Redefining “furnished”

So I got the apartment key today and went at lunch to go find this shoebox I’ll be living in for a while. No mean feat in a country where there are no street names, just block numbers. People give directions by landmark (“go past the Wonder Goo”, and “turn right at the town hall”) – which probably works much better if you know where (or what) the Wonder Goo or town hall are.

The apartment is actually bigger than I’d feared – not huge, but comfortable for one person (I’m sure there’s normally a family of 3 living in this much space). It has a kitchen, bathroom, living/dining room, and bedroom – maybe 500 sq ft in all. The amazing part is what comes in a “furnished” apartment here. The catalog includes:

· Curtains
· A/C
· TV, stand, and cable internet box
· Coffee table
· Bed complete with futon mattress, down comforter, pillow made of rocks (buckwheat hulls I think), and sheet set
· Stand-alone bedroom closet
· Bathroom vanity, shower, toilet, washing machine, drying rack, vent, and light
· Kitchen sink, vent, cabinet, the smallest “full sized” refrigerator I’ve ever seen, microwave, light
· Carpet in living room and bedroom

Note that I didn’t mention a stove, living room or bedroom lights, or any piece of furniture that could be considered a seat. I also didn’t mention that there was anything inside the kitchen cabinet. There’s a reason for the omission.

By the end of the day, the apartment had two more lights, a real pillow, and enough kitchen ware to allow one to make a microwaved meal. Oh – and a garbage can. Turns out that there’s a 100 yen store in town! Who would have thought that of all the concepts to transcend cultures, a dollar store would have been it? They also have a “home center”, which is like a Walmart with a small Home Depot attached. On the weekends, it even has baby goats in a pen outside. I honestly don’t know if that’s a typical Japanese thing to sell livestock outside of regular stores, or if it’s just a statement on how far in the boonies this place really is.

Bottom line is that if you can’t find what you’re looking for in either of those places, you’re out of luck. Which means my search for non-paper thin bath towels probably isn’t going to go very well.