Noises and other fun things
Well, I don't have anything as crazy as some of you do, but I have an experience from studying abroad in Japan.
Well, the place is located about 10 minutes from Ikebukuro, Tokyo, in a small town called Shakujii Koen. It's a really nice town, about 5 minutes walk from a park. Right next to it is a Mcdonald's which comes in really handy as you'll see.
When I first moved in, I had no idea the place was going to be so small. I brought two suitcases (kinda big ones) and both were at exactly the weight limit for my flight (maybe 35 lbs each? or 35 Kg?). When I entered my dorm room, I was shocked cuz I had no idea where I was going to fit all my stuff.
Anyway, there was more room than meets the eye, I eventually was able to keep unused winter stuff in a suitcase and jam it under the bed (by removing the wooden boards first).
Now, I didn't have my own bathroom or anything, which I was fine with. The dormitory was only for international students going to various schools, so the only Japanese in there were the manager and cooks (and cleaning crew in the mornings). It was composed of about 75% Taiwanese, 20% Koreans, and the rest being Americans, Europeans and myself (from Kuwait/USA). The bad thing was that it seems the Taiwanese (or maybe just one or two of them?) had a bad habit of cleaning out their throats while showering or in the bathroom, and it sounded like they were hawking loogies or something. This sometimes happened at night too. Another bad thing was (and I really don't wanna sound like I'm picking on the Taiwanese) they would talk really loudly, especially in the common kitchen area.
The kitchen deserves it's own paragraph. Now, usually the kitchen is unlocked from 5 am until maybe 11 pm. breakfast is served from 630 (even though it's officially 7) until 9 am. Dinner is from 7pm till 9pm. The kitchen has the only tv, unless you buy your own, and people usually turn it on during meal times. There are 2 tables to sit on, and if they get filled (or you don't want to use them) you can sit in a small area with seating for about 4 (on the floor). Unfortunately, during Dinnertimes the Taiwanese would kinda monopolize the tables for themselves, and the Koreans would always sit on the floors (or wait for space).
During the lunchtimes the Taiwanese would continue being so loud (intentionally or just culture?) and I know a few of them would talk about the other non-Taiwanese and joke, which ended up almost leading to fights between the Taiwanese and the Koreans. It got so bad that at some point the two stopped talking to each other. Of course, I got the inside info from a close friend of mine that was Korean.
Now the place was kept very very clean, no complaints there, however there was a bad habit of a door in the main hallway being kept open and the occasional bug coming in (I saw/killed 2 roaches in that hallway). The other bad thing is that said door is right next to the only showers (2 showers for maybe 50 people!), but I don't count the Japanese bathroom that almost nobody used it seems. Also, whenever I showered and left the bathroom, I would get hit by the cold wind coming from outside, which led to me having a cough every morning. In the summer I also developed coughs, because we all had an A/C unit in our rooms, but outside there was no A/C so the sudden contrast every time I would leave/re-enter usually left me with coughs.
The place wasn't too bad at all during my first semester. Many of the people there wouldn't eat certain things. I don't eat pork for example, and everything was noted and the kitchen staff would cook us an alternative. The food was excellent when I moved in; people who had been there earlier told me it used to be nasty. I didn't care that I was being charged about $50 a month for electricity for a TINY room with only a lightbulb, A/C, laptop and phone being used. Then it got much worse.
Sometime in the summer the manager had a stroke. He was hospitalized for a long time. During this time the Kitchen manager or something lady took over his duties. I call her the kitchen manager because I often saw her helping in the kitchen. After this the food staff got replaced I think, because the quality of the food quickly plummeted. Also, they seemed to have forgotten or thrown away the list of who can't eat what, and I repeatedly had to tell them that I couldn't eat pork products. Instead of making me something comparable to what the others were having, they took the easy route and just replaced whatever the dish was that day with a giant blob of tofu! I complained, and nothing happened. It got so bad that I would get my tray, eat some rice, stir some food around and replace the tray five minutes later without having touched much. I gained maybe 15 lbs that semester from eating so much Mcdonalds and Indian curry.
