(Reid here.) On Tuesday (July 2), Tenma-san (a co-worker) took Angela and I apartment hunting. We saw 3 apartments in the morning, and 3 in the afternoon. A couple or three of them were very large by Japanese standards and sufficient by American standards.
---Bedrooms--- All but one of them had a tatami room - a traditional Japanese room which can be used as a living area AND sleeping area (because you pick your futon up in the morning). One or two had only two areas that were clearly suitable for bedrooms; and we'd have to be creative for the 3rd bedroom.
---Bathrooms--- In most cases, the toilets were separate from the bathing area, which is very helpful with 5 people in the apartment. Two or 3 of the apartments had two toilets - a definite luxury by Japanese standards. And one apartment had TWO full** bathrooms - unheard of by all the Japanese I've heard from so far. (** One of these full bathrooms had the sink separate from the toilet separate from the bathing area - so 3 people can be taking care of business at the same time!)
---Kitchen--- All had a broiler "for cooking fish." (I doubt we use a broiler to cook much fish.) Ovens, on the other hand, are not the norm. (How do they cook a turkey for Thanksgiving?!?) Two apartments had ovens. And these same two apartments were the only ones to have a dish washer - of the electric sort. Both the ovens and dishwashers are small.
---Walls--- (I know: "Walls?!? " but it matters.) One thing that Novelynn has been looking forward to is decorating her room. That largely means she wants to do something to the walls that appeals to her. As parents, we thought this was a reasonable request. But as renters, I'm afraid it may not be in the cards. You see, on at least 5 of the 6 apartments we saw, there was wall paper. In fact, it wasn't just wall paper, it was ceiling paper, too. We asked about hanging pictures, and the answer was a (very kind and round-about) "No." Apparently, if the wall paper is messed up, then the walls must be renovated when we leave. They indicated that this might be quite expensive to do. So I'm not sure what we'll do about this, especially for our oldest child. If anyone has some wall decorating ideas that do not leave marks on the wall, we're listening!
---Parking--- Though we don't have a car, we do anticipate that everyone will have a bicycle. So we also had to think about parking for 5 bikes (though admittedly we didn't have to think about it too hard). But when space is tight, parking 5 bikes can be a challenge.
We had two different real estate agents show us apartments. The first one was a man; he showed us three large, mostly practical apartments. The second was a lady; she showed us three very new- and clean-feeling apartments. The sets of three apartments left Angela and I feeling differently. After some discussion, we decided to go back and look at one that had an oven and dishwasher, and was reasonably large. It had a view of the surrounding hills out of the living room, it was located near a school bus stop, near work, near the train station, and near the heart of Hiroshima. We both had to go into the second viewing with careful eyes and an open mind. After looking hard at it, and asking a lot more questions, we decided that it would be the place we could call "home."
So our new apartment will be in Middle ward (Naka-ku), in the Teppocho neighborhood. We found out that "Teppocho" means "Gun Town." That was an area of Hiroshima where they used to make guns… obviously before they implemented very strict gun laws in Japan. So I guess we'll have to wait a while longer before we get our concealed carry license, but at least we bagged a good apartment!
