So here we are! In our new place. It's awesome. There are a few typical Japanese odd things.. a toilet with ALL the works. Seat warmer (that we haven't worked out how to turn off), bidet etc ... There is no oven ... but gas stove tops though. The doors are all too small. I have to duck to get through them.. but they are not proportionate to the room – which are all quite large. God help Garry and Sam if they visit! The table that I am sitting at is great. It essentially is a hole in the ground that you raise the table out of and it sits on stilts. Which means that you drop your legs underneath (leaving enough room to cross your legs) and the table sits at waist height – perfect for eating. AND there is a heater under there to keep our legs warm in the winter!! It's very practical – and can be leveled out during the day if you want to. The two bedrooms have tatami mats. We will probably not use upstairs much at all. We have considered possibly renting a room out ... but we'll see.

There is heaps of storage space too. So yesterday Hisako San took us to the real estate agent where for 30 minutes or so I understood pretty much nothing of what was going on. When all was said and done Simon told me that we had paid 2 months in advance. (75,000 yen pm / $750 pm) We have a month by month agreement. We have the place for 2 years if we want it. We are insured and can also do as much gardening as we like. Hisako San then drove us to get some utilities hooked up at the town hall. We need to do the gas today (... hot shower ...**sigh). Hisako San also went guarantor ... which was soooo kind. I bought her a bunch of flowers & with terrible Japanese thanked her.

After we did all we could with Hisako San and put a load of washing on at the local laundro-mat we took the train to Uchihara where there is an enormous 'Chadstone' like shopping centre. We bought a washing machine, some lamps, hair dryer (!!), bed, bedding, towels and some bath mats. All of these goods are being delivered today or tomorrow so we lugged the futon & a towel and a lamp home. However Simon got a little confused by the trains .. so what should have taken us 10 minutes took 1 ½ hours!! We were exhausted. We had to carry home all our goods as well as the clean clothes & some groceries. By the time we got back the house at 6pm Simon had to go straight to training & I lasted about 1 hour. I was asleep by 7.30 ... got up to see Si at 9pm for 30 mins or so then I slept until 7.30am. Simon is just home from morning training now and he is absolutely knackered – he has gone straight to bed! We also don’t have much to cook with so we are living on cold 7/11 food – which isn't so bad but we are both looking forward to being able to cook at home. We are both loosing weight.

Still need to buy a fridge and a bike .. heaps of kitchen stuff. We really want to make this place a home. 

Thursday 19th July 2007 ... 7.30pm

I have just typed everything into my computer – I had hand written it all. We had another successful day with getting the gas hooked up. We missed the delivery of the electric stuff though so no washing machine or other bits and pieces. Hopefully they will return tomorrow. I got a bike today. $110, very standard japanese bike. No gears and very feminine – with a big basket at the front! So great for shopping. Simon then went home to rest and I spent about $160 on kitchen stuff. Pots and pans, knives and cleaning products. So I was then able to get some cook-able groceries and cook at home. We need to buy a fridge tomorrow. I cooked pasta for dinner - delicious!

Simon has been so tired all day. He has had heaps of rest. Hot showers rock!

Feeling more and more like a home now :)