Big Changes

It’s finally official. Well, okay, not 100% official… we’re still chasing down one more signature for the paperwork. But, it’s official enough that I finally feel like I don’t have to worry about sheepishly retracting my proclamation.

We are moving.

Now there isn’t anything wrong with the apartment my contracting organization set me up with when I first arrived in Japan. Maybe it was just the initial horrific offer of an urban one bedroom that made me more than happy to sign a two year lease on our current apartment. Still, I've grown attached to a few of the things that came with it.

The view. Sweet baby jesus we have a wonderful view. I love watching the swirling remains of a rain storm evaporate off of the neighboring mountains. I love all the nature around us. I love that we can walk up the hill and eyeball the kiwi trees and mikan groves, or wave hello to the neighbors sulking cows. I love that in the warmer months Olive and I can waste time looking for snakes sunning themselves on the pavement. I love the smell of the air (so long as our neighbors aren’t burning trash). I love watching the local train putt by below, its single car and engine combo looking like a glorified bus.

There are a few detractors of course. To get up to our lovely view you have to hike up a heck of a hill. It’s not so bad when the temperature is low, but in the summer it is brutal. Driving is arguably even worse as our paved goat path is hardly wide enough for one vehicle let alone two. It (and the plethora of roads like it) is the reason why I don’t drive in Japan. Despite the fact that we are surrounded by nature, the only place my kid has to play outside is the parking lot or the road. All that wonderful nature also leads to things like run ins with wild boar, giant spiders, and mukade. Not all mukade in Japan are poisonous. I was grateful to learn this fact after one bit me on the bottom at a coworker’s barbeque. Even non-poisonous ones hurt when they bite, but it’s nothing compared to the sting of having your coworker and all her relatives take turns eyeballing your bum and taking bids on whether or not you’re going to need hospitalization. They are my least favorite of Japan’s wilderness and I will not miss having them drop down on me after I open the door. Then there’s the friction that living in small places generates.

The small size of housing is probably one of the reasons why no one in Japan seems to want to go home. I still struggle with the hours that my coworkers and students willingly put in, but if I was living in a mildew infested shoebox I suppose I wouldn’t be eager to head home either. This isn’t to suggest that our apartment is so small it’s unlivable. On the contrary, our building was full of young families. Nor is it the smallest place we’ve lived. The early years of our marriage were spent living in a glorified walk in closet in Tokyo.

We have developed skills for coping with tiny Japanese housing. I will forever be in awe of my husband’s ability to fit everything we own into a single closet. Still, when it comes down to it, everyone needs some personal space, and you aren’t going to find it in a place where the kitchen trolley has to serve as a home for the laptop. The friction has been building over the years. It peaked when my husband lost his short-lived workshop. It became clear we were going to have to take drastic measures to keep everyone in the family sane.

So we asked around. We snatched up local real-estate ads. We stared over the fences of empty residences in the neighborhood. Eventually someone came up with something: a friend of a friend with neighbors with a recently vacated property. I was cautious at first. I know that people here can get prickly about renting to a non-Japanese. I’ve been turned down for lots of places before I even looked at the place simply based on any perceived difficulties the property owner surmised might possibly arise from renting to a non-Japanese.

But the couple was interested. They had a workshop on the property, and were excited that the renters would be interested in fixing the place up. When the topic of rent came up they made an offer that made my ears perk up immediately. Less than half of what we currently pay, plus no deposits or key money. The pessimist in me started to wonder what was wrong with the place.

We’ve been through three negotiations now, each time getting closer to our goal. There was the issue of the bath tub. Then there was the problem with the furniture in the house and where it would go and who would get rid of it. The last hurdle that remains is parking and an emergency contact. But at this point I’m pretty sure it will work out.

So I’ve lost the straight forward commute to most of my schools I fought so hard for. I’ve also lost the view and the neighbors. What we’ve gained is a little more private space for everyone, much needed wiggle room in our monthly budget, and enough flat terrain that I can once again entertain the idea of owning a bicycle.

So we are moving.

I will be a terrible person at staying in touch this month. Then after July I may very well fall off the map while we try to establish a new internet connection. All the paperwork of the move is only the icing on the cake for this summer’s workload. I have four presentations coming up this summer as well as a work related trip to Tokyo in August. So please be patient with us and don’t flood my inbox with panicked emails.

We’ll be in touch soon enough.