My Hirosaki Apartment!

こんにちは 皆さん, お元気ですか? Hello everybody, how are you all doing? Welcome back! In today's post, I'm going to be doing a brief overview/tour of my apartment here in Hirosaki! Now when you think about living in Japan, most people think of tiny apartments and crowded cities. While this may be true in some aspects (usually due to Japan's high population and limited living space), if you aren't claustrophobic or don't have a family trying to live together, it's actually not all that bad!

Usually on the JET Program, your BOE or contracting organization is responsible for finding your apartment for you or assisting you in making arrangements for your housing. Now I say usually because there are placements that require the participant to find their own apartment. They will often hook you up with a real estate agent though so you aren't completely on your own. However, you can imagine how intimidating this is when you're already picking your life up to move to a foreign country. This seems to be most common around the Tokyo area from what I've seen.

It is most common though, that you will just take over the apartment that your pred was living in or receive a newer apartment. Many times your rent will be subsidized as well, which is nice. In some cases, JETs may actually get houses instead of apartments but this is a bit more rare from what I've seen because JETs are responsible for paying rent and utilities out of their monthly salary. So even with subsidized rent, this is a bit more expensive and the program tends to avoid this. This will vary by location though.

Different Japanese Apartments

When looking at Japanese apartments, you'll often see abbreviations such as DK and LDK. These letters stand for "Living", "Dining", and "Kitchen". So these abbreviations and the number in front of them will tell you what type of apartment you are looking at. If there is no number in front of the letters, you do not have any separate rooms and it is all one living space. If there is a number before the letters, it means you have that number of rooms that are separate from the main living space.

LDK

If you have an LDK apartment, this means you have a living, dining, and kitchen area. If there is a number in fron tof the letters, such as 1LDK or 2LDK, this means you have 1 or 2 rooms branching off of the main living area that are separate. If there is no number, you have an open floor plane with no separate rooms.

DK

DK stands for "Dining" and "Kitchen". These are usually found in larger cities and have no living space, just a dining/kitchen area. The "dining" area will serve as your living area but the kitchen is separated from the main room a bit, usually tucked away near the entrance leading to the main room of the apartment. Again, if there is a number in front of the DK, you will have 1 or 2 rooms separate from the main room.

1SLDK

The S stands for "storage room", "service room", or "free room" and usualyl indicates a small area that serves as a walk-in closet or storage closet. The sizes of these rooms vary and there is no standard. They can range from a narrow storage space, to the size of a small spare bedroom. If you have a 1SLDK and the storage room is large enough, you may actually be able to refer to it as a 2LDK, meaning you can view it as a living, dining, kitchen layout with 2 rooms.

Room/Apartment Measurements

Apartments and rooms are often measured in Jo (J), which is the size of one traditional tatami mat. This is approximately 180 x 90 cm (about 71 x 25 inches) but may vary by region. If a room's measurements are given as 5.5J, this means the room is the size of 5 and a half tatami mats. A standard sized bedroom in Japan is about 6J. Nowadays, most apartments are built without tatami in order to modernize them and they are easier to clean/care for but these measurements are still used to give people an idea about size.

My Apartment

Now on to what you all are probably reading this post for to begin with. MY apartment! Obviously the above information is just me attempting to provide some insight on Japanese apartment living and each JET experience will differ but here is my own situation:

My BOE places almost all of us in the same apartments so we are all together and my apartment (because they do differ between us depending on the building) is a 1LDK apartment. My bedroom has 6 tatami mats so it's a decent size as well with a closet. The apartments my BOE sets us up in are all at least partially furnished and I receives a futon, stove with 2 burners, washer/dryer, vacuum, and fridge. I also have a balcony but I am on the ground floor so it opens up to the apartment property.

Below you will find pictures of it. It's pretty sparse right now but over the next few weeks I will be putting my own touch on it, buying things to make it more comfortable for myself, etc.


My entry hall with my washer and dryer.


My shower/ofuru, which is off the entry hall.


My toilet room. In Japan, the toilet is separated from the bathing room for cleanliness purposes. Please ignore the mat, as it was left for me and I need to get a new one!


My kitchen/dining area. My apartment came with a fridge, microwave/toaster, rice cooker, and small crockpot. I was lucky enough to also have some plates, cups, and bowls let for me as well (I washed them obviously).


My living room and futon. The futon's seat is actually covered in a good chunk of duct tape but you can't complain when you don't have to buy it! You can see my balcony doors to the left and my room is to the right.


My room! Please pardon the luggage and packed away futon. I hadn't unpacked before I took these photos. The floor is tatami and I do sleep on a futon, which is much more comfortable than I had expected.


My closet. There's an additional futon and decent storage space. I was able to store both of my large suitcases and my carry-on on the top shelf as well as hang my work clothes and put bins in to hold everything else!

So that's where I'm living now! Keep your eyes peeled for updated pictures. I've already updated the apartment a bit and made if more personal but I also just got my Wi-Fi so I wanted to make a few posts to let everybody know I hadn't forgotten about this blog!