So, as my colleague Deion did, I thought it would be a good idea, now that I’ve settled in somewhat, to write about a post pertaining to what I do on an average day. I had to wait for the taifuns to let up so that I could get good (non-rainy) pictures of my daily commute, so I do hope all of you who are interested in life in Japan or study abroad hopefuls find it to be worth the wait.
My dormitory is situated in southwest Tokyo, in Kanagawa, meaning I’m outside the city limits. While this means the daily commute is a bit longer, it also means I get a nice dorm with all the amenities for much less than my friends who live inside the city are paying. I start by heading to Shin-Kawasaki station, and catching an express train into downtown Tokyo, then transferring onto the main train line, the Yamanote Line (which is an important one to remember, if any of you ever want to go to Japan). Keio University has multiple campuses, but the one I go to is Mita Campus, located near Tamachi Station. It’s pretty much a close to Tokyo Bay as you can get, on the lower right hand corner of the Yamanote Line if you’re looking at a train map. Now, all of that’s pretty boring, so let’s jump to the part with pictures.
After a 20 minute train ride, I have a 10 minute walk to campus, which is the pretty, tree-covered picture there. Unfortunately, someone decided that international students learn Japanese best at 9am, so that means to get to class, we all have to fight the infamous Tokyo Rush Hour (it deserves all-caps, trust me – you don’t know pain until you’re pressed against the door of a train wondering if it’s actually possible to run out of oxygen in a train car). I’ve started taking my Japanese friends’ advice and leaving 30 minutes to an hour earlier than I need to just to miss the crush. Trust me, at 7am the train is still crowded, but it’s not the same kind of cramming that occurs between 8am and 9am. A warning to all prospective Tokyo travelers: don’t ride the trains between these times. I know that some tourists may want to “get a feel for it” or experience a slice of life (Only too well – my father would be one of these tourists, I just know it). Don’t. It isn’t worth the crushed toes. No one who doesn’t have to be on these trains is on them. If you absolutely need to be somewhere between 8am and 9am, take a taxi and enjoy breathing.
Anyway, class starts at 9am, and continues to 12:15pm with a 15 minute break. My friends attending other Japanese universities also have 3 hour Japanese classes – it’s part of the whole “intensive” language thing. I’m sure my colleagues on this blog are doing much the same thing. Usual classes are only an hour and a half, and meet only once a week. Therefore, they count for less credit, and students are expected to take up to 10 classes to meet requirements. Luckily for Japanese Language Program students like me, since our classes are all taught in Japanese, our classes count for more credit than usual ones and we’re only expected to take 1-3 classes outside of Japanese.
After class, most students head to the cafeteria or the cafes near campus to grab lunch. While Tokyo is famous for its high consumer prices and constant inflation, lunch is the only reasonable meal you can get; since restaurants have to cater to the working class, they keep their lunch sets under 1000Yen ($10, or even more if the stock market keeps crashing…) So, you can get almost a 3 course meal for really cheap. It’s no wonder that most college students make lunch their main meal.
Since after classes end, my daily routine has a tendency to fluctuate, I’ll leave it at that. I really just wanted to give the readers a sense of what I was doing everyday, as opposed to the (yes, I’ll admit it) somewhat lofty social issues I’ve been addressing in my last few posts. Hopefully I was able to give some insight to anyone who’s thinking about studying in Tokyo, or is just interested in the city. And trust me – it isn’t all study. This is just what I do everyday. I’ve been meaning to make a post on Tokyo street fashion, because it’s just so blatant here, and in truth, getting pretty famous, but it’s hard to take pictures of people on the street and not feel like an awkward foreigner. I’ve worked pretty hard to not look like a tourist, and the last thing I want to do is seem like some sort of otaku (obsessed geek) who’s only here to snap photos of the cute girls in mini-skirts. It helps I’m not a man, but still. I have my pride.
