New bed

Last Sunday I ordered a shingeru beddo furemo (single-size bed frame) from Amazon.co.jp, and it was scheduled to arrive this Wednesday between 10:00 and 12:00.  Guess what.  My class was at 11:00.  I e-mailed the Amazon Marketplace shop owner to send it before 11:00, but to no avail.  Thankfully, the order arrived around 10:30am, and I was able to assemble it and make it in time for class!  Ahh, the comfort of sleeping above the floor.  Don't get me wrong, nothing wrong with sleeping on a mat/futon/mattress on the floor, but it's just a little less effort to go up or lie down when your bed is almost as high as your knee.  Anyways, this past 3 months has also been the longest time I've slept on the floor.

The bed I bought has steel pipe legs and frame, but on it is a wooden platform (not as strong as the typical wood used for building homes though), and that together with my current futon was enough for me.  I was earlier pondering on whether I should get a real (foam) mattress but I decided to try this set-up first.  Works well for me.  I also like that there's probably 40cm (16 inches) of space underneath the bed, so there's extra room for some storage, and that sort of helped tidy up my room.  Of course, I also did a little brooming to clean up the room.  Dust kind of accumulates here in a matter of weeks.

Other than that...  I still feel tired from yesterday.  My head's not "in the game" so much.  I had pork adobo with steamed pechay for lunch, and steak for dinner together with this cabbage salad with sesame oil and chili garlic for dressing, which I bought from the convenience store because I didn't have any veggies anymore.  Is it still called salad even if there's only one ingredient?  Ehehe.  Anyways, I also bought banana (first time I ate banana in a number of weeks now) and ice cream, which seems like a plain vanilla flavor.  I have yet to try it out, but I'm sure it's tasty.

Busy

Isn't that the same as yesterday's post title.  Anyways, I woke up surprisingly very early today, just in time to take out the garbage before the 8:30am "deadline."  Supposedly you're not allowed to take out the trash after 8:30am, and you're only allowed to take out the designated type of trash for the day.  In our area, Iiyama, it's plastics and paper on Mondays, PET bottles and cans on Thursdays, and "nabubuloks" on Tuesdays and Fridays.  And supposedly, you're not allowed to take out the trash the night before.  As you can see, there is a very slim window to do it, particularly if you sleep relatively late and therefore you wake up relatively late.  But I heard and I see from the other gaijin (foreigners) here, Korean and Indian specifically, "it's not necessary to follow the schedule."  I still do follow the schedule but as you can bet, it's difficult.  Sometimes I would have food wastes that need to wait over the weekend and a total of 4 nights before I get to throw them.  I can't imagine what it would be like when it's winter, it's snowing, and it's freezing cold and you have to throw the garbage so early in the morning, the coolest part of the day!

Anyways, today was work, work, work.  And then play.  Basketball, that is.  Tiring as usual, but not as heavy on my knees as before.  I think I'm getting used to my own weight.  The last time I played basketball regularly and this heavily, I was probably 20 lbs (9 kilos) lighter.  Anyways, as usual there was "betting," but like the past few game days, there was no winner.  Our "rules" are that you can win the betting if you win the first two games.  As you can guess, we usually split those two games.

Anyways, I found some info on an apartment similar to the one I used to stay in: レオパレスグリーンヒルズＡＹＡ｜賃貸はレオパレス21.  Pretty interesting.

Lunch was picadillo.  Dinner was nilagang manok and steamed pechay again.  I love Filipino food the most. :-)

Busy But

Usual day except...  Yesterday afternoon we ordered a wireless router online (via Amazon.co.jp) and they said the estimated arrival date is Wednesday.  We were surprised it arrived this morning!  And so we tried to hook it up to one of our fellow students' internet connection at his apartment and voila, we are able to access the internet from our own apartments nearby.  Unfortunately the distance plus the presence of so many walls significantly affects the wireless signal strength.  Our fellow student's apartment is on the first floor, and I'm 3 units to his right, one the 2nd floor of another building!  But to me it's better than nothing.  Now I can check e-mail and stuff (and send texts and maybe make phone calls) with just 1/10 the number of steps going to "my office" in school.  "Office" is the term everyone uses here to refer to our room of cubicles and desks and personal computers assigned to us.  When other people hear the word "office", they ask, "Office???  I thought you were there to study or to do research????"  What else would you call a place where you are assigned a desk and a computer?  Besides, we're doing school work and research work anyway! :-D

By the way, yesterday I received international money order from my mom sent through by my Tita Ondet in the US.  So this morning I went to the post office to have it encashed and... well they can't encash it, not at that branch.  It's just a small branch here in suburban/rural Atsugi.  They suggested I try the one near (urban/downtown) Hon-Atsugi.  Oh well.  The money could wait a little.  But it's good to know I have some extra to spend now.  I do have enough to cover for my expenses until my next "salary" (or "allowance") arrives which is not until June 21st.  13 days to go.

Anyway, if there's any other good to cooking, it's that I am able to delay my expenses a bit (i.e. the gas bill arrives later).  I am able to save now - I have less expenses, but as I said I will be paying more for the utilities later than if I were not cooking.  Then again, I really like eating Filipino food.  :-D

Oh and I had two trips to the post office area actually.  The first time I just went and tried to recall where it was by memory.  I failed!  Before going the second time around, I asked around and checked Google maps.  Bingo. :-D

Apartment

Photos are yet to come!  But for advanced info of everyone, here are links to details and a general photo of my apartment building, as well as a map.

http://www.atsunou.co.jp/?page=gakusei&sub=detail&id=00218
http://maps.google.co.jp/maps?q=厚木市飯山2171-3