Furniture Shopping

Yamada Denki

Yamada Denki is a large home appliances and furniture store and they have a showroom in Namba, Osaka. We spent a morning there, picking out our beds/mattresses, fridge and washing machine. Due to Obon holiday coming up, we were told to expect some delays. The good news though, is that the global supply issues surrounding home appliances, has mostly subsided. A few months back, we might have had more delays due to shipping / parts shortages.

Interesting things about beds/mattresses.

• Queen and King size beds are not as common, so they typically need to be ordered. Ours will take about 3 weeks and will likely come about 1-2 weeks after we move in.
• Mattresses tend to be expensive, I imagine the mark ups are huge just like in the states.
• Queen size is not standardized in Japan, so different manufacturers will have different dimensions and names like ‘Wide Double’, ‘Queen Long’, ‘Queen 1’, etc. This is pretty aggravating because then you need to figure out a matching bed frame.
• Mattresses are typically shorter too (about 10cm), so sheets won’t fit if bought in the USA.
• Firm mattresses are more expensive and preferred, so it’s a bit odd to see pillow topped firm mattresses being ‘premium.’
• King sized mattresses are rare, most couples would choose 2 twins and put them together. They even sell little pads to cover the gap. If you’re living in the city, most bedrooms couldn’t fit anything this large either, including the elevators.

Fridges are a bit more narrow in Japan, and come in a variety of colors. There seems to be a desire for more drawers/compartments, and you never see a water/ice dispenser on the outside of the doors. Most do have an ice making feature inside, you just fill some water reservoir and out comes ice cubes. We picked one like the following, just without the IOT/Smart Phone integration.

Japanese homes are not setup for both a washer and dryer, there is space just for one. Most people just have a washing machine and hang dry their clothes outside or in the bath room. (I learned many bathrooms have a dehumidifying fan and rods for this purpose!) However, there are now washing/drying combo machines that are becoming popular. That sounded fantastic for us, toss in dirty clothes and it pops out clean and dried! Another oddity was that homes come with a draining pan built in, but they are also not standardized so we had to measure it and find a machine that fits.

The great news for the fridge and washing machine, they will be delivered on the 21st, just 2 days after we move in.

We took a look at their couches and dining tables, but their selection was not that good so we passed. With the several items we got, the sales guy gave us some discounts and free shipping!

Namba Parks

Namba Parks is an unusual outdoor mall in Osaka, with some curvy architecture and greenery. We’ll explore this place a bit more in the future, we just had time to grab lunch and walk through since it was in between Yamada Denki and the train station.

For lunch tried a ‘doria’ restaurant. I think a good description of ‘doria’ is baked rice, like you would make baked pasta. There are a bunch of choices of cheese and sauces, I decided to try the sweet potato, chicken and cheese. M tried one with a layer of egg on top of tomato sauce + rice. Hers was basically a baked version of omurice. They were both quite tasty, we’ll try a omurice place soon too.

Hida Sangyo Furniture

We wanted something local for our dining table, and we had seen a few examples of Hida furniture at some of the furniture stores, so we decided to visit the Hida Sangyo showroom near Umeda, Osaka. This was perfect, modern and Japanese hand crafted furniture! Hida beef, you might also remember is a type of ‘wagyu’ (domestic beef) and comes from the same area in Gifu prefecture. Hida Takayama has an old styled town and is a fun place to visit as well!

The store lets you customize the wood, color, seat cushions and choose from about 10+ different styles of table/seats. It was a tough choice, we liked most of them and finally decided on a walnut table with black leather cushions. It only takes about 3 weeks to build, so it will arrive Sept 1st! This style of table/chair is a new design, and will be made with the wood type/color of the chair M is sitting on.

We got a matching coffee table too, and we’re most excited about our Hida furniture for the new place. The store was really awesome, just note you will need reservations due to Covid.

Otsuka Kagu

Finally, we visited another Otsuka Kagu store that was a bit further out near the Osaka port. We looked for a couch we liked, but we ended up having to order one since we didn’t like anything in their inventory. Unfortunately, it seems furniture places carry very little inventory (due to lack of storage space?) at least in the cities. The couch will take 2 months, so we won’t get it till mid October. The good thing though, we got to pick a fabric/color we like and will hopefully match our place well.

Checking out the neighborhood

We stayed just a couple blocks from our new home to get a feel for the neighborhood. This gave us a chance to walk through some grocery and convenience stores and try out some restaurants. We ate at one of the izakaya places, which was pretty lively and loud. They served a pretty chewy ‘horumon’ which I learned originated in Osaka, although now probably found at any yakiniku (bbq) and many izakaya (tavern serving small dishes). While it sounds like hormone, which I thought was the origin of the word, it actually comes from the Osaka dialect way of saying ‘stuff you throw away.’ Anyway, it refers to beef or pork innards, and the grilled stuff generally seems to be intestines. It sounds weird, but if you’ve ever had tripe then it’s similar but more fatty. We spotted a few places that specialize in ‘horumon’ so we’ll have to check them out.

Summary

After 2-3 days of running around the city looking for furniture, we are done with the big stuff. M was a pretty good sport for following us around and logging a lot of steps. We will order a bunch of kitchen stuff online, like rice cooker and microwave, then continue our shopping once we get the keys. For the next week, we’ll be back to Mie at the in laws, they have been awesome for letting us hang out on and off for nearly two months!