New Mansion

We just moved into our new "mansion," which is what apartments are called here. We're on the top floor of a five floor building. We have 3 bedrooms, one tatami (bamboo mat) room, kitchen, living room, and 1 bathroom. Since we're on the top floor we have a large wrap around balcony. On the floor plan you can see how big it is.

There is a train line running right by our apartm...,I mean mansion, building. We are on the opposite side of the building from the train line and don't hear it from in the house at all. Erik and I have a 5 minute walk to one of 2 train stations.

This one is called Fussa Station. You can see all the taxis, the KFC, and the Golden Arches Steakhouse (what my parents called McDonald's when I was little- so I wouldn't know). Larger train stations have restaurants, book stores, and boxed lunch places. Seiyu, on the right, is a large department/grocery store with I think 4 floors. It is owned by Walmart. The food items in there have the familiar "great value" Walmart brand logo. We probably won't shop there too much!

As you like it pancakes

We went out to eat with Erik’s coworkers who are also new to Yokota. We went to an okonomiyaki restaurant. I’ve seen it translated “as you like pancakes.” Basically you get a bowl of batter (not sweet) and a bunch of chopped cabbage. You choose the rest of the toppings from all kinds of meat, seafood, and veggies. At the table you mix it up and grill it. It was fun, especially since some of the directions were a mystery to us. One of our orders had mochi (pounded rice), which is ooey gooey when melted, and cheese. The rest were pork, bacon, and beef. We even ordered a dessert that required the same process of mixing and frying. Yum, yum, yum! It’s funny to go out to eat to avoid cooking and end up at a restaurant where you….cook. Well we didn’t have to prepare or do dishes and, of course it was fun. The tables beside us produced perfectly round and browned pancakes. We realized that we’ll have to return again to hone our cooking skills. Darn!