"Why do people like IKEA so much?!!" Mike asked...

I used to be a frequent IKEA's "showroom walker" (yea, the kind that just walks but not shops), but Mike trained me to NOT be one anymore (yea, he HATES Ikea for some reasons). Unforunately, the sad news is that to get cheap furniture without a pickup truck in Tokyo, the only really feasible way is to go to IKEA. And that's the "FUN of today" -

~~SHOPPING AT IKEA~~

Unlike the Ikea in the US or in Hong Kong, the Ikea in Tokyo, well, I should say the ONLY Ikea in Japan so far, is very far from the tokyo-proper in Minami-Funabashi (南船橋). It's about 45 minutes if you take the normal JR train that stops at every stop and about 30 minutes if you take the rapid one that skips some stops. Despite the relatively long train ride, once you get off at the JR station, you'll see the HUGE blue and yellow Ikea sign right across from the exit. And that's where the Ikea entrance is (about 2 min walk from the JR exit).

There was no line at the entrance at the time we went in (probably due to the rain), but we have heard from people who had been there telling us that there is ALWAYS a line waiting to get in. I did see a lot of "waiting facilities", such as the ones that you see at Disneyland, for people to wait in a big filled circle (or in Cantonese "snake cake").

"Why do people like IKEA so much?!!" Mike asked...

Well... the short answer is that IKEA stuff is cheap, conveniently-packaged, visually-plesant, and nicely presented in their show rooms, so even if you are not really buying stuff, it's still a pretty good entertainment for couples or familes to go and enjoy a short afternoon.

"And why do you hate IKEA so much?" I asked.

"Well... they are cheap furniture that do not last long." he said.

He is right in that aspect; however, for our purpose - to live in Tokyo for a year or two - IKEA serves it well (plus the easy delivery option). So... IKEA it is !!

I wouldn't bore you with the details of what stuff we bought there, but let's just say that we get "mostly" what we need (mattress, sofa, desks, lamps, floor mats, etc... and even an iron broad, ha!!) Below are some "before/after" pictures of how we got defeated by IKEA (i.e. it sucked out most of our energy for the day!!)


Before going to IKEA (~1:30pm)


We were in a rush that we didn't have time to eat lunch. That explains why you can see Mike "inhaling" a spicy taco (unfornately, a not-so-yummy one) within 5 seconds inside the Tokyo JR station.






And after 4 hours of IKEA shopping and furniture searching...

I took this picture quite by accident on the subway (on our way back) as you can tell from the angle of the picture. But I decided to keep it just because of Mike's amusing response after seeing this picture of himself. He said
"My mouth looks tired..."
Long day for the poor guy!!



Just show you how tired we really were!!! =p









The good news though, is that we now only need a fridge and a washing machine, then we are READY to go!!!! (oh... and the chairs that are out of stock at IKEA too!)

New apartment at Ebisu

Count down... 8 more days before moving into our new apartment in Ebisu!!!

We went to the new apt today to do a bit of checking (for existing damages) and measurements (for buying new furniture). So I got to be a little reporter and photographer today for our new home in Tokyo !!!

Our new apartment is in Ebisu (恵比寿), which is 1 JR station away from Shibuya (渋谷), where most young people hang out. Since Mike is working at Ebisu and I will be working at Roppongi (六本木), which is just 2 stations away, the location is pretty convenient. We both like the Ebisu area a lot. It's kinda like the Sunset in San Francisco or Admiralty in Hong Kong. Very convenient, pretty busy and yet chilled!!

Today was a rainny day, so I didn't feel like taking too many pictures around the apartment outside (may be next week). I did take many pictures of the inside though...

Just a bit of an intro - the apartment is a "mezzanine" type apartment. What that means is that there is actually an intemediate floor and stairs inside the apartment. (cool, huh?) You'll see...


Videos

1 - living room at the lower floor

2 - walking upstairs and the mezzanine (upper) floor

3 - upper floor

4 - walking downstairs and back to lower floor

5 - kitchen and bathroom

6. - general view of whole place from the living room




Pictures

Living room (lower floor). The door to the right is the entry door to the apt. Windows to the left is the balcony.







The entry way next to the door is to the kitchen and bathroom.









Still living room at the lower floor. Mike mesuring the big windows to balcony







Back of the living room. Stylish windows and stairs to the upper floor.











Mike walking up the stairs to upper floor.








