Move over!

Well, we’ve now completely moved in our new place.

We spent yesterday cleaning the old place a bit and handing the keys back. I have a lot of fond memories of my 2 years in Komazawa, but as a couple now we needed a bit more space, so here we are.

Komazawa is a great place – the park is fabulous and the local eateries are great. Unfortunately, we couldn’t really find anything we liked in the area which was bigger than our old place, but which was in our budget range, or maybe it had the kitchen in the main room or something else we didn’t like. However, as soon as we saw our now ‘new’ place we knew that if we stretched the budget a little it would be worth it (if only because there’s a gomi room on every floor with no ‘different days for different rubbish’ limitations).

Back to the move. After finishing the packing on Monday afternoon, our movers – Mammy Removals – came in and did their thing. This is the second time I’ve used them, and I can’t believe the value you get with them. We got quotes from four companies – 3 of which were between 80-110,000yen and Mammy came in at 30,000, and they aren’t at all sloppy – they were fast and polite both packing the stuff up, and getting it in the new place. Hell, I was so impressed I gave them some beer money…and it takes a lot for me to part with beer money.

We’d already got all the utilities working in the new place from Saturday, so all we had to do on Monday night was dig out the lights, plug them in and start to unpack – next was a look for the kettle/pot for some hot water, and the building’s own hikari-fiber internet access mean’t that tea and broadband were mine! You mean there was something else to do? OK, maybe we are still proud owners of a few cardboard boxes, but it should all be finished by tonight.

Another nice thing for me about the new building is that the cycle and motorbike areas are both inside, in monitored areas, so they’re clean and dry. My little Zoomer is loving it’s own parking space in the basement, and I must admit that it’s an underrated feature IMHO. Interestingly, when we were in the basement car park on Saturday some residents were racing RC cars around (it’s a large carpark), which I’m hoping is a fixture because it’s something that interests me.

The last time I moved apartment (from Kameari to Komazawa) I used my old laptop (an Apple G3 Powerbook) to listen to some internet radio, and this time was now different; as I unpacked books, computers and CDs last night, I hunted down the archives of an old favourite – “Does Humour Belong in Technology” – it’s not great radio, but it sounds better than most pro shows and is kind of fun to listen to in the background.

Now that my computer equipment, and all the books, CDs and DVDs are in one room, along with my partner’s yoga mat and some other bits and pieces, and we have a real living room again I feel like I’m back in a real apartment. (I missed that!) Who knows…maybe even a dining table.

Sorry – must go and finish the unpacking and take all the boxes o the basement recycle area.