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Wednesday, June 20, 2012

After the Rain


Tokyo had a minor typhoon last night which made it sound like our apartment was going through a washing machine and the sprinklers at the same time.  

By the time I woke up, the clouds which had swallowed up Tokyo for the past week had cleared and I was suddenly roasting in my bed (at 5AM!).  Tokyo truly is the "land of the sun" because it gets so bright so early!


Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Feeling Homey

Taken with iPhone and Photosynth. Edited with Procamera, Diptic, Photo Studio.

I didn't think it would make such a big difference moving into a new apartment, but it does!  We had a great place before, but this place is just so nice to actually live in with separate rooms to walk into and - wait for it - 


A walk-in closet. *squeal*

I know, I'm going on about a closet, but with my seemingly constant roaming about and inability to grow some roots the past several years, it's nice to have a place to store my material things in. 

By the way, I bought that little stand on the right for the Boy's very belated birthday gift. He always hangs his trousers on random boxes and furniture after work and I thought this would be perfect, especially since I can never find anything he would like within a reasonable budget.

Also, I hope this entices visitors:


A spare room with a balcony. And awesome view(s).

We didn't think we needed one in our last place but we were so wrong. Our poor guests who did visit had to deal with us waking up and getting ready for work while being in the foot traffic to midnight restroom treks. 

Hopefully we'll be able to keep this place looking clean with all the hidden storage places (since when did I ever think about that sort of thing?).  My co-worker warned me, "Be care of where you set things down the first time because once you place it, it's never moving!"  So true!


Saturday, June 16, 2012

New Apartment


This weekend has been a long awaited day: Moving Day!

It may sound silly, but we actually moved just 5 minutes away...walking.

Just to say, we loved our previous apartment. It was a cool layout due to the fact that it was a converted photography studio.  I can completely see how that aspect and I loved it. The kitchen was amazing as was our huge bathroom.  The location was great; so close to both Azabu Juban and Roppongi Hills, which is perfect for our commutes to work.  Huge windows and lots of light, it was a pretty apartment.

There was one problem: it had huge windows.  Windows that weren't double glazed!  In the winter, it was freezing!  I wore a jacket and scarf to sleep and often had to huddle in bed most of the time because it was just too, too cold.  Also, ridiculously bright in the mornings you wanted to sleep in and no curtains.

We casually suggested to our awesome real estate agent (seriously, he's fantastic) that we were thinking of moving before the next winter but were perfectly happy for the summer and fall.  Then, he told us that the apartment from last year was vacant again.

"The" apartment from last year was this beautiful marble-floored thang with a induction stove kitchen, a spare room with connecting balconies and amazing city skyline views from every room.



It was also vastly out of our budget.  I guess it's amazing what 8 months did to the housing market.

Anyways, long story short, we jumped at the opportunity and moved in a month later.  Here's the setup the evening we moved in:


View from the spare room and lounge to towards the kitchen.  The bathroom and restroom are through the door next to the fridge and the entrance is on the right.


A view of Tokyo Tower and the city from the guest/spare room.  I think our guests will like their stay!



This is the view from our master room this morning.  Roppongi Hills (grey building on the left of center) was swallowed in a cloud and you can barely see Tokyo Tower on the right side.  Panoramic photo taken with Photosynth, it's an awesome app my sister told me about.

Anyways, I wanted to update, but I'm exhausted now.  I'll hopefully continue to unpack, decorate and be able to keep the apartment clean enough to photograph.