House Hunters: International

There are a few different options for us here in Yokosuka.  First, there's on-base: apartments and townhouses on the main base or on several unconnected nearby military housing areas.  I can understand the draw of being near all that base has to offer (grocery, library, swim lessons, etc), but we also didn't really want to be surrounded by the Navy ALL the time.  If you know what I mean...  Adam specifically wanted a little separation between work and home, and I can respect that.  There was also a 7-9 month waiting list for apartments and townhouses on the main base... yikes.

For this reason many families choose to live out in town for their whole stay or just while they're waiting for a spot on base to open up.  To make things easier, the Navy has set up a Housing Office with binders of available apartments and houses off-base and interpreters are available to help make appointments with the realtors.  We also had several people recommend just heading off base and talking straight with the realtor, but I wasn't feeling very bold, so we went with the Navy service.  We made about five appointments, and ended up seeing about 12 houses (each of the realtors showed us a few in the same area).  In retrospect, it would have been better to speak to the realtors in their office because we could have been more specific about our housing interests.  It would have been nice to help edit the houses that they paired with our original request; some of those were not at all within our search criteria.  But usually their choices were much better than the options offered in the binders, so clearly we weren't seeing the whole range of available choices in the Housing Office.

Is there a way to say this without sounding silly?  I had this misconception that all Japanese homes were tiny, 

and was surprised at the size of many that we saw.  Granted, we didn't look at any apartments and our search was more out in the suburbs, but still... 

 Here was one of our favorites

(and while this picture seems gargantuan, it was actually about 1600sqft)

Most houses we looked at had a tatami room

(the straw mat floor covering)

While we are planning on using ours as a guest room,

I appreciated that this house displayed the traditional use.

Our helpful inspection team, searching every nook and cranny.

Possibly my favorite house-hunting picture.

Turns out some Japanese houses are small, after all.  :)

 During one of the housing appointments, the girls and I stayed home 

for nap-time and Adam found what turned out to be our favorite house.

We went back later and still loved it.

(remember, Adam was taking these pictures)  ;)

Living room (with fireplace!)

From the living room looking to the dining room

and kitchen beyond.  We really love how open the floorplan is.

Kitchen, including dishwasher and full oven (rare)

Tatami room (aka guest room)

Washer/dryer combo upstairs 

(I'm excited to dry out on the balcony,

as most people do)

Master bedroom

Girls room

Bathroom

Tub and shower.

Apparently the whole room is waterproof, 

so essentially the room is the shower  

Balcony upstairs spanning the two rooms. 

First thought: giant playpen!  :)

View on our backyard from balcony.

It's true that many homes don't have yards here, 

but we didn't have trouble finding a selection that did.

Our backyard.  It's a small square, but fully enclosed 

and enough to run around in.

A better view of the front

A floorplan of our house, for those who enjoy making spatial sense of pictures.

I know for me, it really helps make it feel like we're closer when I can 

really visualize where my loved ones are.

So there it is!  We'll start the paperwork this coming week, and if all goes well hopefully we'll have keys to a place by the end of this week.  Looking forward to being out of the hotel.  :)