Saturday we got up early and moved two loads of stuff to Okubo before Kuniko’s parents arrived at our old place in Futami. Kuniko’s dad got to work right away uninstalling the air conditioner, since we were planning on taking it with us. Kuniko and I started moving big stuff into her parents’ truck, and finally we all drove over to Okubo with two car loads of stuff.
I really hate moving. There was a stretch of time some years back where I moved maybe five times in three years, and each time was hell. This move was right up there with the toughest moves I’ve done. In the middle of summer, in another language, up two flights of stairs – there were lots of challenges. To make a long story short, we did two loads on Saturday and got 90% of our stuff into the new place. The weather worked out for us – sunny all day. I would hate to have done that move in the rain.
Kuniko’s dad remarked that it was nice to have air conditioning in the bedroom, but what about the living room? He decided to buy us a present of a new air conditioner for the living room. We told him that we were fine – we survived with just one in the teacher’s apartments in Futami, but he wouldn’t take no for an answer, and made arrangements on his cell phone to have it installed along with the old air conditioner.
Finally we wrapped up the day and Kuniko’s folks went home. Kuniko and I made a trip to a store that changes tatami mats and fusuma doors – I was on the hook to buy a new set for the old place since I was moving out. Andy, my predecessor, had to buy new tatami and fusuma doors for me – it cost him about $1000 U.S. I was worried about the price – that’s the cost of a round trip ticket to America! But, we found a cheap place and it ended up costing only around $500. Not so bad. Sorry you got reamed, Andy.
For dinner that night we ordered in pizza and sat in the living room with the fan blowing on us surrounded by boxes. We drank some cold beer from the Jusco supermarket across the street, and enjoyed relaxing in a new environment.
The good news about this place is that it has a real shower, and a super digital bathtub. The hot water comes right out of the faucet, so the days of turning on a big furnace and waiting around for the bath to heat up are over. To tell the truth, we didn’t really realize that this place had that feature – shame on the guy who showed it to us because it would have been a lock right away.
So the shower is great – I had a shower for just a little while in Futami but it was only really effective in summer. During the winter it wouldn’t deliver hot water. I unhooked it and started taking baths. Kuniko’s old place in Osaka had a great shower, and we always used to talk about how nice that was back in the day. This new place has the exact same shower, so it’s like a return to the golden days of bathing for me.
The super digital bathtub is really cool. You set the temperature of the water, and push a button, and the bathtub fills to whatever level you like at exactly the temperature you want, and then when it gets there it sounds a little alarm to tell you that it is ready. It maintains the temperature by adding more hot water automatically, and it’s big enough for two.
Anyway, all this sweating and heavy lifting had taken a toll, so I took a cold shower, a hot bath, and then a cold shower again. I ended up taking about an hour to enjoy it, and came out refreshed and clean. Seriously – this was a pinnacle moment in my life. I’m never going to forget that shower and bath.
But, it’s back to reality and we’ve still got a lot of work to do. Tomorrow, we’re going to split up the workload.
