john.Information

john.Journal

Dr John Hawkins

Welcome to my bit of the Maison de Stuff, home to a huge load of pictures, and my daily blog.

My email address is as above - I've put it in an image in a vein attempt to reduce the amount of spam I get.

John's Journal / Blog: Main Index
Archives
RSS
John's Pictures: Main Index
Main Index (text only)
Categories
Recent Updates
RSS
John's Travel: Main Index
Places
Map
RSS
Other Related Sites:: Maison de Stuff
Stuffware
Exif.org
Chiesan
Celtlands

Moving

Posted on 2005/12/23 14:12:54 (December 2005).

[Friday 23rd December]
After almost 8 months of moving around, and being either technically homeless or in temporary accomodation, Chie and I finally got to move into our own place again. Since I came to Japan two months prior we'd struggled with finding a place for one reason or another, so it was a tremendous relief to finally feel like we could start to get properly settled.

The day was not without its problems, however. In fact it started off somewhat disastrously. We woke up in our temporary accomodation, for the last time, and began to do the last bits and pieces of packing prior to checking out. A little while into this process, Chie thought something was amiss, and then realised that one of her boxes had vanished. The previous day (Thursday) was the day of the week when our temporary apartment got serviced, and it appears the cleaner had somehow (rather stupidly) mistaken one of Chie's boxes for rubbish and thrown it out. It wasn't anywhere near where the bin is, so what exactly possesed the cleaner to dispose of this is beyond me.

Of course a box is pretty replacable - it was the things inside, which held strong sentimental value for Chie, which she was really upset about. So at about 6:30 in the morning we went to the front desk, probably woke up the porter, and told him what had happened. He did a bit of phoning around, which seemed to result in pretty much nothing happening. So we went back a short while later, and I asked if he could take us to the rubbish shed. After a quick search we did at least manage to find the most important item - a scarf which had belonged to Chie's sister. There were still two other things missing, however we didn't feel inclined to sort through all the bin bags ourselves, so we were assured that somebody there would sort through and find the other things for us. Chie seemed happy with this - she had the scarf at least - so I thought it best to just leave it there. Besides, we still had the business of moving to contend with.

So we got all of our things together, checked out of the temporary accomodation which had been our home for the past two months, and then got a taxi down the road to the new - more permanent - place. We arrived just before 9, and I was literally terrified after the terrible start we'd had to the day that they key wouldn't work, and we'd be stranded outside with all our belongings. Luckily my fears were unfounded, and we managed to get in no problem.

However, our troubles were not quite over yet. After putting all our luggage in the flat, we did the standard sorts of checks to see if everything was working, and found there was no water. We did a bit of phoning round to see what could be done about this, but given that it was a national holiday, this was a complete failure, and things were starting to look pretty bleak. The water company suggested it would take several days to have one of their engineers come out - Monday at the earliest. The prospect of three days without water was not a particularly pleasant one! As you can imagine, Chie, having already had a pretty bad start to the day, was not in the best of moods by this point.

You'll be glad to hear though that there was a happy ending - we had what I genuinely believe to be an angel sent to us, in the form of Watanabe-san of Tokyo Gas company. He was such a lovely, lovely, lovely man, I wanted to hug him. He had come to do the gas safety checks - on a national holiday - and we mentioned in passing that the water wasn't working. This is clearly not anything to do with his job, but he very kindly had a fiddle about in the meter cupboard outside the flat, found the bizarrely hidden stopcock, and a few seconds later glorious water was flowing from our taps.

After this small miracle the day was all just peachy from there on. Literally, we went from being morbidly depressed, with the turn of a stopcock, to being all full of beans about our new place to live. It was as though Watanabe-san had turned on the happiness supply to our apartment, along with the gas and the water.

We spent a large part of the remainder of the day shopping, both in the local area and in Shinjuku. For the first time in my life I had moved into a totally unfurnished property, which was a whole new experience. In order to stay the first night at least, we needed to buy the absolute basics - curtains and something to sleep in.

We had both lunch and dinner at the apartment, and it felt absolutely great to be cooking and eating in our own "proper" apartment at last. We have no chairs or tables yet, but the wonderful feeling of sitting and eating a meal in flat we can call our own again will probably go down as one of the major highlights of this year.

Comment 1

Congratulations! Best Christmas present I could have, and I expect it is yours as well.

Posted by Mum at 2005/12/23 14:57:58.

Comment 2

True, I've been drinking a little... But I almost feel the need to hug both of you!!!! (Yes, this could be a bit scary, but I'm relatively safe... Honestly!!) Always remember the well-worn maxim that moving house is up there at the top of the "Most Stressful" list. It's sooo true - nothing like a cliche at all. And in a different country. I take my hat off to you both.

Posted by Nigel at 2005/12/23 21:38:08.

Comment 3

Very happy for you both ... great news ..... and many many blessings on your new home together ......
You might have gas and water ... thanks to that very very nice man from the Tokyo Gas Company (does he take on work in the UK as well ??!!) .. but I am presuming that you will not yet have telephones ... so maybe on Christmas day we could 'speak' on that Messenger thingy .... what would be a good (UK) time ... ?

LOL

Dad, Janie, Yates ..and everyone else here ....

Posted by Dad at 2005/12/24 12:15:02.

Comment 4

Posted by Dad at 2005/12/24 12:15:30.

Comment 5

APOLOLOGIES ... for posting twice !

Posted by Dad at 2005/12/24 12:16:37.

Comment 6

Hi John,

Good to see that you and Chie have moved in (despite the initial problems with Chie's box going awol) - I moved last summer and did it all myself, lugging stuff in my car and leaving the really heavy items (cooker, fridge etc) to a local Greek "remover" - true to their name, they managed to remove the paint/varnished surface from whatever they touched (sob!). Anyway, I'd like to wish you a very Merry Christmas, and all the best for the New Year. Your blog is, as ever, good reading and humorous in the face of obstacles (somehow like I feel here in Greece!)

all the best for Xmas and 2006!

Bryan
Kilkis,
Northern Greece
www.bryanhollamby.gr

Posted by Bryan Hollamby at 2005/12/24 01:21:34.

Comment 7

Good stuff John! Now the fun part starts (buying the furniture), it's a great feeling to have YOUR OWN place in a foreign land, I remember all the times i went back to Radstock, it felt like the Rivendell for the Hobbits in the Lord of the Rings for me!