Welcome to Japan

   Well, I’m here.  For those of you who don’t know, “gaijin” is Japanese for “foreigner”, and that’s what I’ll be here in Japan for a year or so.  So I thought I’d muse about what it’s like to be a foreigner in Japan.

   After a 12-hour flight here to Tokyo, I took the train for two hours to Yokosuka where I’ll be living and working.  I checked in to the Hotel New Yokosuka where I had stayed several times before.  I had asked for one of the “residential” rooms, but the only thing they had available was a “standard” room (standard meaning tiny).  In the standard room, in addition to the small bathroom, there is a double bed with about three feet of room around two sides of the bed, a two-foot wide “closet”, some cubby holes for clothes, and a small desk area.  After one night in the room I decided that there wasn’t room for both of us, so either my luggage or I had to go. 

   Luckily, I checked with the front desk and a residential room had opened up.  It has, by comparison, LOTS of room, but it’s still smaller than your typical stateside Holiday Inn room.  It’s designed for long-term occupancy, so it has some amenities.  A kitchen area that consists of a two-burner electric stove, a sink, a 1- by 2-foot counter area, and some cupboard space.  Most Japanese kitchens (even in homes) don’t have ovens, so my room also comes with a toaster oven, in which two pieces of bread will just barely fit.  And of course a rice cooker.  In addition I have a small microwave oven and a refrigerator.  The refrigerator is bigger than the “mini” ones you sometimes see in hotel rooms, but small by US standards.  There is decent closet, drawer, and cupboard space for clothes and “stuff”. 

   The room also comes with a washer/dryer.  Not a washer and dryer (that would take up too much room), but a machine that washes and then dries your clothes.  You stick in the clothes with some detergent, and three or four hours later (yes, I said three or four), you clothes are done.  For socks and underwear it’s great, for dress shirts and pants, not so much.  My “no-iron” shirts and pants still need ironing, but the other stuff comes out really soft to the touch. 

   All for now; next time I’ll talk about breakfast choices . . .