Ryokan Orshansky is Open for Business

We've finally gotten all our furniture assembled and set up and we're ready for guests! Make your reservations now ;) Here are some and after shots--what a difference a few months (and a ton of money and furniture) can make!

P.S. Ryokan means "inn" in Japanese

Igor's desk setup is a little better now :)

Our dining room was our bedroom for the first month

Closet/Betta's art room/future baby's room??? ;)

Bugs oh my!

There are lots of crazy insects we've never seen before here...and some I hope to never see, like the Mukade (giant centipede) and the Japanese Giant hornet. I HATE spiders and we have a few here around the house, but they are the good kind that eat bugs. Luckily they are tiny--lots of people have huntsman spiders which are giant and furry!

This guy was really cool--a Hummingbird Hawk-moth. It flies just like a hummingbird and is about the same size!

This Japanese Beetle came home with Igor one day

He was really quite pretty

Giant caterpillar Igor saw

A pretty spider (known as juro-gumo in Japanese) that lives at our house. She is huge but hangs out on her web so I'm ok with that. 

Giant nasty cockroach

No idea what this guy was

Garbage in Japan

Garbage is a big deal in Japan. Since there’s not a lot of space for people, there’s definitely not a lot of space for their garbage. 

First of all, good luck trying to find a place to throw anything away in public. Almost all public trash cans were done away with after the sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway in 1995. You’re going to have to bring your trash home with you or find a convenience store.

PET bottles/cans and plastic packaging

Second, garbage must be sorted at home or you can get fined. We were told that the mama-sans in the neighborhood will go through the trash and figure out that it was the neighborhood gaijin (foreigner) from all the foreign wrappers and such. Some Japanese have had bad experiences with lazy Americans not sorting the garbage so you might get blamed for everything, even if it’s not your garbage! Luckily our neighbors are very nice and we don’t have any issues.

Garbage is sorted into burnable, non-burnable, PET bottles and cans, plastic packaging, and group resource collection.  Everything has to be in clear plastic bags (except burnables), not double-bagged, or wrapped with twine (group resource). And rinsed—wash all those bottles, tubes, and jars out! Confused yet? 

Burnable – is incinerated, obviously. Food scraps, food soiled paper , tissues and such. I’ve been toying around with the idea of making a compost pile since burning everything just seems so wasteful.

Non-burnable – landfilled. Hard plastic, rubber, foil, etc.

PET bottles, cans, and glass – recycled. PET bottles are labeled PETE in the U.S. And cans are, well, cans…in Japan they’re heavier so it makes you think you’re not done with your drink!

Plastic packaging – recycled. We usually have the most of this stuff, since the Japanese are crazy about over-packaging everything.

Group resource collection – recycled. Includes magazines, newspapers, milk cartons (rinsed and cut open so they’re flat). They have to be bound with twine or put in paper bags.

Trash cage and net on our block

There is no trash pickup at your house. Every block or so there will be a green net and/or a cage where you have to drop off your garbage on the designated day. For us, it’s burnables on Mondays and Thursdays, plastic packaging on Tuesday, non-burnables on Wednesday, and PET bottles etc. on Fridays. Group resource collection is the second and fourth Saturday of every month.  It varies by neighborhood. Sounds like fun, right?!! Also, you have to get your trash out there between 6-8 am that morning so the animals don’t get to it the night before. You’ll know when the garbage truck shows up because it plays a little song that sounds like an ice cream truck!

You know sometimes how you think “Hmm, I don’t *really* want to wash out the peanut butter jar—I’ll just throw it away.” That’s not gonna fly in Japan. Last night I found myself cutting open tubes of glue and rinsing the insides before throwing it away!

The City of Yokosuka helpfully provides a booklet for new residents. Oh, and by the way, it's 12 pages long. LOL!

Our Household Goods Arrive

Our household goods shipment finally arrived a few days ago. It’s been on a long journey across the ocean from Seattle! First our stuff was packed by movers in Seattle into cardboard boxes over 2 days, then those boxes were crated in a wooden crate, then that was packed into a shipping container and loaded onto a ship. All told, we had about 6,600 lbs. of stuff, which is not very much since we don’t have a lot of furniture. We could have taken up to 18,000 lbs.!

Luckily for us, only a few minor things were broken (that we’ve found so far—still unpacking!) The Japanese movers are very professional and, of course, never wear their shoes in the house. So it was in and out of shoes as they were carrying things in. The movers only took 3.5 hours to unload everything. They will be back to pick up the paper and boxes—how many trees were killed to pack our stuff? There are paper and boxes EVERYWHERE, but we're happy to finally be moving in :)

All of our stuff in its crate

Unpacking the kitchen stuff

Bundling paper for recycling in the backyard

Our living room looks a lot smaller with stuff in it

Our dining room full of boxes

Even MORE boxes

The Cube

We finally got a car--it's a 2004 Nissan Cube with 100,000 kilometers (that's about 60,000 miles--which is a lot for Japan!).

 We're lucky to be here with the Navy--everyone affiliated with the military is exempt from shaken. Shaken is the strict inspection (including emissions testing) that cars have to undergo here every two years. It can cost up to the equivalent of several thousand dollars. The way I understand it, most Japanese would rather sell the car and buy a new one than pay all that money and risk falling the test and having to get something fixed for a bunch more money. So we got a super nice, well-cared for car for a lot less money than we would have paid in the U.S. for something comparable I think.

