I'm back 'home' In Yokohama now, I have to do the tallying of all the tickets I have but I am sure i spent at least 20-24 hours on the bullet train last 7 days going place to place. I will try to create at least 2 mostly worded posts before i go to Korea on Tuesday. My experiences on the Bullet trains and the Capsule Hotels i stayed at in Osaka and Sendai.
Once in Korea (for 10 days 9 nights) I make no promises of a posting schedule. I will be in a hostel and i should have Internet but I am bad with sitting in front of the PC when I know there is stuff to do, people to meet, and pretty women around.
So enjoy the stories as they come...
P.s.
I have a nationalized Japanese test on Sunday Dec 5, to gauge my ability. I am not that confident but it will not kill me if I fail; so I am just going to go in a do my best and work towards next year. Wish me luck....
Showing posts with label shared living. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shared living. Show all posts
Friday, 3 December 2010
Thursday, 21 October 2010
More on dorm and Japanese houseing...
My new dorm is an old hotel that has been remodeled and made into a housing complex called a 'mansion' , explanation to follow. It is 10 floors, 13 rooms each floor. However floor 1 is the lobby and 2nd floor I believe to be a bar or restaurant (it gets pretty noisy around 10 - 11). Each room that I have seen has a bunk bed (really?.. a bunk bed?) refrigerator, shelf and desk, 2 plastic containers(for clothing i guess) and a wonderful Japanese air conditioner that also does heat. The window opens and you can hop through it to a small enclosed balcony, but the bunk bed is sort of in the way so i cant get out of mines.
There is a bathroom with bath and toilet, but no kitchen. The kitchen is actually a shared kitchen, they took the 01 room of every floor and made it into a kitchen with 3 single electric burners, a janitors style sink and a primitive microwave. Before the kitchen, right by the elevator and emergency exit has a huge hot water heater(great place to put a gas appliance huh?), that works too well. The water that comes out the swivel faucet is down right scalding, it actually heats up the faucet pipe to the point that it is also ...piping hot ( sorry I couldn't think of another phrase >_< ). The swivel faucet goes form the sink to over the tub, you can also twist a knob to direct the water to a shower head.
Mansions are equivalent to the American condominium concept. I assume the college owns my room and all the rooms of the people who are staying here under the schools dorm housing policy. I pay only 30,000yen a month the equivalent in a good American economy to 300 dollars. For this area that is terrific. I would equal it to living in the Soho area, not in the middle but just outside walking distance, In a studio for less than 500 per month.
Normally there is 2 to my sized apartment/room, but it seems that all the westerns like me are in a single room. All the Chinese and Nepalese are shared rooms like I had prior. Russian girl, me, and a french guy, so I wonder if that is a coincidence.
Mansion's seem to not only be popular but increasing. I have noticed much construction and building in my travels, a majority of these new buildings are the aforementioned mansion establishment. In this recession it's possible more people would rather rent than buy, which is understandable. I am not sure on the price range, as all of my friends are more or less just out of college and owning anything is still in the distant future.
In my dorm, there is college students from different colleges not only mine. There are non students as well, I have passed middle aged men and women in the hall and elevator, so mansions are a one size fit all approach apparently. Thought a 'mansion' it is anything but. Quirky Japanese naming I guess.....
There is a bathroom with bath and toilet, but no kitchen. The kitchen is actually a shared kitchen, they took the 01 room of every floor and made it into a kitchen with 3 single electric burners, a janitors style sink and a primitive microwave. Before the kitchen, right by the elevator and emergency exit has a huge hot water heater(great place to put a gas appliance huh?), that works too well. The water that comes out the swivel faucet is down right scalding, it actually heats up the faucet pipe to the point that it is also ...piping hot ( sorry I couldn't think of another phrase >_< ). The swivel faucet goes form the sink to over the tub, you can also twist a knob to direct the water to a shower head.
Mansions are equivalent to the American condominium concept. I assume the college owns my room and all the rooms of the people who are staying here under the schools dorm housing policy. I pay only 30,000yen a month the equivalent in a good American economy to 300 dollars. For this area that is terrific. I would equal it to living in the Soho area, not in the middle but just outside walking distance, In a studio for less than 500 per month.
Normally there is 2 to my sized apartment/room, but it seems that all the westerns like me are in a single room. All the Chinese and Nepalese are shared rooms like I had prior. Russian girl, me, and a french guy, so I wonder if that is a coincidence.
Mansion's seem to not only be popular but increasing. I have noticed much construction and building in my travels, a majority of these new buildings are the aforementioned mansion establishment. In this recession it's possible more people would rather rent than buy, which is understandable. I am not sure on the price range, as all of my friends are more or less just out of college and owning anything is still in the distant future.
In my dorm, there is college students from different colleges not only mine. There are non students as well, I have passed middle aged men and women in the hall and elevator, so mansions are a one size fit all approach apparently. Thought a 'mansion' it is anything but. Quirky Japanese naming I guess.....
Monday, 18 October 2010
Re-living dorm life....
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...
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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