Decide whether or not to move to Kobe

that packing is not a fun activity. No matter how many times I pack it never gets any less horrible. I’m currently looking out over a sea of boxes and mess and wishing it was the evening of the 16th, by which time everything will be in a box and already transported to Kobe!

is all set – the 16th June. The big question now is whether or not they’re going to be able to get our double bed up a very narrow set of stairs. Hope this turns out okay!!!

We’ve put in our notice for our current apartment and are signing the contract for the new one on Thursday. It’s the second place we looked at. A good sized (for Japan) one bedroom apartment. You can see the mountains from our living room window. The bonus is that there is a rooftop communal area and a coffee shop on the ground floor. There’s also a shopping arcade/market just around the corner – lots of stalls with fresh veg/seafood and tofu, so we should be able to save some money on our current food budget and eat healthier in the process. Can’t wait, but now just hoping the move goes smoothly!

decided not to.

definitely be on the cards again (although not the apartment we were previously looking at). Very exciting…

The apartment we were seriously looking at was located at the foot of Nunobiki Falls. Unfortunately this looks like it just isn’t going to happen now – for a few different reasons that are mainly out of our control. Shelved but not completely forgotten.

Have been see-sawing back and forth with this one. To move or not to move? Osaka vs Kobe? At the moment am tending more towards the move, and Kobe, rather than not. The middle of December is the deadline for making a final decision. A few things are swaying me at the moment:

1) Sometime in the last few weeks we have aquired noisy neighbors
2) Looks like we may have people interested in taking on the apartment (and buying our surplus furniture)
3) The idea of having real, actual trees in close proximity (as opposed to undiluted concrete)is becoming more and more appealing

...?

Went to look at an apartment in Kobe a couple of weeks ago. It was a sublet and all seemed perfect – amazing location, close to work for my husband and I, cheap rent. The apartment itself was fairly rustic but on balance we decided it was worth it. It’s at the foot of a mountain, a minute from a small waterfall – actual nature which is very rare in Japan! – but still within striking distance of our favourite part of town. Not only that but we’d be saving a heap of money – which is a huge focus of next year for us as we’re starting to look ahead to the future/returning home.
The apartment fell through for a ridiculous reason (the man living downstairs doesn’t want a couple living above him). BUT there are other apartments available in the same complex. The only catch being we’d have to pay a huge amount of key money (basically a non-refundable sum of money that is a ‘gift’ to the landlord. So now we’d have to stay a year to start saving extra money on our rent.

Not quite sure what to do now…