foolish_m0rtal | Tokyo: Accomodations

I got more detailed information about where we'd be living today from the Kageyama-san in International Relations Office, who's been kind of freaking me out with weird estimates of what I'll be paying. 50,000 + 4,500 does not equal 49,000 yen! I tried to find a polite way of saying this without implying she'd made an error. Maybe it's a student discount thing that I don't know about? I know the university had said something about that. But really, I have to get rent money settled before I leave- I really have to know SPECIFICS! We'll see what Kageyama-san says.

We will be staying in DK House Warabi during our time in Tokyo. It's in neighbouring Saitama and I'll be taking the train to the Omiya campus during the day. Warabi looks really nice- it's an air-conditioned single room with a shared bathroom and kitchen. There's also a common area, tatami room (sooo pretty!) , and a laundry room. There's a dining room, but I think that's more for group activities because I was told we would be expected to cook our meals in the kitchen.
Shibaura has cafeterias on all its campuses, so I don't think that's going to be a problem, and Warabi has listed a lot of restaurants and grocery stores in the area. Hopefully I can cook something tasty. There will be some SIT students living there, so maybe I can ask them what they do for dinner. SIT doesn't have dorms, they have apartments, so I guess a lot of students cook. (this isn't exactly something I'd expected. I had kind of compared Japanese students to Indian students, who study all the time, and their parents are like, 'well, they're working so hard all day' so as a result a lot of people going into college don't even know how to make a pot of tea)

And when I think of college cafeterias, I can't help think of that Azumanga Daioh comic where they're shouting, "She ordered curry rice! Splatter! It's going to splatter! Get away!" XXD

Internet-wise, you can either pay for internet in the room (I presume it's a wired connection and am bringing my LAN cable) or there is a computer with internet in the common area. My parents want me to pay internet for the first month so they can talk to me on Skype, because phone calls internationally are expensive as hell. It's 2775Y a month, (about $35 dollars) which isn't baad I guess, but I'm trying to save however I can. It would be embarrassing if I couldn't make next month's rent.

Which is why I've tried to save and put as much in my bank account as possible. And also why I have a little notebook with things I should remember and it has the word for bank (ginko) and the kanji all copied out. (I also have words I would need to know on the trains, which DO have most bilingual signs and announcements). I also recently bought a Japanese phrasebook from the Lonely Planet series, which is FAN-TAS-TIC. We have their America book, and it tells you all about the small little places that are the best that none of the tourists know about. We'll be talking about the city to a local, and they're like 'how did you KNOW about that place?' Thanks, Lonely Planet! You're the best!

My old pair of house shoes were getting dirty, so I also got a new pair and will see if I want to rent bedding from Warabi (which is an option) or bring my own. See Warabi's website for some really pretty pictures of the inside!

I've also been seeing what kind of weather Tokyo's going to be having (hot and humid like Virginia, I suppose and then rainy in June/July) and packing accordingly (no t-shirts, dress decently. And pack respectable socks. I know right, no t-shirts? Engineering students all around the world weep. It's become so bad that nowadays I think wearing a skirt without a t-shirt is 'dressing up.' Hell, I think not wearing a t-shirt is dressing up). Google has been really helpful with small questions like this and so has About.com, where I've started learning my hiragana.

Something really helpful just to see where I'll be going is Roger & Marilyn's Photo Tour of Tokyo, which takes you EVERYWHERE. This is also where I learned most of my Japanese words about trains and some simple kanji like for enter and exit.

Links: Culturally, japan-guide has been very useful with etiquette and general living and henna gaijin has been great to see how foreigners adapt to Japanese life.