Shigehiro worked for Hitachi for 40 odd years and you can tell he has loyalty to them just by looking around the house. The 3 TVs, DVD player, microwave, toaster, fridge, lights, air con, etc. are all made by Hitachi. There are 2 amazingly cool Hitachi products in the house – the carpets are warmed by Hitachi carpet warmers and the bathroom is powered by a Hitachi console. You press a button and the bath fills itself up, whilst monitoring the temperature to make sure it’s perfect. Once it gets to the temperature and level you set it to, it plays a little melody and then TALKS TO YOU. It is very very cool. I have some doubts about the shower though, the shower head is very low because you sit on a stool and use it, which is strange.
The other thing that features a lot around the house is dog memorabilia. It isn’t over the top (I can safely say I’ve seen over the top, in Australia), but there’s lots of dog calendars and a few dog trinkets scattered around the house. The dog is very well treated as well, because he’s old.
Something that I’ve had to figure out is ‘shoe etiquette’. You take your shoes off when you get in and use some slippers around the house. If you go outside there are outside slippers. If you go to the toilet there are slippers in the toilet (it would be a faux par to wear them outside the toilet). If you go in the tatami room you must take your slippers off. To be honest, I don’t always wear the slippers inside the toilet because NOBODY KNOWS (muwahaha). As a side note, the toilet seat is heated which is a luxury seeing as I was expecting a ‘Japanese style’ toilet. The toilet has a set of buttons on it which I have yet to try – the buttons translate to ‘shower’, ‘charm’, ‘blowdry’ and ‘stop’. I have no idea what the charm feature does and I don’t think i’m psychologically ready to find out.
So far I’ve been really spoilt by Kyoko. I’ll have to tell her ‘less calories, please’ because she keeps buying me snacks. I have half a can of pringles sitting next to my bed, and today she’s given me caramels and bought me an icecream, as well as cooking f##king huge Osumiyaki (savory pancake things – very tasty). I’m so glad I (lit: my parents) bought them both Opals and some Aussie bucket hats for Omiyage (presents). Kyoko thanked mum on the phone, for the ‘Opals and the helmets’, which I found most amusing.
My room is very nice and unlike the youth hostels I can move around it. I have a cool Japanese table thing* and a desk so I’m sorted. It’s in the attic.
Finally, In the unlikely event that somebody cares, there’s a strange clown sculpture on the wall, with a clown bearing his belly button. It caused a strange dream, where the clown had a car with wheels that looked like his belly.
* Imagine a heated rug with a table on it. Now imagine a douvet draped over the table, with a piece of wood put on top. The rug and the douvet are both to keep you warm – you put your feet under the table and the heat from the rug and your body warmth are kept in by the douvet. Pretty cool.
