OBACHAN'S SCRIBBLES

Friday, September 15, 2006

IF NO ELECTRICITY, GIVE ME SUNLIGHT

Yes, we were informed about it beforehand, so it’s not the power company’s fault. They had given us flyers about the scheduled power down from 13:30 to 16:00 for some power distribution work. I just completely forgot about it.

When the light went off, I was in the middle of my net search. Luckily, I didn’t lose any data or anything. But the following two and half hours felt soooooooooooo long. No PC. No TV. No electric fan. Good thing that it was a relatively cool, cloudy day. The breeze from the open window helped me survive, and I didn’t have to worry too much about the food in the fridge/freezer.

The problem was that I had to cancel almost everything I planned to do in the afternoon. No net search. No blogging. No emailing. I thought about taking a couple of food photos, but it was a little too dark in the room on a cloudy day without the room light. For my late lunch, I was going to microwave the frozen rice in the freezer, but I had to give up on that, too. So I tried to toast the frozen bread instead, and realized that it wouldn’t work without electricity. Of course.

I ended up making spaghetti for lunch and sketching a jar on the table all afternoon. I tried to read a book first, but found out that it was too depressing to do so on a cloudy day without the room light on. And I didn’t want to go out because they were calling for rain.

When the power finally came back on, it was about time I had to leave for work. Oh, well…
posted by obachan, 9/15/2006 11:17:00 PM

4 Comments:

So you do live in a two-room apartment. How interesting. I'm sure many would be interested to see a generic lay-out of that sort of thing.

I had to think. I married young and have never lived alone but I also never had less than five rooms to live in, sometimes more. The top was nine at one point(no, that wasn't really a nice place; it was an old farmhouse filled with bugs in Florida).

Of course, I grew up in a fourteen-room house, but that was my parents home and six lived there.
commented by Anonymous Anonymous, 9/21/2006 6:16 PM  
Actually my room is what they call 2DK here in Japan: 2 rooms and dining kitchen. And believe it or not, a single woman living in 2DK is considered as a small luxury around here. I’m not kidding. You’ll be surprised if you see how many married couples here (even with a child) live in 2DK.
This is relatively close to the layout of my rooms. Maybe it doesn’t make much sense with all these Japanese, but the first room on top is the dining kitchen, and the little space at the bottom is the balcony.

I can afford this apartment just because it’s a real countryside here and the rent is generally cheaper. If it is in Tokyo, the rent for a 2DK will be more than US$ 860 a month.
I bet you would feel pretty claustrophobic if lived in my apartment ;)
commented by Blogger obachan, 9/22/2006 11:36 AM  
Too funny. Outside of the fact that the thing appears to be measured by tatmi mat? One person would do fine.

My husband and I do get along and could manage but you start tossing a child or two into the mix and I go @.@.

We did not at all enjoy living in an apartment the first year of our marriage and moved out long ago.

Our house isn't great but it is in a very high-end district in the "country" in a major tourist trap/destination so we do well at $1,050.00.
commented by Anonymous Anonymous, 9/22/2006 1:36 PM  
Yep. It is measured by tatami mat. And there are 2 different sizes of tatami mat, so you need to be careful when looking for an apartment.
Sounds like you live in a very nice place now. Yeah, I'm getting tired of living in an apartment. I wish I could build a house in the way I like and live in there with a big dog and a little kitty... Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket.
commented by Blogger obachan, 9/26/2006 9:51 AM  

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