Welcome to our massive Japanese house!
Wow! Thank you, thank you! Not you! It's the house! Tada! Come with us as we show your around and give you a tour of our new place. Whoa! [Life in Japan Theme Song] THE YARD
A Little Piece of Heaven One of the things that we really really love about this house is that we have a yard. And this last week, we were able to plant a little garden. So we have tomatoes, carrots, peppers, cucumbers, herbs, Squash and watermelon. Watermelon?!
And in marigold season/basil season we'll see what they get. It has been so nice to have a yard back again, I grew up mowing a lawn in our house in America, And we had all kinds of plants and grass and everything, it's so fun to have that here again, Plus starting our garden, this is special. THE YARD
A Little Piece of Heaven Well we've only lived here for one month, so we're really still getting settled in, And we still have some other furniture we want to get and everything But we've been working hard to get this ready to show you and I think it's ready to show you now. So here we go! Are you the guard?
[nods] Alright, very good—well two of them! FYI, this door is so heavy. Just kidding, it's so light! Common in! [In] Japan shoes off And in Japan our kids have randoserus [Japanese elementary backpacks] This is where they put them so they're just not everywhere! Everywhere! Becca, is that what we saw you putting together in the one video, I think? Yea it is! OK, putting together a shelf for this entrance here for all of our backpacks and bags and different things. Alright — go go! In this house we're always doing laundry! Always, always. Always, no matter what, always!
6 people. So after you come into the genkan [entrance], we go over here to the living/dining area. THE "LD"
Living/Dining Area We love the big bay windows. Our kotatsu [heated table], gotta have a kotatsu. You got to. It's Japanese. Our table looks so tiny! I really need to get a new table.
Can I have this? And I've already entertained a lot of people in this house, because I have a large kitchen! And soon, hopefully this week/next week I'll be starting my own YouTube channel "Momma Chan: Welcome to My Home" It's going to be in my kitchen. So please stay tuned for more information about that. Whoa!
But welcome to my large kitchen. Yes! Glorious! I've got natural light because I've got two windows. Well a door and a window. You can't beat that. I love light. But the cabinets are really really really tall. I use stuff up there that I don't normally need. I'm mom's butler. You're my butler?! Do you know what a butler is?! Ah... no. This is where we hang out in the morning and we have breakfast, And then the kids all leave for school.
Yes. But, this is a gift from Uncle Ben and Aunt Debbie...
The Blocks! Yes, what a gift, huh?! Wow! And then you come across and we have Japanese style rooms.
Ooo. "TATAMI" ROOMS
Traditional Japanese Rooms So actually there's two rooms, but we've taken off the doors to just make it a larger space. Yes! So this is my office, the music room, helping the kids learn English, so that's all my stuff. The sofa. And it has large tatami closets because they're tatami rooms which is great. Noice! Thankfully you can buy drawers for Tatami closets so that they're the whole length of it. Life savers. Games... Oh, we need to do Catan soon. Again.
Sports and bats. Hey guys!
It's been like a year. Whoever is their first time watching Life in Japan, you do not know that the sofa raises up. OK, I don't think people need to know that. I don't think people really care. The sofa raises up, everyone!
But you care! WASHROOMS / TOILETS
The Japanese Way: Separated And then thankfully this house has a toilet downstairs and a toilet upstairs. Oh glorious! Which is glorious! When you gotta go, you gotta go! You gotta go! And then we have the laundry room, and the teeth-brushing room, as we say. And we had some issues with where to hang towels and things, So we actually got a — I don't know if this is a coat rack or a bag rack or what this is, but it's tension. Japan is made for everything with tension [rods], it's glorious. Toilet. Whoa!
Mirror. And then this door! Some people get very confused but it just goes back to the kitchen. Hello! And then we have the upstairs! Hello! THE UPSTAIRS
The 2nd Floor Look up!
Climbing. Whoa! Whoa, it's like 10 degrees hotter up here.
From this step. OK, so there are 3 bedrooms upstairs, One's our bedroom, one's the kids' bedroom and one's Nate's office. However the kids' bedroom used to be two rooms but they took out a wall, So both of these doors go to the same room. Yea, it's really strange. We asked and they said we could put a divider back up as long as we take it down when we move. THE UPSTAIRS
The 2nd Floor But we choose not to [divide the room] We haven't yet. You guys have a sleepover like every night, huh? Well, it's not really a sleepover anymore... Joshua's bed is the toy bed, I guess. I don't know, and Sarah look! All of the animals made the move, huh?
Yea! Oh my!
Some of them took like one whole box! Or more like 2 whole boxes!
