Our new pad

This past Friday Jame and I moved into our new apartment. We decided to move to save some money as the apartment NOVA set us up with was about $1320 / month for 2 rooms. The place we are in now is $800 for the same size. Saving money is a good thing!!!!!!!

The commute to work is a bit longer now, but that is o.k. given that we'll be saving some cash and we are now living in a quieter area of town -- both a plus for us! Our area is considered the "bay area" otherwise known as Tempozan village. There is a big market down the street, one of the world's most famous aquariums and even a port! That's nice because whenever we are homesick we can always walk down there and get a whiff of the salty air from the ocean!

A short train ride away is Cosmosquare. We haven't been there yet, but supposedly there is so much to do. There is an international food market, a winery, and the World Trade Center which I have heard the view from the top is amazing!

We are pretty much settled into our place nicely and already love it. It is so pretty here at night. No more neon , flashing signs.....now we see big lamp-posts and colorful LED lit trees lining the street.

Another great thing is that the back wall of our suite has 3 giant sliding glass doors. The balcony is huge! We could probably put a couch on it if we wanted to -- in addtion to the space needed for drying our clothes! These glass doors allow so much light to come in, which is a big change from our previous dark apartment. Jame has a bonzai tree that was struggling to grow in our old place. We have only been here for 2 days and already we can tell it is starting to grow! Maybe I'll try and get another plant for inside our place. I am a little nervous though because I do not have a good track record of keeping plants alive and my dad isn't here to come rescue it when it is on the verge of death! We'll see......

The walls in this building are extremely thin! Why? Well.....(I know what some of you are thinking and that's not how this story goes...ha ha ha ) ... the first morning here we woke up to an alarm clock. It wasn't mine, it wasn't Jame's.....it was our neighbour's!!! They didn't want to wake up as they hit the snooze button at least 6 times! Now I know what I make Jame go through every morning! Oops!

I was home sick today as I caught some nasty flu bug. It was nice to chat and catch up with some of you today! Great to hear your voice too! Many of you were asking about our new place, so here are some pictures. It's not as open as the first place, so the angles made it a little bit awkward to give you an exact impression. The lay-out is a lot different, but we are super happy!
Enjoy!!

front door to the right and shower / laundry straight ahead

view from the shower area -- toilet on the left, living room on the right, and kitchen hard right

straight on view from the front door

view of the kitchen from the balcony -- bedroom is hard left and living room hard right

view of living room from the balcony -- we were given that sweet maroon leather couch for a beer! it is ancient looking, super comfy and was practically free! again, you can't go wrong!

living room

view from our bedroom

that's right....the toilet is pink....but the fact that it is a western style toilet is ALL that matters!!

washing machine and vanity -- the only downfall about this apartment is the mirror doesn't open. i could use the space, but since that is my only complaint it isn't even really worth mentioning

shower and tub -- this tub is a bigger then the one in our first place! we can get in and out without injury .

just big enough for our futons! this space is supposedly used as a living room, so for obvious reasons we switched it up.

this is the view from our balcony -- if you look closely you can see some spotlights. they are from universal studios japan -- just a 5 minute ferry ride away!

this is what we see once we get off the elevator on the 6th floor. it is one of the biggest ferris wheels in the world!