When we first arrived in Japan, our employer had accommodations arranged for us. It was a nice apartment but, much to our dismay, it was about 20 minutes on foot to our city's train station. Without a car, that's a problem. It was also VERY expensive, coming in at around $1,200 total a month.

In October of 2006 we found a really nice, inexpensive apartment about 4 blocks from our city's train station! A four minute walk at most! It was only $750 a month (including utilities) and about the same size as our old apartment. Additionally, it was on the fourth floor and offered amazing views of the mountains. Unfortunately, as per Japanese custom, the apartment deposit was 5 times one month's rent!! Biting the bullet, we knew it would pay itself off in a couple months and realized this was a deal we couldn't pass up. We moved in on November 20th, 2006.

One of our favorite things about our apartment is our spacious kitchen and living room. On nice days the sun fills each room in the morning.

Our kitchen opens right into the living room. It's a bright, sunny rooms with great views. On a really clear day, you see Mt. Ibuki out our bay window.

Our bedroom is the traditional Japanese style with tatami mats and a futon.

The closets in our apartment are HUGE!! Our living room also has a closet of this size.

Our fridge is really small and we have limited shelf and cupboard space but somehow we've found that we don't need as much stuff as we did back in the states.

Here's the realtor that helped us find our apartment. He gladly takes 410,000¥ ($4,000) deposit from Joe on moving day.

Christmas morning was just beautiful in our sunlit living room.

Aside from the TV, our little bay window is the focus of our living room. Tiff has wonderfully decorated it for Christmas.

With cement floors and walls, our apartment is also great for loud crazy parties!

This is the outside view of our apartment. Tiff is standing on our balcony in the far upper left corner of the building.

A quiet night at home.

This is our apartment in "summer mode." The only working AirCon unit is in our living room, and the cool air doesn't make it back to our bedroom. So, for the hot and humid month of mid-August to mid-September, we rolled out our futons in the living room to sleep.

Our apartment is roomy enough for parties, like this 'Welcome Party' we had back in July.

And this fall party we had in October.

A fall pumpkin pie.