Home Improvement

Since I'm going to be here another 1.5 years - maybe another 2.5 - I've decided to make some inexpensive upgrades to my daily life.  Living in an apartment not owned by me in a life where I realistically will pass along most of the apartment's possessions to my successor for free, there isn't incentive to invest in furnishings.  Not to mention I don't really want any furnishings.  But here's a list of recent improvements that haven't cost a lot to bring me a lot more happiness:

* I traded many loaves of homemade bread and an enlarged whale photo to a fellow JET in Naha for her memory foam futon which she wasn't using anymore.

*I snatched up a bunch of nice curtains for $15 from a girl who had to leave Japan suddenly.

[see-through curtains are awesome because they cut the view from outside but still let natural light through - and the big perk is they replaced my dreadful green curtains]

*I scored an awesome, comfortable office chair for $15 with the help of Mariko who picked it up for me from someone on base (thank you online classifieds!).

[Mariko complained that it was big.  She was right]

And this one doesn't fall into the "good deal" category, but it does fall into "happiness bringer".  Last weekend Vaughn and I made a little tour through Tsuboya, Naha's pottery district.  It was fun and it felt nice to finally buy something there for myself, and I didn't mind paying a little 'handmade premium' for it.  Now I just need some sashimi..