The Yellow House Tour

Some of our friends and family members have asked for pictures of our house here. So I figured I'd do a multi-post tour series of our current living space for those who want to picture our daily lives here. I'll begin with the exterior today. This is our house:

It's situated on the corner of a street in an area with maybe 20 other identical houses all rented by other American military families. Our rear neighbors are Japanese, as are many other houses surrounding our little America-ville. 

This is the extent of our "yard":

There's no backyard to our house, but we have a nice little porch (with nothing to put on it yet- we're obviously in dire need of a grill and some patio furniture). Our poor, recently-planted grass hasn't quite taken yet...

This is our garage (riveting, no?):

It's rather sparse (it's fuller when the car is in it!). We would use it for storage to take up some of the space, but it has it's own huge storage unit that we can't even come close to filling up:

When you step inside the front door, you enter the "shoe room." No shoes allowed in houses in Japan. Even movers remove their shoes each and every time they step inside, even when carrying couches and big screen tvs. So this entrance room gives you a place to take off your shoes and jackets before entering the actual house. The door to the garage is to the left, and a nifty closet is on the right.

Next time: the living room (you're shaking with excitement in anticipation, aren't you??).