Impulse Buy at the Bazaar

It's a cedar screen. It smells WONDERful. I'm still not 100% sure where it is going to go in our house...






So I went to the bazaar today looking to buy china to match my china back in the states and this is what I ended up with instead....

Do I still live in Japan? Oh yeah, I guess I do...

Cliff and I went to a bazaar in Yokosuka last weekend and finally bought the step tansu we wanted! I am sooooo excited about this piece of furniture!! If you have never seen one before you can google "step tansu" or "Kaidan dansu" and that will give you and idea of how versatile and beautiful this particular type of furniture can be!
We have ours set up more in the "Buffet" style but if you look very closely to the left you can see where the pieces fit together if we wanted to set it up like a stair case. We hope to have the room to do that eventually, but for now it is going to be a TV stand.
That's rice paper behind the glass and we have our DVD player inside. We can use the remote through the glass so that everything stays hidden!
So... I was bored the other day driving home from Sagamihara housing with Cliff and I started taking pictures... Typical day driving around Japan.
Watch out for people on bikes - they WILL NOT watch for you.
It was pretty grey and dreary on this particular Saturday, but we did spot some wisteria!! Anyone who knows me at all knows that I LOVE wisteria. LOVE IT!
More wisteria :)
So pretty!! They have white wisteria here in Japan as well. I know everyone gets all crazy about the cherry blossoms but this is more my thing. And below you can see an older Japanese woman that took the wisteria thing a little too far.... j/k I really have no idea why she has such a violent shade of purple for her hair color. I just had to get a picture, though...

Settin' up Shop

Impulse buy.... I was in a 100yen store the other day (like a $1 store only not,) and I stumbled upon these dishes that match the kitchens here. I am not normally a "pink" person but as you will see when I post the pictures of our apartment - the walls of the kitchen are light light pink tile and the cabinets are a sort of peachy pink as well. Like I said - not my first choice but when life hands you lemons... make pink lemonade? I thought these dishes were super cute and the 100 yen stores around here carry much nicer things than a $1 store in the states. I love them! You can find ANYTHING you need. I got 4 place settings worth of dishes (5 dishes to a place setting) for about $27!!! I've decided to do my kitchen in a cherry blossom theme :) When in Rome... er... Japan.....
The dishes are from different sets but they all coordinate
All made in Japan of course. I thought it would be pretty dumb to pick out dishes that were made anywhere else while I'm here.
So as I have mentioned before, we have been here for about a month now. Our express move arrived on the 22nd of this month so we have a T.V. and working computer along with some pots and pans but no furniture. The Navy has rented us some temporary furniture like a couch and coffee table and a bed and nightstand but I am anxious to get our real stuff. That being said we HAVE acquired a few things since we got here.... :) CLIFF AND I FINALLY HAVE A REAL KITCHEN TABLE!!!!!
It's actually a square table. There is a leaf that we have taken out right now but with the leaf added in the table seats eight. It is bar height and the two extra chairs that we are not using right now at the table are actually pictured at our little bar right now!
We got such a good deal on the table and chairs that I couldn't resist buying all 8 chairs. We made the mistake of only buying our leather sofa when we first got married without the love seat and chair and now the design has been discontinued! We didn't want to make that mistake with this table and chair set.

We don't have a ton of room here in this apartment but we will one day. I am soooo happy to be able to eat on a real table now and I am in love with the big square tables. I think they are much more conducive to conversation during meals. We had been eating on a folding card table for the last year a half so I can't not even begin to describe how wonderful this is for us. Ask me how much we spent some time :) You will be amazed!