Our Apartment in Faculty Housing

The university provides Asian Studies Program faculty --that's us--and all of the Intensive English Program faculty with furnished apartments in a housing complex on campus. These were newly built in 2002 along with the rest of the new campus. There is some grumbling among long-time faculty that the free-standing houses they formerly lived in were preferable, but for us the apartment is ideal.






Come on in, this is our "genkan," entryway with a "noren" curtain offering a welcome and privacy from the hallway.














Put on a pair of guest slippers. Japanese never wear shoes in the house or in other special places. Even high schools require students to take off shoes and put on slippers. (For some reason, universities don't.)

Next is the living-dining room, which looks out onto the veranda.
















The kitchenette is well-equipped, but we miss a full-size oven and a gas range. The stove is magnetic induction -- it heats steel pans with a strong magnet. Aluminum won't work, we found out after we bought a new skillet.

Everything for comfortable living was already here, dishes, tableware, cookware.







The most "Japanese" room is the tatami (rice mat) room with sliding paper-covered screens. This is where we lay out our futons and sleep at night. It can also be used as a sitting room. There is also a western style bedroom, but since we're in Japan, we'd rather use this one.











Of course, all appliances and instructions are in Japanese only, so a basic knowledge of Japanese--especially katakana used for foreign words--comes in handy. We have to admit to using "trial and error" quite a bit, and more often than not trial results in error. Our washing machine's control panel below will give you an idea


The toaster has a mind of its own, and it decides to wake us up in the middle of the night with a beeping signal if we forget to unplug it. There's some timer function that we don't understand.




The "Toto" ("Total Toilet?") Company has cornered the market on this item. More than one non-Japanese has criticized this toilet as "wretched excess," but it's seat warmer, derriere washer and bidet functions, air drier, full or partial flush, and spigot on top for handwashing may be hard to give up on return.

No "maybe" about it,the deep soaking tub is going to be missed! The Japanese way is to wash outside the tub and then get in for a hot, relaxing soak--up to your neck in our "ofuro." A digital control and heating function keeps the water at a constant temperature of our choice.