Look up the stairs - Upper floor area. Mike is measuring the dimensions of the windows so he can buy big enough blinds to block the sunlight (otherwise he'll wake up in the moring, hehe...)













Upper floor (after coming up from the stairs)








Mike is measuring YET ANOTHER window to make sure that no sunlight can penetrate through in the morning!! hah!!








aiya... Mike heard that I was making fun of him...







Upper floor (covner view). Of coz, you need AC in Tokyo =p
















Upper floor sea level view (taken from the stairs)









Featuring : THE STAIRS

I have to confess that I LOVE stairs inside a house a lot!! My family used to have one in the old house in Bay Area; however, we moved out after a few years to another one that doesn't have it. So... I miss the stairs!!!!


View from bottom.








Sideway.









View from top.







Bathroom.









Kitchen.







One thing you might not notice from the pictures - the place is SPOTTLESSLY CLEAN (I'll almost say shiny)!! It's a bit hard to picture the same kind of cleanness can be found in the States!!.

But of coz, great power comes with great responsibility!! Oh oh oh... that's for the Incredibles, not us, haha... I meant, nice place comes with a high price !! The rent is higher than Mike's old place in San Fran. (And you can imagine how high that is!! sigh...) For me, who did NOT need to pay any rent (yea, my parents are very nice people!!! hehe...) before. This would be a HUGE change. Well... we'll see...

Anyways, the concolusion is that - we are VERY happy about the new apartment and looking forward to move into this place SOON.

I found a gym!!!

After extensive research, I finally found myself a gym!!!

Didn't get to run the first two weeks after arriving Tokyo, and then got to run a bit during the short stay in Hong Kong, and finally FINALLY, I can run again!!!! hehe....

There is a company gym at the new company that I am going to work at; however, I can't use that until I actually start working. That would mean that I need to wait for another month or so -_- which is pretty sucky. So I decided to join a gym for now temporarily. That way at least I can start running immediately ^_^ (And I DID today immediately after I joinned. hehe... ran for an hour and it felt GREAT!!)

Tips for anyone who wants to look for a gym in Tokyo -
1. Gyms are expensive in Tokyo (end of sentence)!! You pretty much can't get away with paying A LOT of $$ in order to exercise. If you spend a bit of time researching or know someone who can give you advice, you might be able to find some relatively cheaper ones. Such as the one that I am joining now - It's like the Japanese version of 24 Hour Fitness in the United States. Big chain, cheaper than other smaller ones, lots of different locations to choose from.

2. Most of the gyms here have a very expensive membership fee (one-time fee) that they want you to pay when you join the gym. On top of that, they also want you to pay for at least 2 (sometimes 3) months of montly fee. Oh yes, the gym fee usually is calculated on a monthly basis. Sometimes they have a cheaper annual membership plan.

3. Find a gym that is convenient to you, either close to work or home. If you live in Tokyo, you probably spend enough time working or commuting. You don't want another commute to work out!! (Trust me, that would drastically reduce your desire to exercise!!)

4. ALWAYS ask to take a look of the facilities before actually joining the gym. Most of times, the gyms might have very awesome-looking pictures on their website showing off their gym facilities; however, they ARE misleading sometimes, i.e., the actual things are pretty far off from what you see in the website pictures. So ALWAYS do a "walk-in" and check the place before signing up for any plan or paying for anything.

