Uhh... this is my apartment?

I guess I am a little crabby today, my new apartment was quite the BIKUISHITA! (Surprise) Its so grimmy. The previous ALTs who lived in this place obviously thought the next ALT should inherit their useless crap. Old spices, moldy books, thousands of tools, several sets of weights (as in Hulk Out barbell kind) and then I heard that it gets cockroaches and tatami bugs. shiver!

On a positive note, both my schools have been extremely helpful in the last two days. They came in, scrubbed clean sinks and counters, moved out useless broken furniture, vacuumed. Whew. I might have felt overwhelmed, angry, ready to run back home but I definitely have to appreciate all that the staff members at both school put in to helping me make this apartment my home. I'm not so happy about the weird bathtub/shower with no hot water or the Asian toilet but it will be home.

Many of you have asked about Asian toilets. So, I think maybe I ought to clarify what I mean.
There are two types of toilets in Japan, the western kind that we all know. Its maybe a little more elaborate with bidet functions and the ability to make a running water noise to hid the sound of you peeing. (apparently, its really bad that we make those sounds naturally). And then the more common Asian toilet. Which I always forget that most foreigners aren't aware of. This toilet can most accurately be described as a urinal shaped porcelain hole in the ground. You squat to pee and number 2.

Coming to Japan I was aware of this and thought I could handle it, as in archaeology, there are no toilets in the wilderness... but mmm... this is still taking some getting used too. As are many other things. Challenges, challenges.