I currently live in a 3-bedroom house in Funabashi, a sort-of suburb of Tokyo. By train, Tokyo Station is about 45 minutes away. Our nearest train station is about a 10 minute walk. My neighborhood is a residential one, with a large number of retired folks and people with jobs in Tokyo. Also a few small business here and there -- florists, vegetable stands, a cosmetics shop across the street. The personality of the neighborhood is the subject of a whole different conversation, but here's my little house. It was built about 40 years ago when this was mostly an agricultural area. Still here and there around the neighborhood are little one or two-acre asian pear orchards or vinyards. I've been living here since February 2004. At first only Mark lived here -- an American guy in his mid 30's. He lived here alone for about four months. I moved in in February after seeing an ad online and coming to check it out. And then around April, Sean moved in. Sean's a Canadian guy in his late 20's. Also around April, Mark's dog LB arrived from Los Angeles. So now we live here as four mammals, in relative harmony.

A view looking north along my street -- note that this street doesn't have a name. Instead, blocks have numbers. So instead of living on (xxx) Maple street, I live in the Sakigaoka ('Blossoming Hill') part of Funabashi ('Ship Bridge'), in the 4th big chunk, on the 11th block, house number 26. So my address becomes Funabashi-city Sakigaoka 4-11-26. My house is the one right past the fortressy-looking house on the left. I guess the guy who lives in it is maybe in his late 60's and rumor has it went a little bit crazy when his wife passed on. I've seen him a few times cleaning the storm drain in front of his house, and often hear him doing some sort of building within the walls surrounding his house. He also keeps a few cats. I guess he called the police on my roommate Mark once, and told them that Mark broke into his home, hit him, and stole some money. The police showed up, and Mark wisely called the landlord. Our landlord talked to the police, and assured them that this neighbor has done this before, when two young women lived here. I try to say hello whenever I see him, because I have a place in my heart for hermits, and he actually said hello to me once too, as he passed me on his bicycle.

The same street looking south. The green and white sign is for a cosmetics shop. At first the owner there was remarkably unfriendly. One time when I was outside in the courtyard, one of the children, a boy of maybe six or seven, who lived there came over to look around. I smiled and said hello to him, but thought to myself 'I wonder if I'll hear an "abunai" any moment now? (abunai meaning "dangerous!" or "Look out!") And sure enough, I did. The woman called "Abunai!!" and he walked reluctantly back across the street. But it was my roommate's dog LB who finally helped break the ice. LB is a medium-sized Rotweiler German Shepherd mix, who barks a lot but is pretty sweet. One day the gate was open, something we try to avoid, and I heard barking and the mortal terror of a child screaming. I thought "Oh bloody fuck, there go any more chances of being treated as humans by the neighbors -- all we need now is for it to be known that our vicious killer dog tried to devour someone's child." So I rushed out and brought LB back in, and closed the gate. I kinda chewed Mark out over it, while overhearing the neighbors talk. The part I understood was along the lines of "well, we'll just have to tolerate them." But Mark is much more open and breezy toward people than I am. So he went out and introduced the dog to the kids, who of course ran and screamed again. But eventually it became a game -- the kids would tentatively come close to LB, and then to run. So of course LB would chase after them. The kids would tear up the stairs, and LB would wander back to where Mark and I, and the owner of the cosmetics shop were. Then the kids would skitter down the stairs and edge closer, for another round.

Another thing that helped us to be seen as less of a threat, was that we held a few barbecues during the summer. Barbecues are my roommate Sean's forte'. For me, they're kind of a nuissance but I enjoy them too. Dozens of people I don't know come over, drink massive amounts of beer, get drunk and eat lots of food. Most people filter back home before the last train leaves, but a few stay over. The first barbecue caused a couple complaints. So for the second one, we invited all the neighbors over. And they came, shy and polite, with their children, bringing all sorts of food. And the kids turned the house into their playground a bit, having squirt-gun fights, and throwing things over Mark's balcony. For my part I asked a couple people advice about gardening, which proved remarkably effective in humanizing us as well. That was during the summer. Since that time we've had no complaints, and people seem friendly.

Here's my house. It's in kind of an L shape. The front door would be at the top of the L, with a little courtyard to the left. The window is the window to my room.

This is the balcony (note the futons hanging out to air) and the courtyard. Mostly it's a one-story house, but the bedroom above the car-port is the only second story. This is Mark's room. The landlord actually rents half of the carport to the cosmetics shop across the street, for about $100/month. The other half is where we store our bicycles.

the front door. Come on in! Kick off your shoes!

The front hallway. To the immediate right is the little bathroom, and a bit further to the right is the sink/laundryroom/shower area. To the left is a door to a closet shared by my room, and a bit further a door to the living room. Straight up the hallway is the kitchen.

Our cute little toilet! It's actually a Japanese style one, that you have to squat over, but it has a retro-fitted seat that almost fits right, allowing you to sit on it. I like the old-fashioned water tank, a good couple feet above the bowl, to allow for water pressure.

Our shower

Our kitchen

Another view of the kitchen. There's a whole box of oranges near the stove because my roommate Mark has the same thing for breakfast every day: a shake made from oranges, raw eggs, banana, yogurt, milk, and some other stuff I forgot. The stove is a little two-burner model that uses propane. Also a little black mini-oven, so I can do a bit of baking or roast a chicken now and then, a microwave, coffee maker, and a rice cooker. Notice the trap-door on the floor. A lot of Japanese houses seem to have these. They're actually a little storage area. We don't use ours.

The living room. Not much to say about it... Our furniture so far is camping chairs. And of course they face the entertainment center. My roommate Sean brought his essentials for life when he moved in -- a big TV, VCR, combo PlayStation/DVD player. And more recently a satellite dish. To be honest I look down my nose a bit at it, but more times than not I find myself plopped down in front of the TV along with everyone else, watching whatever's on.

A glimpse into my room, with the usual scattered array of books, CD's, electronics, some laundry hanging up to dry, and of course my essentials for life -- stereo and computer. It's the smallest room of the house, which means I pay the least rent (just how I like it) but it's plenty large enough for me. Also it's the only room in the house with tatami mats.

The other corner of my room. I scored the tripod one night, just before garbage day. Someone threw away an ancient video camera, and along with it a perfectly good tripod. And I paid too much for an old used guitar a few months ago too. Note the very Japanese calendar: I received that as a gift at the beginning of 2004.

A glimpse of the courtyard, and one side of the house. Most of the walls facing the courtyard are fullsized sliding glass doors. On the far right is the one to my room, and then that opens to the living room. One more, facing the street, opens to a small hallway, and Sean's room. And of course our laundry lines. One thing I like about Japan, is that most people don't use dryers, so all houses have some place to hang laundry. The tree right next to my room, and next to the street is a kinmokusei ("fragrant olive") tree. It blooms in October, and is covered for a week or two with tiny orange blossoms that smell so nice. In the lower-right corner of the photo are a couple planter boxes. I've been playing a bit with growing a few vegetables or herbs or whatever. The insects had a field-day with my basil that I planted there. I was half-tempted to try making pesto with the little grubs instead, or just roasting them with garlic and salt. But now I have a bit of kale growing there which seems to be doing well, a little bit of mint, and thyme. Next spring I intend to add a few more planter boxes.

And that's basically it! I notice that I haven't included photos of my roommates' rooms, but I hardly ever go in them. Mark's is probably the largest, above the carport. And Sean's is a bit larger than mine too -- a long narrow room to the right of the carport.