Another thing that happened during this semester is that I tried to do a homestay for my last month in Japan (I should write about that later, that was a real nightmare!) which had me moving out for what amounted to a week and a half. Well, when I wanted to move out, my school (who was my guarantor/liaison to the dorm) found out that I had about $600 worth of unpaid utilities (electricity and the most recent phone bills). Well, I had to pay that to move out. After my homestay nightmare, I was given an ultimatum by my school: move back into the dorm, or go back home. Well, I somehow came up with $550 I needed in about two hours of frantic phone calls and visits to the bank. When I moved back, things had gotten much worse:
for some reason my chair (for my desk where I had my laptop) was broken. The backrest in particular. This led to frequently falling off of it and hurting my self (if I was drunk) and other experiences of discomfort.
my A/C was broken: I had no way of heating my room, and was given a small portable heating lamp, no lie. The manager told me to not use it overnight for fear of fire, however, I didn't care as it was too cold to sleep without it.
when I had moved it I was told I could replace my sheets for new ones once a month or once a semester, can't remember which. Well, I hadn't done this yet and just washed my sheets myself and wasn't too messy, but when I decided to do this they first tried to charge me $200 for new sheets. After some arguing, they gave me some new beddings but I didn't have a pillow for my last month. I was almost afraid they were going to charge me for it at the last minute!
My only other complaints are kind of minor ones:
- people would leave food in the common fridge and never take it out, and it would rot
eventually.
- at first I was allowed to smoke my hooka inside my dorm room, cuz smoking is allowed in the rooms. however the neighbor (to the dorm) complained about the smell. I had to start smoking in the park which wasn't a big deal until it got colder and said F**K it and smoked in my room anyway. It just made me mad because my hooka smelled like grapes, and what's wrong with grapes?
- since we lived near the police station, lots of cops were around even at night. foreigners get ID'd usually. I would often go to the convenience stores in the middle of the night after running for some junk food. I never ran with my ID card in fear of losing it. Lucky all THREE times I got caught without my ID was when I was right next to my dorm!
Well, the place is located about 10 minutes from Ikebukuro, Tokyo, in a small town called Shakujii Koen. It's a really nice town, about 5 minutes walk from a park. Right next to it is a Mcdonald's which comes in really handy as you'll see.
When I first moved in, I had no idea the place was going to be so small. I brought two suitcases (kinda big ones) and both were at exactly the weight limit for my flight (maybe 35 lbs each? or 35 Kg?). When I entered my dorm room, I was shocked cuz I had no idea where I was going to fit all my stuff.
Anyway, there was more room than meets the eye, I eventually was able to keep unused winter stuff in a suitcase and jam it under the bed (by removing the wooden boards first).
Now, I didn't have my own bathroom or anything, which I was fine with. The dormitory was only for international students going to various schools, so the only Japanese in there were the manager and cooks (and cleaning crew in the mornings). It was composed of about 75% Taiwanese, 20% Koreans, and the rest being Americans, Europeans and myself (from Kuwait/USA). The bad thing was that it seems the Taiwanese (or maybe just one or two of them?) had a bad habit of cleaning out their throats while showering or in the bathroom, and it sounded like they were hawking loogies or something. This sometimes happened at night too. Another bad thing was (and I really don't wanna sound like I'm picking on the Taiwanese) they would talk really loudly, especially in the common kitchen area.
The kitchen deserves it's own paragraph. Now, usually the kitchen is unlocked from 5 am until maybe 11 pm. breakfast is served from 630 (even though it's officially 7) until 9 am. Dinner is from 7pm till 9pm. The kitchen has the only tv, unless you buy your own, and people usually turn it on during meal times. There are 2 tables to sit on, and if they get filled (or you don't want to use them) you can sit in a small area with seating for about 4 (on the floor). Unfortunately, during Dinnertimes the Taiwanese would kinda monopolize the tables for themselves, and the Koreans would always sit on the floors (or wait for space).
