Futons

Things I have learned about futons in the eight years I've lived in Japan:

1. If you don't fold up your futon every day, it will grow mould on the bottom...
2. If you don't hang your futon in the sun often, it will grow mould on the bottom...
3. Forgetting your futon outside on a rainy day is an expensive mistake!
4. Futons are not comfortable unless you have a tatami room.
5. Futons are especially uncomfortable on concrete floors.

Unfortunately I still often forget these things! I take naps with Elliott during the day, so often my futon doesn't get folded up at all. We have been in our loft for a month, and I only just hung our futons on the balcony to air this weekend. Hopefully they won't grow mould?!

Elliott sleeping in my futon:



Our futons hanging on the balcony. I haven't seen other residents hanging their futons on their front balconies, so hopefully it's OK! Arakawa + Gins say that the lofts come alive when people live in them, so we'll say it's OK to hang futons on the front of the building!

Windows and balconies

It was 20 degrees in Tokyo yesterday, so I took Elliott outside a few times and we explored the balconies for the first time. We had been living here for a week before I realised there are two balconies in our loft... The large one is at the front of the loft, and the floor to ceiling windows looking onto it are how we get most of our natural light. The view from the large balcony is of the busy road, so I show Elliott the cars and people out the window every morning at play time. He loves it!



The other balcony is easy to miss because it's behind some thick colourful curtains, and doesn't let in very much natural light.



You have to crouch down and crawl through a little window to get onto this balcony. I think this is the one Mrs. Yamaoka was talking about in the Wall Street Journal article here, although I disagree with her! I think it's fun to crawl through a little door. Elliott and I felt like Alice in Wonderland. There is a normal-sized door on the large front balcony, so I do wonder why she didn't just use that one for hanging her laundry. Perhaps she didn't want people to see her undies from the street?

The little door:



The view towards the street:



The view straight ahead, of the neighbour's balcony!



Little Elliott feeling like Alice in Wonderland:



I also took the chance to take photos of the windows in our loft. My two favourite aspects of architecture are windows and staircases, and the windows here are pretty photo-worthy! They are made of metal, which is usually my least favourite type of window. These windows are cool though, because they're at all different heights and are lots of different shapes!

Here's the view from the round room:



And here's the little window in the square room:



And here's another little window in the bathroom:



Obviously I like the little windows best!

Out and about (2)

I met a wonderful group of ladies in a playgroup called Little Angels on Friday. They were so lovely! We went out for lunch after the playgroup, and after that I went shopping with one of the Little Angels' mummies at Babies 'R' Us. Very fun! I now know that I can travel an hour and 45 minutes with Elliott on public transport, which is pretty amazing.

Right as we walked into Babies 'R' Us there was a section for Hinamatsuri dolls. Hinamatsuri is on March 3rd, and is Girls' Day in Japan. Families with daughters set up a shelf with dolls on them for the day. The dolls are of a royal court from the Heian period. Just as with Christmas trees, the size and quality of your dolls can depend on your budget.



There was also a maternity section in the Babies 'R' Us, and I was surprised to see these contraptions:



Apparently the extra fabric under your belly helps hold the baby up when you are pregnant. I am dubious about how helpful that would actually be though!! Mostly it just looks like an extra piece of ugly for your money.

I showed remarkable restraint in Babies 'R' Us and only came home with a teething toy, diaper wipes, and baby laundry detergent. I was super pleased to find the same diaper wipes we were using in Toronto. The things that make a mother happy!

Today we found a different baby supply shop called "Akachan Hompo" next to Musashi Koganei station, which is just one bus ride away from the Reversible Destiny Lofts rather than the two hours to Babies 'R' Us. Grant fell in love with a Dragon Ball onesie which we came home with, and we found nappies and bigger onesies for my quickly growing boy! Here we are in front of Akachan Honpo.



And here's the super geeky onesie Grant came home with!

The round room - Light

Grant participated in one of the tours the front office organises in an empty Reversible Destiny Loft upstairs, and learned some cool things about the round room. Because of the angles, there is a difference in the way the light hits you depending on whether you're standing up or sitting down. If you're standing up the light hits you as usual, but if you're sitting down the light hits you from below. It's really interesting to experience! The light also reflects off the bottom half of the wall when you're crouching down. It's quite pretty.

Normal light:



Lit from below:



The light on the walls when I sit down:

Play time!

Elliott had a colourful play mat and a bouncy chair in Toronto, with many toys hanging from both, so I feel as though since we came to the Reversible Destiny Loft he has been missing out on that. This morning I grabbed all the hooks I could find and hung them from the ceiling to almost the floor, then put toys on them for Elliott to play with. So resourceful! It turns out living in the Reversible Destiny Loft saved us the cost of buying a new play gym for Elliott. The best part is I can easily change out the toys to keep him interested.



Tummy time is still not very successful, but at least we're trying!



I also put Elliott on the bumpy floor for the first time this evening. I left one foot bare so he could experience the texture that way. It was so funny, he lifted the bare foot and put it on the covered foot! I think we will have to try this experiment again when it's a bit warmer.

The main living area

Grant read my last couple of posts and said I'm getting too "Baby" and not enough "Reversible Destiny", so here's a post about living in the loft.

Our main living area is in the middle, with a kitchen and a place to sit and eat or do internet. It's also where the hammock is, along with some rings to do exercise on, a pole to climb on, and a ladder which we've started to use as a shelf rather than to climb on. There is a flat space to the right of the bathroom which Grant thinks is for a freezer or fridge. I've put down a small carpet with a blanket on it so that Elliott has a place to do tummy time. I've realised that he doesn't spend much time on his tummy, so I am making a conscious effort to put him down these days instead of carry him around all the time. We also went to a shop called "Hard Off" which sells used items and found a bouncy chair for about $25. I have been carrying Elliott so much since we arrived in the Reversible Destiny Loft, it's nice to be able to put him down while I clean up a bit or get something to drink!

Here's a video of the main space:



And here are a few photos of the living room. First is the sunken kitchen. I like this design feature a lot. Our kitchen in Toronto is so dark and separated from the living room. If we have guests over the person cooking is always left out of the conversation. In our loft you are never lonely!



We always take our shoes off in the loft, and we wear house slippers to keep warm. You can see really clearly that the floor is uneven in this photo. You can also see that a lot of our belongings hang from the ceiling. Our coats hang from a hook by the front door. I think that along with the bumpy floor Arakawa and Gins want us to have to negotiate more obstacles in our effort to remain immortal! There are hooks all over the ceiling so you can change the position of the bags, hammock, and anything else you might like to hang from the ceiling.



And here is Elliott's new play space, complete with his new bouncy chair. (I haven't washed the seat cover yet, so for now he sits on a receiving blanket while he's in there)

懐かしいアイテム

I went grocery shopping in Kichijoji yesterday, and discovered these cups of coffee in the supermarket. I used to buy these things all the time when I was a university student, before I became a Starbucks addict!



Slowly, life in Japan is starting to feel more normal, for me at least! Elliott still has culture shock... or maybe Architectural Body shock! He doesn't seem to be able to sleep during the day in our loft, but if I take him out or if we're all ready for bed he is out like a light. I am seriously grateful to the Beco. It's the only way we can get the baby to relax and fall asleep these days! Grant's theory is that there is too much to look at in our loft, so he needs the dark confines of the Beco before he can fall asleep. Maybe he's right.