5. Most gyms only have Japanese-speaking staff, but in places that have a higher foreigner population, such as Roppongi and Ebisu, you might be able to get english-speaking staff to help you.

~~~~HAPPY GYMMING!!!! ~~~~

Life of a (semi) housewife...

I had a taste of what a housewife would be like in Japan for the past few days - waking up with your loved one (even though you don't have to go work), making him breakfast, seeing him off to work in the morning, cleaning the house, buying food and daily use stuff for both of us, doing laundry, etc.

Sorry hope the list doesn't bore you. It certainly bores me a bit!! -_- I guess I was just not born with the gene of being a good housewife (hehe... just blame it on mom!!) It's just not my thing (not yet anyways =P )

Nonetheless, I still accomplished a lot in these few days: getting Mike and myself a new cell phone (yup, babie, FIRST cell phone in Japan!), taking care of all the administrative stuff with my new company, meeting my boss for lunch (and he seems like a very cool guy!), looking up bank stuff and gyms in the area (they are ALL frecking expensive!), cleaning up the house (which looks much bigger now, so proud of myself, hehe), buying food and daily-use items for Mike and myself, and making Mike breakfast and giving him supports in general. I think I passed (and actually did a pretty good job) of being a "semi-housewife"!! heh...

I also discovered many interesting things in the Japanese culture and society. Below are some with documented evidence:


Interesting Observation 1 - Expensive Veggie

If you are vegetarian, I am very sorry to say - you will have a very hard life here in Tokyo. I don't know about other regions, but for some reasons, vegetables and fruits are ridicoulously expensive. It probably has something to do with the high percentage of imported product and thus high import tax... but, I dunno. The only thing I know is ... I MISS MY VEGGIE...

This reminded me how much I miss the sweet tomatoes with scrambled eggs dish that my mom usually cooked when I was in US. And yes, each tomato DOES cost about $2 US dollar each here!!





"An apple a day, doctors go away!" Sadly though, it costs A LOT here to have the doctors stay out of your way (if you rely on apples).
Because they are each 600 yen ($4.8 USD!!!) You can argue that they are huge... not sure they are five bucks huge though...





800 yen orange - haven't eaten any orange since I got here... felt that rest of my body will be so jealous of my stomach if I buy this $7 USD orange for my stomach...






Mom, I miss the gigantic boxes of grapes that you bought me... look how much they are here!!! -_-... 2300 yen per SMALL box (trust me, they are really small)






Yea, that's right - a 3800 yen mango ($35 USD each)








In conclusion, to get affordable vegetables... you can do this...

Doe's pre-packaged salad costs about $2 USD from Shibuya food mall (yea, you kinda have to go out of your way to get good pre-packaged salad. They are not sold everywhere)





Interesting Observation 2 - "Human browsers"

A lot of times you'll see people just stand at the magazines section of convenient stores and read the magazines or manga there for a very long time (without buying). I can see that in a bookstore, but in a convenient store?! (One time, I even saw some guy took out his cell phone and took pictures of the magazine...)





Interesting Observation 3 - Recycling Fever

Japanese people are absolutely religious about how to classify their garbage. They have different days to dispose combustible and non-combustible garbage. In this picture, you can see they have a box for (from left to right) white toilet paper, bottle, can, combustible and non-combustible stuff.

First day without Mike

Oh no no no, nothing happened to us...We didn't break up or anything! It's just today was Mike's first day at work here in Tokyo. I, on the other hand, had my first day alone! Yay!! (j/k, Mike) =P

It was nice in some ways (especially watching him leave at 7:50am and had the luxury to go back to sleep until 10!! haha). Though at the same time, I kinda wish we can start working at the same time - can compare and contrast the two different companies sooner!! Well... I am sure we'll have our talks later!

First day by myself, starting a bit slow, but picking up the speed immediately.. make lots of phone calls using Skype (yea, still no proper cell phones in Japan yet... sadly) to sort out my work visa stuff, new employee application stuff, bank inqury, etc. Busy busy talking (in Japanese, hehe!!!).

Nose was still stuffy due to the stupid cold. My cure was - wasabi beans - as breakfast!! hehe... I dunno if it cures it or not, the yummy taste in my mouth certainly made me feel like it did!!! ^_____^

Main mission outdoor today was to go to the City Hall at Daimon (大門) which is 3 subway stations away to re-apply for my Alien Registration Card (外国人登録証明書). Applied that when we first arrived Tokyo; however, since we went to Hong Kong (departing Japan) before we waited for the 3 weeks period to obtain the actual registration card, we need to re-apply and submit everything (and PAID) again!!! Seems a bit ridiculous to me, but oh well... it's Japan, where people LOVE their processes, so...

Due to the Golden Week long holiday last week, it was SUPERB busy at the City Hall office today. I arrived around 1pm and didn't get out until 3pm (comparing to last time when I was there, it only took about half an hour!). But I was being a good gal, waited, waited and waited... (yea, was amazed at my own patience as well!!!) =P

Took some pictures while I was there at the City Hall and had a little (visual) adventure as well... sharing with you all... starting from the beginning...


