This is kind of a heads-up post. One of the reasons why I’ve been a little erratic (i.e. slow as hell) on posts of late is that the contract on my apartment is almost up for renewal and we’ve decided to move into something a little bigger. I love this apartment, but when I moved in in late 2002 it was just intended as a cool crash pad for just one, but now, with the two of us, we’re a little pushed for space. Thus, we’ve spent an increasing amount of time over the last two months looking at hundreds of floor plans and rejecting a good 99.5% of them for one reason or another – I hate having the cooking range in the living room (pretty common in many Japanese apartments) and my partner prefers south facing places, short commutes and places which have ‘wa’ (just joking there!). We’ve so far burned a few weekend days running around Tokyo taking a look at them.
For a flashback of the last time I moved, check out the November section of my 2002 notes. All the usual things have occurred – floor plans which had ‘misprints’ as to the direction of the balcony, buildings which claimed to be 6 years old which looked pre-war and estate agents who were unhappy with my racial origins. What can I say, I’m pale.