Japanese apartment tour in Iwate

This is my private rented apartment in Yamada, on the East coast in the Iwate prefecture.
It came unfurnished and costs ¥45,000 a month which includes a parking bay.
Furnishing it for the main stuff set me back about ¥70,000 but that does include everything you see in the video plus a very nice printer i bought shortly after.

So for long term stay in japan it makes living here feel more like home…being in a Leopalace is not always an option, especially in the north and rural areas and they also feel more like your back at uni.

Any questions please ask either via you tube or send me an email – jtjapan@hotmail.com

foreign okay so this is my gankun or the entrance way into my apartment it’s basically where you have to take your shoes off before entering the house i set up a mat to one side so i don’t have a shoe box or anything and this is the mailbox if you decide to send me any post okay so from the entrance way you come straight into the kitchen it’s fairly basic kitchen um but as you can see there are plenty of cupboards so plenty of storage space it’s a stainless steel work surface with a standard mixed top and sink this is the toaster oven basically filled toasting and cooking and then over here is the gas stove this is a traditional setup i’ve got a jaw burner and this section here is where you grill your fish so moving elsewhere over to the kitchen we have the fridge freezer unit so it’s a fridge at the top and a drawer freezer at the bottom sat on top is the microwave uh along with all the milk cartons that eventually i need to flat pack so i can put out for recycling um which is what all this rubbish is over here it’s all the rubbish sorted out um and i’m waiting to sort the schedule out because uh all goes out on different days it’s very complicated as you will be able to see by this poster i have to sort out trash for burnables non-burnables uh plastic paper cardboard and cartons uh cans and tins polystyrene colored glass um plastic bottles um dangerous and combustible items a lot and large items as well all going out on different days throughout the month so it’s too complicated at the moment i’ve only just moved in uh my calendar and then the rest of the space there’s some plastic bottles that need recycling um nice large window with curtains that cost seven quid and then a nice high ceiling with a window that i have no idea how to reach without stepladder okay so the first room coming off the kitchen i’m going to show you is the washroom so you have a nice sliding door into it um you have your sink and vanity unit with more storage space and then your mirror and shelving units for your toiletries next to the sink area is the washing machine i had the towels trained on top and the washing machines here only run on cold water and it’s a top loading and i’ve got some washing that i need to do next to it is the ironing board and you still get your bog standard fabric softener and then over here is the washing powder so through this door next to the washing machine is the toilet area um it’s a fairly basic toilet i’ve just got a heated seat um this is the flushing mechanism you just push the bottle in the button in the middle so you can control the amount of water that you’re going to be using um on the toilet paper which as you can see says cute because everything over here is supposed to be cute and happy and then the other room over here is the wet room so you have your shower on one side because traditionally you shower first and then you normally bathe in a hot tub okay so the next room that i’m going to show you is the western room so named because it has wooden floors instead of tatami mats sliding door and as you can see it is virtually empty apart from a few things on the wall so i have a flag a map of york a map of the coast here and yamada where i’m staying this time i have blue curtains and on the floor over here is what i use to peg the washer now because i have no back garden i’m on the second floor and so i have to use the clothes rail out here but i do have some furniture and that’s just over here in the corner but essentially this is where i sort of live um birthday cards because it was my birthday a few days ago just behind them you can see a picture of my graduation with my family i’ve got my japanese dictionary some japanese language books my grammar books hiding underneath is all my school textbooks a bag of chocolate that i was going to give as a gift to the school but i thought it’s too good too good to give away it’s cadbury’s chocolate and you can’t get cabbage chocolate here um and then accent as a cushion was the pillow that came with my futon set that’s supposed to use for my bed so the final room that i’m going to show you again also comes off from the kitchen it is the tatami room all the bedroom so it’s a sliding door um it is six tatami mats that’s how big it is um tummy mats are basically made of um rice grass uh through here is just the the western room again uh sliding doors so you’ve already seen that room um over here though are the wardrobes so i have four wardrobe spaces um quite large uh you have storage space uh the top goes all the way through um currently no hanging wheel i need to get one so i’m just using the metal uh coat hangers and the suitcase is hiding underneath uh with a few of my documents kept to one side and the other wardrobe space is more close the presence that’s going to give to the other schools and then over here is just all the cables and tablets and pills and more paperwork and documents apparently this apartment is about the right size for a family and on the windowsill is the phone it’s where i get the best signal so i tend to keep it here um if i just open up it’s a fairly basic phone i’m with softbank unfortunately because my visa only says i’m here for a year and softbank contracts are normally two years i had to pay for the phone up front and it was about 150 pounds um my dressing gown a makeshift um bedside table um the torch is there because you do get earthquakes here and this is the bed um you sleep on the floor some people buy a western bed you can get them over here but this is a traditional futon bed so the futon is a thin cushion underneath um i’ve gone for a memory foam pillow you then have the duvet just like back home and then because it gets still gets a bit cold here at night i have the fleece blanket and a towel blanket and occasionally i bring the heater through here if it gets too cold but at the moment it’s starting to warm up the weather’s a bit up and down um and so this is pretty much it the end of the guided tour you