head is detachable but I generally just end up bending my knees and leaning to get under it because there is not enough room to lift my arms to hold the shower head. Plus side: I take super short showers here :-) I had a guest stay at my apartment to watch Sumo wrestling, she never returned from the bathroom without commenting on how tiny it was and how it was an adventure to try and use. She also ragged on my rock hard bean pillow. 

I have a washing machine, which is great. Unfortunately, I do not have a dryer. Sometimes I need to wash my clothes twice because when it rains for three days, they do not dry quickly enough and end up smelling like a locker room (which is much worse than when they were in the hamper as "dirty" the first time). 

I have a kitchen :-) It has a sink and a stovetop burner. I miss having an oven... sooo much. So many of my typical meals are cooked in an oven. I do have a microwave though. I think I have used the microwave once.

The international housing apartment is maybe 2km from lab? I'm not sure but it takes about 20 min to walk there, 10 min to bike there (up hill), or 5 min to bike home (due to traffic lights). Side note* everyone abides by the pedestrian laws: not crossing if it says not to cross, even if it is a minor side street and nobody is around. I am not a huge fan of arriving at work wet from either rain or sweat but I do enjoy how the exercise it built into my daily-routine. 

My biggest complaint about the accommodations is the quality. The floor boards are pealing. You are not allowed to wear shoes inside homes in Japan but my floor splinters constantly. I cannot move without my socks catching on the floor and I don't dare go barefoot. I have slippers and some very cliche house shoes I wear at home. In addition, the mold is very visible on the walls. In the most OCD moment of my life, I vacuumed the walls. You shouldn't be able to hear clicking sounds from products being removed from the walls. Still, I was unable to remove the mold. Side note* I'm not actually OCD, I just hate feeling sick from mold allergies. Even all of these things wouldn't be bad for a temporary residence in such a fun country... until I found out my unit is basically the most expensive possible international housing option. I have seen the other places; they are closer and/or nicer and all less expensive (some 75% less/mo). I think it is completely unacceptable to rent out university units in this condition. 

So there ya go. If I didn't own so much stuff, I would consider moving into a ~550ft^2 studio in G-A; it would feel like a palace after this.