Dormitory Inokashira Koen 3;

I live in a small women’s dormitory located about 35 minutes east of ICU. It really isn’t anything like living in an on-campus dorm at Mount Holyoke.

To enter the building, there is a 5-digit passcode that you punch in. Once you enter, you are in the genkan – the entraceway where you switch from shoes to slippers. To your left is the dorm manager’s office and directly in front of you is a wall of shoe cabinents. Each girl has her own cubby with her room number marked on it. You can fit about four or five pairs of shoes inside, not including boots. After you leave the genkan, you are in the first floor hallway. On the wall to your right is a board that shows where every person in the dorm is – out, in, or out for the night. If you are in – you move the slider next to your name to the white color. If you are out, you move it to the red color. If you are staying out for the night/week/whatever, you leave it red and place a yellow magnet on top. Then, you fill out a form outside the dorm manager’s office – listing your name, room number, the address at which you are staying, who you are staying with, your relationship to that person, and how long you are going to be gone. On the wall opposite from the board are mailboxes and a white board that lists important information about the dorm. As you walk down the hallway, you pass half a dozen or so single rooms before the dining room comes up on your left. It’s not a very large room – fits about four medium sized tables, a couple refridgerators, some counter space, and a t.v.. The kitchen where the cook makes the meals is at the far end of it. Past the dining room on the left are the bathroom and the shower room. Shower room also has washers/dryers. Walk back down the hallway and the stairs up to the second floor are about halfway down on the right. Upstairs there are more rooms, a room full of sinks and mirrors, more laundry machines, and the private shower. In total, there are about 40 girls who live here. 6 international students at ICU (including me), a couple girls from Taiwan, and the rest Japanese – all from different universities around Tokyo.

As part of my monthly rent, I get fed breakfast and dinner Monday through Saturday. For the first week or so, I was so tired and hungry that I just ate whatever was given to me without thinking about it. After the jetlag started to wear off, I started to become more aware of what I was eating.

Breakfast is usually worse than dinner, not because of the taste, but just because of how unsatisfying it is. There are two choices – western or Japanese. The “western” option is usually something strange, like a BLT made with canadian bacon, a chicken patty sandwich and french fries, or tuna pasta. The Japanese option is usually something with fish. With the western option, you can have toast and jam. With the Japanese option, you get rice. I usually go for the western option and eat the toast and half of whatever the unappetizing food is. Dinner is sometimes ok  – when there is meat and rice, I like it. Curry rice nights are good, too. But occasionally it’s something really hard to choke down – fish, foul-smelling vegetables, strange mystery meats.  The other night we were given oden. It looked like a collection of sponges from the aquarium that were placed into a small pool of cold murky broth. It was practically tasteless, just squishy and gooey. I could only eat half before I quit. Last night, we were given fish – complete with their eyes and tails. They were full of bones and just looked too alive to attempt to eat. At least there is always rice.

It’s a nice, quiet place to live. Even though the food is often gross and if we’re not in by 11pm we get locked out for the night.