First of all.

Inside of Kura first floor.

Inside of Kura first floor, before.

First floor, after.

Second floor, after.

The inside of my studio would be, was just full of stuffs. You hear Japanese are thrift, and minimalists. Really?? I think if there is a space to store that outside of your everyday living space hidden from your eyesight, things just accumulate wherever you are. It was so in my case. We had one day to look through, and decide what we want to keep, and throw away. Though we have many regrets on our choice later on.

There were so many gifts that were never opened, convenient specific cookers that were never used, but also some jar of ancient homemade plum pickles, and old notebooks with beautiful handwriting (previous owner was a civil engineer). My plum pickle book tells me that old plum pickles are treasures. The more you keep, the tastier it becomes. But shame on me, I didn’t have a courage to try.  I don’t have a photo, but the second floor was full, too. You go through up stair with this ladder steep stair, and slide open the board door and the only light source is a tiny window. We heard this house was a gathering house, and nobody really lived here for long time. There were lots of sets of Japanese wood lacquer wares, the individual table like tray to serve, huge decoration for girls day, boys day, new years day, etc. And when people gather you need mattresses, blankets, pillows, and cushions to sit that takes so much space. In old days, they keep these in huge box like coffin. Imagine how scary it was, when you peep in the first time in the dark to find coffins (like) lined up in small upstairs. You can’t see the floor even with flashlight. You don’t know if you are stepping on some kind of decayed corpse, …or futon, hair…., or just spider web. Not be able to see is just scary. Darkness just makes me imagine.

Anyway, what we got was just modest about of stuffs, and empty space. Finally, the first time we could see walls and floors.