I personally went to a school in traveling distance from my home. So I was blessed with being able to go home to a cooked meal.... at least when i ordered pizza if felt like dorm living. In japan I think I have the opportunity to re-experience sort of a similar experience i would have gotten from dorm life in college if i went out of state. Scratch for your own food, balance your study and direct pressure to party with people from within the dorm. Now because of the exchange rate and expense of the train my money seems to go fast. Sadly soon i will be a poor college student until my check next month at least. I'm not to the point where it's ramen only, just to the point where is it ethically ok to spend my money on a 700 yen beer at the bar.
I started off living in a 2 person room setting. However it was in a standard size Japanese apartment. Which if anyone knows, it barely enough room for one person let alone two. It was not bad for the price, included washer, small refrigerator and 1 stove burner. However we are talking about for two people. So while my roommate was a rather nice guy, he was not the cleanest person. The bathroom seemed to always be wet, and the place smelled like his home land of Nepal. Having a roommate i always had to be in a polite and maneuverable mood. I had decided before I moved in when i first saw the dorm that i would try to find my own place. I alerted the proper people within the school that i would not stay more than a month there and more or less was told that for my visa and short stay it would be difficult to find an apartment on my own. Having lived and read about the difficulty foreigners have assimilating hear into society, i believe this assessment to be true on the schools part but decided to start looking anyway. I did get to look at a few apartments but i think it was more or less a wash.
I moved into the shared dorm apartment, was enjoying talking and associating with my roommate who happens to be awesome artist of Hindu inspired art. So after maybe the 3rd night, i was made aware that the school had found other accommodations for me. Much to my sadness and delight. I had just plotted where all the Chinese girls in my class lived in that particular dorm. Some of which I had been quite friendly with. But alas i could not pass up a single room and to be honest, it is like the best location in Yokohama.
I now live in Kannai, Kanagawa. It is one station away from Sakuragicho which is where all the cool harbor stuff is in Yokohama and 2 stops from Yokohama station the center of it all. Kannai is where the only clean china town in the world is located. I have good bars and restaurants in the area, Yokohama stadium is literally across the street. The train is 3 min walk away, just enough space so i don't hear it when I am actually in the dorm and the last kicker is, the Yokohama red light district known as Akebono-cho is in the area as well. So as I walk home from the train in the evening you can sort of pick out of the crowd who is doing what. So far very pleased.
In blog news, I have bigger post on cultural differences that I have notice since i have been here. It's not organized how I like just yet and it requires some tweaking. I will try to get it done before my trip to Mt. Fuji on Thursday, but I make no promises. When i get on the train i get such good ideas for it, but by the time i get back home after probably a kanji test or two and trying to understand everything in class, the ideas are usually washed away. I will learn to write stuff down sooner or later. Till next time..
Pictures will be added later...
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