Satomi and I finally rented a house!  If Japanese traditional architecture had a Soviet era the houses would probably resemble what we have rented. I’m super duper excited about it.  Satomi is less thrilled because it needs a lot of work and even more cleaning but I think she will be happy to get out of her parents’ house.

There seem to be two very distinct sets of people who are attracted to Japan.  There is the tribe that is attracted to “Cool Japan”.  People of this ilk tend to love cute toys, sexy  but cute comic books, J-Pop music, Nintendo DS and the bright lights of Tokyo.  “Cool Japan” actually appears to be a real Japanese Government program to promote Japanese Manga (comics) and Anime (cartoons) as a way to save the Japanese economy.  I am a member of the other tribe.  We used to be the majority but now we are not very hip.  Still, I am a proud member. My tribe loves old Japanese houses, Buddhist Temples, Shinto Shrines, the Samurai spirit, and Kurosawa films.

As a lover of idealized old Japan, I have fantasies about living in a hundred year old Japanese house, tucked away in the mountains with a straw roof and an irori (Japanese hearth for cooking and heat) blazing away on a cold winter evening while snows falls quietly on rice fields recently harvested and waiting for the following spring.  That is not the image you will get if you visit our new house.  I’m pretty sure that it was built in the 1970’s.  It is definitely Japanese but despite it’s tile roof it would never make the grade as a set for a Kurosawa film.  It has shoji doors and tatami floors–very traditional.  The shower/bath room is impossibly spartan and unbelievably cold and impersonal–very Japanese in my experience.  The stairs to the second floor are steep and narrow but less so than houses built in earlier eras–a definite plus. It lacks beauty the beauty refinement of my dreams but so does most of Japan.  It is definitely cold and stolid and would benefit from extended use of nicely scented candles.  It doesn’t sit high in the mountains but you can see the Ariake Sea, partially obscured by the copious and omni-present cacophony of telephone and electrical wires if you look out one of the second story windows. A stone’s throw away, across the street from the aluminum window factory, there is a Buddhist temple.  It isn’t a pretty one on the outside but I have high hopes for what lies behind the closed doors. The white cat that sleeps on the temple steps is a plus.  It’s not the house I want to retire to but on a shoe string budget it will more than do.

We’ve been cleaning and preparing whenever we have a spare moment but it is slow going.  Luckily, we have Harikubo, Satomi’s Uncle, to help us.  He is our David Goodman.  If you don’t know David you should.  He is handy man extraordinaire.  Harikubo fixed the places in the kitchen and bath where the tile had fallen off.  He put clothes rods in the closets (not standard in Japan).  He replaced the broken faucet in the kitchen and he is going to help us put in a cheap linoleum or vinyl floor in the kitchen.  On top of that, he knows everyone in town, it seems.  He’s the one who found the house for us.  His friends hooked up the gas so we can have hot water, cleaned the septic tank and donated supplies to fix up the shower and tub area.  We would be miserable without him.  So far I have only repaid him with a fifty dollar case of beer (beer is really expensive in Japan!).  I’ll have to do better than that.

Today, I started painting what will be our living room.  The previous tenants let their kids draw on the walls with magic marker and used sharp objects to etch the walls.  Super not cool. I sanded the magic marker off but was told no wall patch exists to the type of wall we have.  We will have to live with the etchings. I hope scarred walls looked good in beige.  Satomi is obsessed with curtains these days.  She won’t rest until we have hung new curtains in every room.  FYI, nice curtains are expensive.  We are staying away from nice and going the second hand and discount store route.  I hate to admit it but curtains really do make a big difference.  Guys, take note and listen to the ladies when it comes to curtains.

The biggest plus for me is that it has a room that I can use for a yoga studio or to teach English classes.  If people are arranged just right for yoga it can fit about six beginners or eight advanced students.  I’m hoping to start teaching yoga classes in the house in January.  I also have been planning some English conversation classes for elementary school students.  Satomi has agreed to be my assistant teacher.  I excited about that.  I love the idea of couples working together.  She’s a little anxious about it but she’s a trooper so I know she will do a great job.  She has come with me to teach English to 4 and 5 year olds at a local pre- school the past two Saturdays.  She helped out a little and was super duper.

That’s it for today. Thanks for tuning in.  I could finally post something because we had a huge rainstorm last night and this morning so I did have any work in the orange fields.  It has been seven days a week up to now.  Christmas in Colorado is looking even sweeter than usual this year after a few months of getting settled in Japan.

-The Green Tea Dreamer