My Apartment

And new neighborhood

In order to keep both my reader’s interest and my sanity, I will write now on less depressing things. The building that houses my apartment could be called a quad as it has 4 apartments, two on each floor. When I looked at it the first time, I was thinking of taking the first floor apartment until I learned that the one on second floor was also available. It was much brighter and I liked it better but still almost went with the first floor, thinking about the many trips carrying heavy boxes up the stairs and especially the furniture. Despite the difficulties I, and later a certain Honey Badger had as we carried my hide-a-bed and dresser down the stairs of the house and then up the stairs of the apartment building, I am glad I went with the second story.

Near the crest of a hill, it gets unobstructed sunlight from sun rise to sunset. I set the timers on my heaters to knock down the chill from the night and then can shut them off as the sunlight fills the apartment with both light and warmth. It gets so warm that I am almost uncomfortably warm in the afternoon wearing a T shirt. This heat is to a large extent retained until late in the evening when I get home. A couple of days ago it was cloudy. The apartment was frigid and the one heater was not enough to get the whole apartment comfortable. The heater in the bedroom is not located where it can blow through the door. Worse, I tripped a breaker a little while ago with both heaters and the space heater on and needed that on to preheat the heater less bathroom and the small room fronting it. The sunlight filling the apartment is a great benefit. Will be troublesome in the summer, but my blackout curtains and if needed, bamboo screens in front of the windows will hopefully be enough to beat the heat. For now, the sunlight is a great asset.

After opining on the dearth of Japanese teishoku restaurants, the local izakaya I have been frequenting recently began offering teishuku in the evening. Here is an example.

I have also found a couple in Akihabara just a couple of blocks away from my normal prowling grounds. May give one a try tomorrow.

Today it got so hot in my sun heated apartment, I had to remove my long sleeve shirt and open the windows. Got a lot of cleaning done. More on that later.

Another thing that differed from what I earlier reported is that even as late as this writing, January 11th, 2026, I am still seeing Christmas lights up at private homes. The one fully decked out in lights still have theirs up too. My neighbor across the street from me took their wreath and other decorations down a couple of days ago and replaced them with a new year’s decoration.

Not necessarily connected with the topic of this post but I must share this all the same. I finished a little after 8 pm last Thursday with two new classes. Not really tired and not yet hungry due to eating a late lunch, I was hoping to get to my local supermarket in time to get a bento to take home. I positioned myself near the door closest to the exit and was the first through the gate. Made a bee line for the supermarket and….nothing at left in the way of a ready to eaten, take home meal. Hoping to catch the best selection possible, I hurried to the convenience store. It was cold so I put my hands in my coat pockets. Both hands. After a few steps,I wondered how I was able to so as, as with my iPad slung across one shoulder and a messenger bag over the other and my back pack preventing either from riding far enough back to allow my hands to reach my pockets……FAUCI!!!!! I forgot my back pack on the train. I flew to the station and reported my stupidity to the attendant. Inside my back pack was my iPad Pro, pocket wifi, back up hard drives, class files, expensive fountain pen and the like.

Knowing the time my train left helped. He called ahead and we waited for various stations to report back. The first two did not see it. Luckily, the last station for my train was just a little ways down the line. They found it there and I went to fetch it. This is one of the many things I will miss when I leave Japan. Thank God.