4:53 PM

Where I live

So, I promise I'll get some pictures taken of the apartment and stuff soon (or maybe I won't...it's kinda messy....) but in the meantime, I can talk about Isezaki a little bit, and stuff.
I live in a ウイクリーマンション, Weekly Mansion--don't worry, "mansion" in Japan means "apartment building." Why, I don't know. And, a weekly mansion is sort of like an extended-stay hotel--has a kitchenette and all the furniture, and you can rent it by the week--but people also stay there for longer periods of time, and treat it like a regular apartment. In my case, it's a cheaper option than a regular apartment since 1) I get a discount through IUC, and 2) I don't have to buy furniture or pay key money (a feature of apartment-hunting in Japan, which is similar to the US security deposit or first & last months' rent).
The area around where I live is known as Isezaki, and is a really neat/convenient area, mainly because of the nearby 商店街, shoutengai, or shopping arcade, which is an amazing place consisting of at least a mile's worth of shops and restaurants. Basically everything I'll ever need can be found in there (see left picture for a shot of one part of the street).
Even though my building is only about two blocks away from Isezaki, the address is actually Yayoi-cho, which has a slightly different reputation (if not reality). It's funny, whenever I tell Japanese people about where I live, if I say Isezaki, it's "oh, fun! What an interesting place to live!" But the one time I said Yayoi-cho, immediately it was "危ない!Dangerous! Be careful walking around." :-) In reality it's not that bad, and like I said, I'm practically in Isezaki anyway. It's just that Yayoi-cho (particularly along the one street separating my building from the shoutengai) tends to have a rather high density of "massage parlors" and such-type establishments. And there are certainly some interesting characters wandering around sometimes, but nothing too worrisome--especially compared to places in the US!
All in all, so far I'm loving it.

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