Tag Archives: home decor

music corner

Posted on by

It truly was a productive long weekend, mostly with home prepping. Dining table delivered at last by Watanabe Furniture Shop, the friendly neighborhood shop although i’m yet to decorate it. As expected, dining table came in pieces. Watanabe-san and his apprentice set it all up and gave us, as part of their service, the Indonesian malong that they used in their display. Yay!

The two DIY bookshelves (each as tall as Atsushi and twice his width) were also delivered and it’s already 95% filled as of last night. Yet, we’re barely 1/4 done in arranging the books. Some books may have to be sold/donated/thrown away. We ordered for 2 more bookshelves and thankfully, they’re not DIY so it’ll be easier. Yes, it’ll be a home cum library and I am not complaining. A lot of Atsushi’s books are really interesting with a WIDE selection of topics, making me want to learn Japanese and fast. MineĀ are more on fantasy and novels. šŸ˜€

Anyways, we also DIY-ed the shelf for the mini-music corner. Bought it at Tokyu Hands and since we want to get immediately started on organizing the mini-corner, we opted to carry it home instead of having it delivered. See how truly thoughtful the Japanese customer service is. They put a foam on the bag handle to protect our hands. How thoughful!

Japan is probably the DIY-country, where you can DIY a lot of stuff. Found the perfect corner stand I had in mind albeit we have to DIY it. But it was pretty easy to assemble so it was just perfect.

Behold, the stand adjuster – just in case you have uneven flooring.

BEFORE: Music corner withĀ a boxful of music scores.

AFTER: Tada! šŸ™‚

The music scores kept piling up after this shot as we “unearthed” more scores in the other boxes. We’re yet to look for four (yes, four!) guitar stands for Atsushi’s guitars but as Hubbie said, maybe we’ll just display two, for now. Atsushi told me to try and learn playing his base guitar – I have never been as pressured…HELP!!!

Oh, just now, we had another earthquake. Thankfully, the music corner held.

getting started

Posted on by

As what Hubbie posted previously, we’re now together, and we’re so thankful for it. Now I just have to secure my reentry visa and hope there’ll be no hitches so I’ll be able to return to Manila to do the last minute preps for our wedding. Both Japan Embassy in Manila and Japan Foreign Affairs here already assured us there’ll be no hitches but still, I want to be on the safe side… šŸ˜€Ā 

Will try to post next time all the documentations involved with myĀ migration and hope it’ll be of help to those who are also processing their papers. And I have to make time as well in making a feedback (and I have to find that feedback paper as well for their contact details!) to CFO’s PRISM. The way they handled and have handled Japanese spouses deserve setting aside some time to give my feedback.Ā Please do expect a 2 page letter or so from me. When..uhm…until I have everything settled here.

Now, on to happy things. Hubbie welcomed me with one of my favorite things. Now, already 5 days after, they’re still as beautiful and fresh-looking as on the first day. Atsushi really did treat me like a pricess on my birthday. šŸ™‚

i'm already 5 days old!

We’re trying to get our home organized and styled and it sureĀ can be quite overwhelming!! But I am having a good time so I sure am not complaining. My most notable changes so far are the kitchen area along with the counter area and the bathroom sink (two places in the house thatĀ I am most particular with along with the toilet of courseĀ – they should be clean always, as much as possible!). Tidy frog can help me do the job.

Yesterday, I went to Maita Ward Office for my alien card registration. Walked from Gumyoji to Maita to try explore the place. Came along a furniture shop and finally found the dining table that I’ve been looking for. Eureka moment, yes! It’s wooden and it has chairs that has a slim,Ā elongated back, which would help us exude the effect of having a bigger place than it really is. The wood color is quite dark but the chair upholstery is white so it’s just perfect. We can also have a light-colored table runner to, again, help us in bringing the effect of a bigger place. It’s quite interesting that the store people used a malong (traditional in Mindanao) as a table runner. It’s a sign?? hehe. It’s quite expensive though! And so of course, I asked for a discount – me in my broken Japanese (or more like one Japanese word at a time) and the store clerk in pure Japanese. We somehow understood each other though. He said that if I buy the one on display (it is in very good condition actually) and not have a new one made, we can have 30k yen discount (we can already buy two cabinets with that discount!). They’re open on saturdays so I can bring Hubbie along this weekend and hope he’ll like it as well so we can have a dining table already.

It’s just funny though, my audacity to do some haggling even when I only know a smattering of Japanese words. haha. Well, bringing along a calculator, or using your cellphone’s calculator is the only secret actually. All store owners, in any language probably, knows the english word “discount” šŸ˜€

The washing machine-dryer takes 6 hours to finish though, using the automatic mode. Totally not electricity efficient and not environment-friendly. Have to experiment using the washer only and try hanging the clothes outside. I worry about environment yo…

home interior design!

Posted on by

Excited and pre-occupied seems like an understatement to how we are these days. But we ain’t complaining of course, we’re loving every minute of it!! “Ichi go ichi e” as one of our favorite mentor and one of our ninong Nagano-san, told us. Make the most out of every moment, do your best with what is at hand because you only pass by this moment once. =)

So on top of beating deadlines, dealing with office drama and finding our way in this engineering maze, Hubbie and I have to process some very important paperwork, prepare for our perfect and beautiful wedding and prepare for ourselves a beautiful home as well. Hence, in between obtaining important documents andĀ researching for good wedding detail ideas, we need to keep an eye open as well on home decor ideas. Got started yesterday. And i sure am loving every minute of it.

Three essential tips on home interior designing that i’ve learned so far:

  1. keep a single theme
  2. for small condos, invest on vertical decors andĀ furnishings that adds to the illusion of length
  3. for small condos, keep light and pastel colors on your furnishings and decors to help add to the illusion of space

I know mirrors do add to the illusion of space, but i’m not too keen on keeping a big one – yes, i’d just get scared with it at midnights.

This one would be great in our tatami-floored living room, in front of the kutatsu, hehe! But it’s at 30,000pesos!! So it probably would remain as just an “idea”.

The cheery brown wood version of this lamp would be perfect on the corner of our living room

Hubbie and I both agree we’ve got to have live green (and flowering if possible!) plants inside our house. This wooden stand with multiple levels having plants and picture frames with our photos alternately decorating its shelves would be lovely on the corner of our dining room.

Plants and a candleĀ atop its rocky ceramic holder would be great on our toilet. We still don’t know what to do with that weird condensate piping though……suggestions are very much welcome.

You got to make the most out of the space you have in your condo hence a couch with drawers underneath would be very efficient.

My dream house in mind has got bay windows in it. Our condo now do have a pseudo-bay window albeit it can’t fit our butts in it. But it has got enough space for a lampshade and a vase of flower hence i’m thankful with it already. Plus, with the lampshade up there, we can have more space on the floor for someĀ other what-nots.

So, till the next home decor ideas hopping! Hopefully my next post is all about entourage flowers. =)