The Cube is a very popular car in Japan and you'll see a lot driving around, albeit newer models.Actually all the taxis on base are this exact car (color and everything)--we joke that someone will try to flag us down. Personally it reminds me of the toaster from the Kia Soul hamsters commercial. So far, we love it!

Igor and our sweet new ride

Pretty no frills, but it's got power locks and windows so it's fancy compared to my old Chevy Prizm

Swingin' doors

One or both seats can fold--lots of space and headroom for such a small car!

Our New House!

We signed the contract for our new house today! It's in the Sakuragaoka neighborhood of Yokosuka--a lovely neighborhood up only a bit of a hill (it's a challenge in Japan to find a house in a totally flat area). It's less than a 10 minute walk from Maborikaigan station, where there are a bunch of restaurants and a grocery store, etc.

Believe it or not, it used to be a SIX bedroom house (two of the bedrooms were converted into a large living room). At approx. 1300 sqft, that is a really small six bedroom house! It was built in 1975, so it's pretty ancient in terms of Japanese houses, but it's been renovated since then.

Carport on the side

Entry with shoe closets

Our dining room, a former bedroom

Hideous bathroom...but I don't think we'll be spending most of our time in there ;)

Equally hideous tub and shower room

Giant kitchen (supposed to be a kitchen/dining room). This is by far the biggest kitchen we saw.

Note that there is no dishwasher and oven!

Kitchen storage and washer/dryer hookup

Huge living room--one of the reasons we chose this house!

Stairway is steep, but we saw steeper ones!

Master bedroom

Bathroom off master bedroom

Balcony off master bedroom--you can see Tokyo Bay a little bit

Second bedroom/office

Neighbors across the street

Tatami guest bedroom

Backyard/2nd parking spot

Ready for my garden!

Japanese House Hunting

Well, we’ve learned a lot about Japanese houses and the rental process in the short time that we’ve been here. Japan is a country about the size of California, but with almost 130 million people…and 80% of the land is mountainous. That means only 20% of the land is available for agriculture, industry and housing. Space is at a premium, which is something that is difficult to understand for most Americans.

Any house that is over 30 years old is considered ancient. At this point only the land is valuable and the house is worthless. Most houses that age have (or will be) torn down and replaced. Why build essentially throwaway houses? As far as I know, Japanese houses have never been built to last—tsunamis and earthquakes destroyed houses so many times historically that houses were built to be reconstructed quickly and often.

First of all, Japanese houses are mostly very small, but you can find decent sized houses, especially in the area we’re in (Yokosuka, which is considered part of the Tokyo Metropolitan Area). We looked at a 679 sqft apartment with THREE bedrooms (which is about the same size as our ONE bedroom back in Seattle!) but then we also saw a 1500 sqft house. Regardless, we will probably be some of the only people that will be living in a larger home than we were back in the states.

Click here to see a gallery of houses we've looked at so far.

Most of the kitchens are pretty small, so they have under floor storage. Japanese women are much shorter than me on average—probably by 5 inches or more. Therefore, the countertops can seem very low! Also, you’ll be hard pressed to find a house with an oven AND a dishwasher. Most of have neither! A stove top with 3 burners and a fish broiler underneath is standard. I would love to find a house with a dishwasher, even though they’re usually tiny—a small pull out drawer. I HATE doing dishes! Let the record show that Igor has volunteered to help out :)

The washer and dryer are always stacked and located in the bathroom (the toilet is in a separate room). Japanese dryers are pretty useless, as they can take half the day to dry one small load, plus they use a lot of energy. Most people just hang their clothes out on the line on their balconies.

A traditional Japanese bedroom has a tatami mat floor (made of woven straw). A futon is laid out at night and folded up and stored in the closet during the day. On average, bedrooms are 6 tatami in size (a tatami mat being 3’ x 6’), or 9’ x 12’. That is rather small when you consider most Americans have queen size beds, not to mention king sized! Tatami mats, while beautiful, are fragile and cannot handle heavy furniture, such as actual beds. If one is damaged, it costs about the equivalent of $600 to replace each mat, and all must be replaced so they match. One solution is to lay a carpet over the tatami.

Parking is at a premium, since space is at a premium. Some houses don’t have a parking space, some have one, and sometimes you’ll find houses with two. They are not always located next to the house—sometimes a short walk away. In the neighborhoods there is virtually no street parking. And before you get a car, the police have to come out to measure to make sure it fits properly in your spot!

All this being said, our #1 priority is to find a house close to a train station, within a 10 minute walk. Easier said than done since this is what most people want! Our other criteria include 3 bedrooms, or 2 bedrooms and a tatami room. We’d like a small yard, somewhere for me to garden and BBQ. That rules out apartments—no BBQs on the balconies since people put their laundry out there. You WILL get the fire department called out on you!

When it comes time to rent the house, you have to show up with a lot of cash--not check, not credit cards, CASH--the agent's fee, plus a security deposit and "gift money" for the owner. That all adds up to the equivalent of $10,000 - $15,000 in yen for the houses we're looking at. We have to pay this up front, but luckily the Navy reimburses us!

We'll keep you posted on how everything goes!