you can buy just about anything online in Japan.
Since I’ve got a new place to
fill up, I’ve been looking at
furniture.
On place that most
everybody I’ve spoken to recommended to me is Nissen. It’s
pretty standard home furnishings (they also do clothes and other stuff) and
reasonably priced for the most part. Having my TV (and Xbox, and DVD player, and
lava lamp and….) sitting on the floor isn’t quite the look I want for my
place, so I ordered up a couple of pieces for an entertainment center. They
looked nice in the catalog, and being white, they’d fit in with my room – which
has beige walls, a khaki carpet, one set of blue curtains and one set of green
curtains.
I think white’s
pretty much the only choice I had, don’t
you?
My first piece arrived two
nights ago. Unfortunately it was the cabinet and not the TV stand, so the TV and
the Xbox are still sitting on the floor. My DVD’s, DVD player, videogames and
lava lamp were happy to have their new home arrive,
though.
I don’t know what I was
expecting, and I guess “some assembly required” is to be expected when getting
inexpensive furniture delivered – but DAMN, just how many pieces does it take to
put a cabinet together?
About
this
many:
These
are the wooden bits, not counting the top and bottom of the
cabinet.
And
these are the bits you need to put all the wooden bits
together.
Ikea ain’t got shit
on Nissen!
I guess I was expecting
something with a degree of difficulty similar to my futon. A few big pieces that
need to be bolted together and that’s about it. Clearly, that’s not the case
here. My futon arrived without any instructions, but it was easy enough to
figure out on my own. Thank god this thing came with nicely numbered parts and
super-easy-to-follow picture
instructions.
It took about an hour,
and I didn’t have any parts left over when I was done. I was missing the two
little widgets that keep the drawer on the bottom from sliding all the way out,
so I’ll just have to be careful when taking out game controllers. The end
result?
Not
a bad little piece of furniture for
$100.
Now I just need the other one
and things will start looking appropriately
geeky. ^.^