As Promised

Quick note: Went to the Meiji Shrine today. Those pictures and details later.

I've had a couple of requests for more pictures of some of the everyday things I mention every post, so I thought I'd do it when I have more time. I think I may do one of these every Saturday, focusing on one area of living in Tokyo. Today I am going to give you a tour of where I live everyday: the cave.

First, you can take the elevator, or this door, to the "first floor," really the basement.

Once you get down the stairs and through the door, this is what you see: It's the common area between the guy's and girl's apartments. We all hang out here.

To the right is the guy's apartment. Many times when I skype, I sit as close to their door I can without being in the danger zone, basically where that cushion is.

On the left wall is a representation of all of our nine stations that we are trying to reach this summer. We put prayer requests beneath them.

This is the extension to the hall that we used to hang out in, but figured out it had bad internet, so most interns hang out in the first part of our common area. That's a printer right in front of one of the laundry rooms.

These are the doors to the girls' apartment. The one to the right leads to our bedroom, the one straight ahead is to a mini foyer between the bedroom and the kitchen. We consider the common room "outside" and our apartment "inside," so we put our shoes outside our doors(the guys actually have a respectable foyer, so they put theirs right behind their door).

There are six bunkbeds; 12 girls sleep here. Two others are staying at a host home now.

In many places around the apartment, including the beds, the lead interns have put scriptures so we can meditate on them and be reminded of them as we get ready, etc. We basically sleep on two futons, or thin, Japanese mattresses. I think it's comfy. I sleep on the top bunk.

We all have four drawers, plus a bit of extra room under the bed. As you can see, I use the top of the drawers for an extra shelf(and am as messy as usual, with food, tracts, up there among other things).

Our kitchen is nice, with a table, fridge, supplies shelf, and appliances(we can only use like two at a time though). We do a sort of Japanese thing with our trash, although we don't go as far: just between recyclables and not.

We also have a smaaall stove top, smaller fridge, and sink.

Turn left, and you're at our bathroom area. We have two small sinks, two toilets, and four showers(imagine the battles lol).

Just a toilet, nothing weird here...wait a second

Big flush and little flush- very economic, these Japanese.

These are our showers. I use the second one.

I really love this shower stall. There's a seat you can balance on, a place for your stuff, and the shower itself is really nice.

You can adjust the temperature, shower, and bath-like spout very precisely.

And so this is the cave. This is what I'm calling home for this first half of the summer. I like it. It's pretty comfortable, not too small, has lots of warm touches. Hope you enjoyed it!