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The Road to Hokkaido Tour 2006
Day 16: Kuchan
After we checked out of the apartment we went to the supermarket to buy stuff for lunch and cleaning products. We ran into the owner of our new place who said we could move in anytime – even though we’d originally said 1pm. He’s a cool guy. I’m glad we have a nice landlord.
We went to the house and the gas man was there setting up the gas. He was really nice too and explained a lot of things to us – about the heating system and to how to empty the water pipes if you’re going to be away from the house for a few days.
My boyfriend is a city boy – born and raised in Tokyo so he doesn’t know about these things either. The guys laughed when he asked how to clear snow.
First we moved everything into the shop from the car. This is the mountain of stuff we brought from Tokyo. And this what bongo-chan looks like with no stuff inside.
This place has a shop, a big kitchen/dining area and 4 tatami rooms. It has a regular flush toilet which is quite nice ... some of the other places we looked at had long drops ... there is no shower, just this old school bath. You have to fill it up and then heat the water. Cool.
Usually when you move into an apartment in Japan you have to pay a lot of money in fees – but we didn’t have to pay any.
Although this wasn’t surprising given the place was really dirty.
At 2pm we started on the cleaning mission.
We spent 6 hours scrubbing one room.
We scrubbed the walls, the doors the cupboards and the floor.
The owner said the last tenant was here for 30 years – so this dirt was probably 30 years old … but I’m sure some of it dated back to the Jormon period.
The walls were a dirty light brown colour ... but I was amazed at how clean they came thanks to this magic cleaner and a bit of scrubbing.
Tomorrow’s mission is to attack the other rooms with detergent and scrubbing brushes.
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