You'll pass by this "Big Gate" (大門) on your way to the City Hall. Feels a bit like some places in main land China.






Minato City Hall at Daimon, where all the foreigners intending to stay more than 90 days have to come to apply for the Alien Registration Card. And very "luckily", it was crowded with people after the Golden Week holiday, and I ended up waiting for almost 2 hours to complete the whole process... -___-




Counter for applying for the annoying Alien Registration Card. Why annoying? You can't do anything without it if you are not a Japanese national. As a result, I can't get a cell phone, a bank account or anything useful yet... ANNOYING!!!





The procedures go like these: you walk to the front counter and pull a ticket from this machine. The number on top says the current calling number, and the number on the actual thing tells you how many people you have to wait before your turn. So you can guess, how much "fun" i have waiting for the EIGHTEEN people in front of me >_<










Fortunately, I was being smart and brought a book to study in case of times like this ;) yea yea yea, I am geeky... so what, I like studying Japanese!! =)













But guess what I saw?!?! ---> A little kid at the far corner trying to climb to get the public phone!!!
hehe... my bad habit again - watching and following (visually only, dun worry, no action taken) little kids. Took some quick snaps of the kid, witnessing his ordeal - trying to pick up a phone that is way taller than him.










Failed to pick up the one on the far left, now he's switching target, trying to aim at the one at the right...















Mission accomplished!! Look, he's talking on the phone now (or he "thinks" he is)! ha!













Target #2 -- Usually you don't get to see to many kids in places like a City Hall. Guess I was lucky... this one is even cuter. He was stretching on the floor, or looking for stuff?






As you can see, I was no less curious than he is (he was curious about what was on the floor, and I was curious about what he was curious about...) And yes, I was taking the picture from behind the seats. I am sure some people have seen me and were thinking, "geez... what's wrong with this strange gal holding a camera taking pictures of a little kid on the other side?" I know i know... bad hobby (kids watching)... =P



Oh no, he got up!!!







And sat back down... so CUUUTEEEEEEE!!! Kawaii !!! (Okay, need to control myself, I start sounding like some kid-liking frecks now, haha..)






Apart from the time I spent watching little kids or studying while waiting for applying for the registration card, I also noticed there was some sort of sales by a group of mid-age women, probably for some charity thing. Kinda weird to happen at a City Hall though.





Oh, in my abundant waiting time, I also realized that you can spot the Tokyo Tower from inside the City Hall. Honestly though, the Tokyo Tower is quite ugly!!












After 2 hours of waiting, I was so glad that I could finally walk out from the City Hall building. Rainny rainny (as you can see from the last pic, the sky was pretty dark already). Wandering around streets in Tokyo a little bit, did a lot of information gathering about which cell phone to get and about what documents are required. Hopefully we can get a cell phone tomorrow!!! (Especialy after finding out from Mike that the network at work will be locked down so tightly) So sad... that means that I can't use IM or icq so freely like I used to in the States anymore during work! -__-... Can't even check my personal email.... >_<... いやだ!! (help!!!)

Chilling and recovering

We have been under the weather lately (in Hong Kong and also after coming back to Tokyo), so we decided to take it easy this weekend to regain some energy. Activities include: wandering around Yoyogi Park (previous post), eating really delicious curry rice at a restaurant called Little Spoon in Shinjuku, and taking random pic at yummy-looking food and weird sign. Just a pretty... random and chilling day ^o^


Took at the mini carpark near our temporary apartment at Roppongi. Nothing really special, but haven't seen such a sunny day in Tokyo for awhile, so have to get out and take a pic to capture to nice sunshine ^_^ (hey, look at Mike's sunglasses. Now you know his trick of taking all these pictures with him and I together -- yup exactly --> long arm!!!!) ^________^



Roppongi Mori building (where I will be working at) at the back. Our temporary apartment is the building on the right (2nd floor).






We had a pretty small breakfast today. He had a potatoe bun at the bakery nearby, and I had a corn salad at a convenient store (yea, craving very badly for veggie...). So by noon, we were VERY hungry for lunch. So we went to...


My favorite curry place at Tokyo, Little Spoon. Though it is a chain, it has very yummy sweet Japanese curry with vegetable (left) which I ordered and spicy curry with pork cutlet (right) which Mike ordered.
And the unexpected surprise is that we got some free coupons for a few side dishes next time when we come back. JACKPOT!!!



Random food discovery includes:


Panda pastry thinggy with egg custart in Harajuku















Lots of crepe shops at Harajuku. Great little snack for people after shopping.







Itadakimasu!! (Let's eat!!) Well, but judging from the pic, it's more like "I am eating now!!"







Saw a couple of funny signs today too:


(sorta) cute sign warning people drive carefully, not to hit people, particularly OLD people!







Look, it's not giant RED button that says do NOT press!!! let me try, lemme lemme... (notice how here is nothing preventing people from actually pressing the button) Ever wonder why all emergency buttons (esp the red ones) are so "accessible" to public!?