During the lunchtimes the Taiwanese would continue being so loud (intentionally or just culture?) and I know a few of them would talk about the other non-Taiwanese and joke, which ended up almost leading to fights between the Taiwanese and the Koreans. It got so bad that at some point the two stopped talking to each other. Of course, I got the inside info from a close friend of mine that was Korean.
Now the place was kept very very clean, no complaints there, however there was a bad habit of a door in the main hallway being kept open and the occasional bug coming in (I saw/killed 2 roaches in that hallway). The other bad thing is that said door is right next to the only showers (2 showers for maybe 50 people!), but I don't count the Japanese bathroom that almost nobody used it seems. Also, whenever I showered and left the bathroom, I would get hit by the cold wind coming from outside, which led to me having a cough every morning. In the summer I also developed coughs, because we all had an A/C unit in our rooms, but outside there was no A/C so the sudden contrast every time I would leave/re-enter usually left me with coughs.
The place wasn't too bad at all during my first semester. Many of the people there wouldn't eat certain things. I don't eat pork for example, and everything was noted and the kitchen staff would cook us an alternative. The food was excellent when I moved in; people who had been there earlier told me it used to be nasty. I didn't care that I was being charged about $50 a month for electricity for a TINY room with only a lightbulb, A/C, laptop and phone being used. Then it got much worse.
Sometime in the summer the manager had a stroke. He was hospitalized for a long time. During this time the Kitchen manager or something lady took over his duties. I call her the kitchen manager because I often saw her helping in the kitchen. After this the food staff got replaced I think, because the quality of the food quickly plummeted. Also, they seemed to have forgotten or thrown away the list of who can't eat what, and I repeatedly had to tell them that I couldn't eat pork products. Instead of making me something comparable to what the others were having, they took the easy route and just replaced whatever the dish was that day with a giant blob of tofu! I complained, and nothing happened. It got so bad that I would get my tray, eat some rice, stir some food around and replace the tray five minutes later without having touched much. I gained maybe 15 lbs that semester from eating so much Mcdonalds and Indian curry.
Another thing that happened during this semester is that I tried to do a homestay for my last month in Japan (I should write about that later, that was a real nightmare!) which had me moving out for what amounted to a week and a half. Well, when I wanted to move out, my school (who was my guarantor/liaison to the dorm) found out that I had about $600 worth of unpaid utilities (electricity and the most recent phone bills). Well, I had to pay that to move out. After my homestay nightmare, I was given an ultimatum by my school: move back into the dorm, or go back home. Well, I somehow came up with $550 I needed in about two hours of frantic phone calls and visits to the bank. When I moved back, things had gotten much worse:
for some reason my chair (for my desk where I had my laptop) was broken. The backrest in particular. This led to frequently falling off of it and hurting my self (if I was drunk) and other experiences of discomfort.
my A/C was broken: I had no way of heating my room, and was given a small portable heating lamp, no lie. The manager told me to not use it overnight for fear of fire, however, I didn't care as it was too cold to sleep without it.
when I had moved it I was told I could replace my sheets for new ones once a month or once a semester, can't remember which. Well, I hadn't done this yet and just washed my sheets myself and wasn't too messy, but when I decided to do this they first tried to charge me $200 for new sheets. After some arguing, they gave me some new beddings but I didn't have a pillow for my last month. I was almost afraid they were going to charge me for it at the last minute!
My only other complaints are kind of minor ones:
- people would leave food in the common fridge and never take it out, and it would rot
eventually.
- at first I was allowed to smoke my hooka inside my dorm room, cuz smoking is allowed in the rooms. however the neighbor (to the dorm) complained about the smell. I had to start smoking in the park which wasn't a big deal until it got colder and said F**K it and smoked in my room anyway. It just made me mad because my hooka smelled like grapes, and what's wrong with grapes?
- since we lived near the police station, lots of cops were around even at night. foreigners get ID'd usually. I would often go to the convenience stores in the middle of the night after running for some junk food. I never ran with my ID card in fear of losing it. Lucky all THREE times I got caught without my ID was when I was right next to my dorm!