In Hokkaido

Woke up early on the last day, got dressed, had breakfast, checked out, and got on the bus back to Narita. Had my first Japanese Coca Cola at the airport and the results were good. Tastes good, if not better than American Coke which is more than I can say for ANY of the European Coke I’ve tasted.

The plane ride to Hokkaido was short, about an hour or so. The wait to get luggage and meet our welcome party took forever, but finally I was introduced to Mr. Oi (supervisor) and Kyoto sensei (vice principal). They drove me directly from the airport to the school where I met much of the office staff. I have heard of people having to meet the town mayor or something ridiculous like that after stepping off the plane, so I feel a bit lucky to only have met 5 people. My shipped luggage was waiting for me at the school. When we got to my apartment a whole bevy of school workers (teachers, office staff) was there to move all of my furniture and stuff into the places I wanted them as well as put my bed together.








The apartment is pretty sweet for only 13,900 yen a month. I have three tatami bedrooms, kitchen, living room, shower, toilet, large foyer. I only use like 1/3 of the apartment. I have also received many electronic goods that I didn’t have to pay for (see earlier post).

New News from the Pred!

Just got pictures of some of the stuff I'm getting for free and buying off my predecessor. The bed looks to be in very good condition. Checked the price of buying a bed new from anyplace that would deliver to my location and found it to be much more expensive than the 40,000 yen that she's asking (about $327). Plus, it comes with the mattress, which, as some of you may know, can be as expensive as the bed itself.

Also included in the pictures was the very slick refrigerator, toaster oven, microwave, nearly brand new washing machine, and television. Debating whether or not to buy the DVD player off of her after seeing the television. I was really expecting some rinky dink little thing that I wouldn't watch anything on, but the television she's giving me (for free) is rather good sized. I may want to watch DVDs on it after all and give my poor notebook a rest. :)

Eh.

Lots More Information

Heard even more information from my predecessor. I will not be moving into her apartment, but the new place will be furnished by her stuff. I kind of feel bad having to have them move all of her stuff to my place, but they (whoever 'they' are) seem to be very willing to do it. She even said it would be easier for me to take her stuff.

Granted, I haven't seen any of this stuff so it could all very well be crap, but I have requested pictures of the stuff she actually wants to sell me like her bed and a rice cooker. The rice cooker is only thirty bucks, so I'm not really worried about it, but her bed is 3 years old and she wants to sell it for $400.

From her description of the floor plan, the place sounds pretty big. 2 tatami rooms and a living room (which I assume also houses the kitchen) all totaling at about 94m (squared). I took a look at similar apartments available for rent in Tokyo and they are thousands of US dollars (hundreds of thousands of yen) per month! I feel lucky.

But not too lucky yet. I still haven't seen the "quality" of the place yet.