The Dorm

As I mentioned in a previous post, the dorm I am staying in is DK House Nerima.

What follows will probably sound rather negative, but I have been incredibly spoiled by the proximity of Kenyon's dorms to my classes (and also the amount of space my previous rooms had. You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone). If nothing else, this is extremely detailed, for those of you who are interested in the dorms.

Why is it green? Who knows!

It is about 40 minutes from Sophia University by train, which isn't terrible, but it could be better (Matsudo is 60+ minutes away, and Shinkoiwa is 30). The more unfortunate part is that the specific route CIEE pays for only shows up at my station every 20 or 30 minutes, so I tend to arrive in Yotsuya way earlier than I need to, because the next train will probably be too late. There is technically a way to follow my assigned route that happens more frequently, but it involves 3 transfers instead of 2, and I am having enough difficulty navigating my current 2 as it is (I've gotten on the wrong train so many times). I like being early, anyway--that way I won't be late for class if I have to fix my constant train-riding mistakes. I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually.

The two stations I stop at between Fujimidai (my dorm station) and Yotsuya (my school station) are Ikebukuro and Shinjuku, which some of you may have heard of. Shinjuku station is the busiest train station in the world. Not Japan--the world. Of course, Ikebukuro station takes 2nd place as the second busiest train station in the entire world. That's my daily commute! On the plus side, I can go to Shinjuku and Ikebukuro (and every station in between) for free, whenever I want. Anyway, back to the dorm.

What it looked like when I first brought my suitcases in.

My room could be generously described as the size of a walk-in closet that people in House Hunters would still think is too small. It has a teeny tiny trash can, a teeny tiny closet (which is just to the right of what you can see in the photo), a teeny tiny fridge built into said closet, a teeny tiny bed (that came with bedding! Nice!), a spinny chair that always rolls backwards by itself, and an actually remarkably large desk and bookshelf. There is an Ethernet port for internet connectivity, and the room came with an Ethernet cable. There is WiFi in the lounges on every floor and the first floor, but not in the rooms--even so, my room is close enough to the lounge that I can get WiFi in my room, but it isn't very strong. The 2 drawers for storing clothes are under my bed, and each of them can hold about 3 piles of 4 shirts stacked on top of one another before the drawer can no longer close. I am eternally thankful that I packed light, because if I brought the amount of clothes I usually bring to school I would be doomed.

Just like home!

Almost everything that I brought fit neatly somewhere, more or less. Some clothes had to be moved to the bottom shelf of my bookshelf because they simply could not fit under my bed. The bookshelf here is about twice as big as any that I had in the Kenyon dorms, which is really nice. I have a lot of stuff spread out on each shelf, and once I get my books for school I'll just have to consolidate things a bit more. I also have more space on my desk than I usually would, which is fantastic. I'll probably end up storing some of my books on here, too.

If you're wondering where my large suitcase went, you clearly weren't looking up.

This is probably a fire hazard.

In the absence of literally anywhere else to put this, I ended up shoving it on top of my closet. It seems pretty secure, but if it ever did fall, it would either land on the foot of my bed or on my laundry bag, so no harm done. Probably. I hope.

Outside of each room's door is a meter showing how many kilowatts of electricity you've consumed. We have a 100 kW limit per month, which means that the air conditioner is virtually unusable (to the point where I didn't even mention it in the list earlier. I genuinely forgot I had it) unless you're willing to pay an extra 25 yen per kW used (for reference, the A/C uses 1 kW per hour). I use a plug-in desk fan instead. At the rate I'm going, with the fridge only on for about 12 hours a day (I unplug it when I leave for school) and my computer and other electronics only plugged in when I'm in the room, I'm predicting roughly 60-80 kW usage per month.

This was the number when I got here (7425.3). As of writing this, it's 7435.5. 

Now for the amenities outside of the room itself, because I at least knew what I was getting into with the room.

The view from the roof. You can see Mount Fuji sometimes.

The area I'm in, Fujimidai (富士見台), basically means "a place from which you can see Mount Fuji," and the top of the building validates the name. The roof is accessible and is used for hanging clothes out to dry if you don't want to use a machine, and you can also sit out there and enjoy the view if you feel so inclined. Each floor does have a laundry room, though, as well as a bathroom. The showers are only on the first floor, and I am assuming that they're meant to be water-saving showers because they constantly turn off after about 30 seconds and you have to re-press the pedal (yes, the pedal) to restart the water. Energy conservation is a big thing here--the lights in the hallways are all motion-controlled, for example. Nonetheless, there's plenty of hot water, and the water pressure is great, so showers are otherwise quite enjoyable. Two days of the week, the spa (a giant heated pool behind the shower room) is available for anyone to use, but it's a no-clothes-allowed affair, so I doubt I'll ever use it. The kitchen is a giant, stainless steel industrial kitchen that honestly scares me, so I probably won't use it for a while. Right now I've been living off of conbini food, which is incredibly delicious. There are 2 conbini within 5 minutes of my dorm, and at least 3 supermarkets within a similar range. 

All in all, I actually quite like my dorm. Yes, I wish it was a little closer to school, and yes, I wish it was a little bigger, but ultimately the goal here isn't for me to always be in my room, enjoying its closeness and bigness--it's to be out of my room, whether that involves classes, field trips, or my own adventures. All of my stuff that I need is here, and I have a bed, a fridge, and an internet connection (and a shower, and a laundry room, because those are also important). My commuter pass takes me to some of the biggest urban areas of Tokyo, so I can go basically wherever I want. We'll see how much I feel like adventuring once classes start, though.

In any case, I have a Japanese language placement test in less than 10 hours, which means I have less than 8 hours to sleep, so I will end this post now. Until next time!