And the twins' side of things, huh? OK, uh, it's hot in there! It's hot, let's leave. OK, this is our room and it's massive. BEDROOM 3
The Master Bedroom We still haven't figured out everything that we're going to do. Eventually we'll probably put a little chair over there. But we have lots of closets — it's very nice. It's almost Golden Week, so Golden Week is when I switch from winter to summer, We switch all our blankets, we give summer blankets, Because we don't have central air like in America, we have like window units **split air conditioners** And power's a little expensive in Japan, I think. So we try not to use the air as much, or leave it low — not so cold. So we put on summer blankets! And then winter blankets, we hardly ever use heat, so the kids have to have big blankets. UPSTAIRS EXTRAS
The "S" in Japanese Realtor Code OK, and then on down, one more toilet Oh and we have a great little storage unit, if I can figure out how to open it... And Anna!
Whoa! My stars! Hey "And Anna!" We have a tiny little — this is like the "S" When they say it's a 4LDS That's the "S" It's small.
No, it's 4SLDK BEDROOM 4
Nate's Office This is where the magic happens for Life in Japan. Life in Japan magic! Oh and we even — Tokyo Skyline...
What's that picture?! Oh yea, there it is! Oh Joshua! I think that one that I found that's by the stairs, That little black LEGO that I said I found, Oh yes!
I bet that's what it's for! It's right here! Can I do the honors?
Look! Here it is. Yea yea yea! I must do the honors! You must do the honors! Yeah! No.
That does not match. No no no, that might be right, huh?
Yea. Having a dedicated home office is wonderful, but that’s not all that makes this a great house for us. 10 THINGS
We Love About This House OK, now that the kids have finished their part and it's a little quieter and I can think, Let me show you some of the details that we have really loved about this house. And the first is the height of the cellings. They are so tall that it makes this space feel even larger than it actually is. And also there are nice floors. They're a little warped because they're wood, But I love wood floors. I do not like those spongy, cushiony things that any little thing dings it. These are wood. jyobu! [solid] And I love all the natural light. There's so many windows in here and I can keep an eye on my kids in their hammocks. And we're still trying to figure out decoration, we've put a couple little things on the wall, but we still need to figure out a couple more. It's a process.
But it's coming together very nicely. The coffee stand was one of the first things that we put together because we are coffee people. That's right. Common! It doesn't have to be good coffee, it just has to be coffee. And this table right here is the table we had in our apartment, And if you remember when it was in our apartment we barely fit around it. And here...
It looks so teeny. It's just like nothing but space. Another thing that just pretty much sold me on the house besides the kitchen being a good size, And I love that this is open. Most people are not as tall as Nate, so you can't see my sink, So it can be full of dirty dishes and I can just be here talking and making dinner We've had people over and they're meeting over there and I'm just busy busy doing my thing here, But... The other amazing thing—I have a closet here, so I have my freezer actually in here, It's a little disaster in there because I haven't figured out the right shelving yet. Because I just can't go out and buy everything new... But look at this hidden door right here, huh? This door is like my secret garden... Ohh Because it's my own little walk-in pantry. So you can walk in and go around. It's like a little cellar because it's always a little cooler in here. But it's great because, even though it's really narrow, it holds a lot of stuff. Well, that back corner is all cake-decorating stuff. Pretty much. Oh man!
And then... Tupperware. Yada yada. Love it. Garbage truck. Oh! That is amazing, because right outside my door is our garbage/trash disposal place, So the other day, we heard— everything sings to you in Japan. Everything has it's own song. It sounds like an ice cream truck, but it's actually the garbage truck. And we heard it and it was our "moeru gomi" [burnable trash] day Which in our house, we desperately need "moeru gomi" days and it's only two days a week. We missed putting the garbage out because they come at 8:00 AM. Very early! So we heard it so Anna ran outside, grabbed the bag and just handed it to the garbage man. And she was like "Oh, thank you so much." It's ok. Anyway, The other room is just great because it's huge and we can fit tons of people in there. So we've had a lot of people over to watch movies... This is like our TV room...
Yep. Entertainment...
That is our living. Yep. Kids hanging out. Oh yeah. So as we're figuring out decorations like putting picture frames up, You know we're very careful not to hurt the walls and everything But! I'm already dreaming about Christmas! And I bought a really skinny tree for the apartment, and now I'm thinking... "Man, I could use a large tree in my dining room!" Oh fun fun fun!
Oh the brain is thinking! Already thinking! So at Christmastime we'll have to show you how we decorated it because it's going to be fun and magical! Nice! What’s your favorite part of the house? Is it outside or inside? Traditional or modern? Let us know in the comments. Booster, look at you, watering the garden, huh? Uh huh.
Alright. Do you like that?
Yah! Palm tree want some left-over water? I want you to grow so much because you're the only palm tree in our house. How sad. At least you're soft. COMING UP
On Life in Japan Coming up on Life in Japan, things really get moving on making this yard our own, but as I go for a scenic day out, an accident leaves me with more than just a sprained ankle. Subscribe not to miss our future episodes of Life in Japan.
