Our AirBnB's in Europe have been pretty nice and spacious. Japan is a different story. Most of the amenities are just packed into a much smaller space. We have been really amazed at their creativity. In a different rental we thought they had no extra toilet paper and so bought some. Only to discover on the last day that there were lots of rolls on a very high shelf in the toilet. One of the amazing adaptions is the toilet sink. I used it once - only cold water and just felt too weird. I love the warm toilet seat - Even in public toilets they will have fancy toilets like this. It took a while to get used to the babbling brook sounds. The first couple of time it was like, what, I haven't even started yet!
Note the lovely floral arrangement around the faucet! There is a towel hanging next to it.
Love the showers in Japan. They usually have a separate room for the bath tub and shower. There is a drain in the floor in front of the tub so you shower right outside the tub. Note the controls for the water for both the shower and tub are on the small ledge in front of the tub. The handy ledge also holds your shampoo and conditioner. The left knob sets the temperature of the water. The knob on the right goes backward for the shower or forwards for a full stream of water to fill the tub. Plenty of room to move around and no worries about getting water outside of the tub.
The bathroom also contains the laundry facilities. The washer is across from the sink in the first area. This machine is as bad as the ones in Europe - a load takes 3 hr 30 min. We did 3 loads of laundry here and twice it got stuck when there was only 30 minutes left. You could actually stop it from continuing to churn - but you could not open up the door. I have to say in all our travels this is the first time that a machine held our clothes hostage!
Drying clothes is another adventure. I have never seen this method before. But it is making double use of a space efficiently. In the ceiling above the bath tub is the heating unit. It blows hot air down
onto your hanging clothes. You could set it for up to 3 hours, close the shower door and let it work its magic.
In Japan everyone takes off their shoes and puts on slippers as soon as they enter the home. There was a supply of slippers waiting for us. The stool was actually in the shower room - but it does make putting on shoes easier in the tight space.
In this apartment there is no central heat. Each room has its own heater with remote controls.
Our apartment had two bedrooms and a tatami room for sleeping. There was actually a closet in my room - but not really usable as you could only open the door about 8 inches - the bed took up almost the entire room. The tatami room has a closet filled with blankets and pillows. The Japanese are used to living in close quarters. This apartment advertised to sleep 8-10 people. At $129 a night that would be pretty cheap per person! Though sometimes there are extra charges for more guests.
The kitchen was surprisingly large. This refrigerator/freezer has 4 drawers! Most of the time that unit is super small. The stove has actual burners - last apt we were at there was 1 hot plate.
The open area contains a space for a small table and chairs, a small sofa and coffee table and a TV. The sofa was not comfortable and the table got quite crowded. Notice the off-set computers!
Night time views from our living room window. The big green building was a bit of an eye sore - but otherwise a great view.
And lastly our apartment building from the outside. We are on the 13th floor. There are a lot of bikes in the cities of Japan - they don't match up to Amsterdam and they drive on the sidewalk or the street which can cause surprises as they come startling out of small alley ways.
I have never encountered the toilet sink. That is brilliant.
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