About Dorms

As the new semester starts, I've decided to start posting more information about SILS, based on responses to mails that I have gotten asking about applying / choosing waseda / college life.

Today's topic is Dorm life. I've recieved multiple emails about the boy's dorm Wakei, and questions regarding if living in a dorm is recommended. I'll start off with my response to an email containing the following question:

Q:Would you recommend living in a dorm, esp. Wakei?

All my guy friends who stayed/stay at wakei can attest for the crazy rules and rowdy people,
but I hear the food is pretty good.

It's important to mention that Senpai/kouhai relations are really important, so you definitely have to be willing to show a lot of respect to your seniors, even outside of the dorm.

oh, and there's a biiiiiig staircase you have to climb to get to it. my friend attests he lost a lot of weight because of it, haha.

Doesn't sound so appealing, I guess, but it's the dorm with the most culture/history...
If you were ever doing business with a Japanese company, and one of the Japanese businessmen went to Waseda, you would definitely get on his good side if you were to say you stayed at Wakei.

As well, Murakami Haruki stayed there, and his book Norwegian Wood partially takes place there. It's also very close to the former residence of Matsuo Basho.

All in all, it's a definite recommendation for extroverts who want a memorable experience,
but I couldn't recommend it for people who are more introverted.

Other notes about dorm life... Expect your dorm to be upwards of an hour away from campus, sometimes including multiple train transfers. SP3 students (for some reason) have been seen magically living in a dorm just minutes from building 19... but I haven't confirmed anything about whether or not SP2's and SP1's can live there.
I do hear, though, they recently opened a lot of new dorms; some are co-ed but I wouldn't know which, some are apparently very close to school.

I lived at WID(Waseda International Dorm)Tanashi, an all-girl dorm with a 11pm curfew that is 20~25minutes from Takadanobaba station, thus putting you about 35~45 minutes away from school if you include walking time and whether or not you plan to ride the bus. It's not the newest dorm but I would most definitely consider it the best dorm choice for girls. The only reason I moved was because I wanted more space... and I wanted to force myself to learn how to cook.

About whether or not you should consider living in a dorm:
This is a big yes for all students *new to living in Japan* Stay in a dorm for at least your first year.Trust me.
It is very very important for your mental sanity to have a decided roof over your head, especially during the first semester of school. You will have to deal with all and more of the following:
-attending orientation classes
-registering for classes
-buying a cell phone and signing up for a plan
-opening a bank account (often two)
-registering at your city hall
-a lot of paperwork with the school

つまり、you are not going to want to come home at the end of the day to deal with the rent issues, plumbing issues, garbage separation issues, cooking, cleaning, keeping the noise down for the neighbors, buying new appliances, new furniture, (etcetera)... the added problems one faces when trying to live alone from the get-go.

Dorms provide you with breakfast and dinner, an accessible kitchen, easy billing, appliances and plumbing managed by the dorms, washing machines, helpful student neighbors, senpai that will to help you open bank accounts, landlords and landladys that will answer any questions you have about life in Japan... a cornucopia of resources available to you at a time when adjusting to life in a foreign country can leave you ragged at the end of the day.

And I should mention that searching for an apartment is an ordeal all in itself. I guess if you've got the envied innate ability to read/understand kanji, it might not be so hard to fill out forms, read contracts, and comprehend bills and notices... but even if you are confident in your Japanese literacy, there is another wall to be hit.

If you are a foreigner (yes, as in foreign looking and/or foreign passport holding) looking for an apartment to rent, you should expect about as much rejection from companies as a starting model does on her first round of go-see's.
Japan does not like renting to foreigners. This may stem partially from the xenophobia that 自ら呼ばれた*seasoned experts* in japanese culture love to refer to, but it's worth noting that these companies might also turn you away because of language barriers and liability issues. Foreigners have accumulated a bad reputation for disrupting neighbors, (if unknowingly) disobeying rules such as garbage pickup, and leaving the country for good without paying rent.

I recommend renting from Leopalace21--their Shinjuku branch has an international staff to accomodate english, korean, and chinese speakers. However, foreigners are required to pay for an entire year's rent upfront (this goes back to the point about us having the image of not being good about paying rent).

So in conclusion: Dorm when you arrive, Rent when you're ready, (and as a sidenote, strongly consider Homestay if you're SP3). It's just best not too bite off more than you can chew.

Afterthoughts

Sorry for the ill-timed hiatus. ...ick, I hate the word 'hiatus'...
After much consideration, I deliberately decided to give this a rest for a few months. There were finals, then I had my spring break, and of course, the unexepected flood of emails concerning studying abroad in Japan.

I guess it's not like it should have come as such a big surprise... if you Google for "Waseda SILS", my blog comes up as result number three. That's even above the Xanga blogring... (￣▽￣)；

I apologize for deliberately not answering everyone's questions.
I certainly hope that those of you had financial aid questions contacted the office for answers, that people can respect that I don't particularily want to pass out my monthly financial budget to everybody, that those of you who wanted to know if sils was an easy school (etc) went on facebook for the real answers...

more than anything, I hope that those of you who were asking for help with your application essays reached within yourselves for the inspiration needed for those questions.

To the people who actually had answerable questions, I'm especially sorry. Especially for those that wanted to know more about life in Japan. I regret having to delete the earlier portion of my entries, but it had to be done.


One of the most popular questions I was asked was specifically about what kind of students SILS are looking for. I've given advice about this in legnth before, but what I came to realize is that the question is really much easier than you would think. Who are they looking for? They're looking for you.

And I'm not trying to sound like a tool here at all... it's true. People don't apply to Waseda as a safety school, an afterthought, or because their friends are applying, too (at least I'd hope not). More often than not (Putting my friend Michael aside, haha), provided you're the kind of person that wants to go to school in Japan, you're already a great candidate. If you're applying to SILS, you're the kind of person SILS is looking for. It's up to you to stand out in an increasingly large stack of manila folders. Just show them your an interesting person, with a true desire to study in Japan. My only suggestion would have been to give them passion. Passion is a hard thing to fake, so I don't mind suggesting it. It's a boring answer, but it's just like applying for any other college.

Once again, I really do apoligize for giving everybody the cold shoulder. I'm crossing my fingers for everybody, and I hope to see you in the fall!

Read Please!

My Inbox has seen a sudden influx of mails regarding the Waseda SILS program. -
--In the last week alone I recieved another 5 letters.
On the whole, people are writing me with questions that I did not specifically answer in my article. I thank you all for taking the time to read the information I have provided on the topic before going to write me.
However, I have recieved many questions that I actually do cover in my article. So I have to ask that if you sent me an email without reading through my article to do your homework! Please read through my essay for your answers.

Most people included a question to the effect of "I read your article, but I'm still worried if SILS is too easy or not. Is it too easy??/ D:"
...To that I can only say please read my article. I understand that most people writing me are going through a stressful time in their academic careers, a time when the college application process seems overwhelming and information is hard to find. Specifically, I remember applying blindly to SILS and to many other Japanese colleges... and it was a very tough... 不安なprocess. I had to put a lot of faith in where I placed my poker chips.

I also can identify with feeling more secure by recieving a personal response to such qualms, but please know that I wrote this article as a personal response to everybody's worries. It's tempting to just take shortcuts and write me with all of your 悩み's, but I ask for your cooperation in reading what I have given to you all--It's meant specifically to help you with making your decision to apply to SILS. What I write here is really what I think--whether you choose to believe it or not is up to you.

But I do acknowedge that I might not have been subjective enough in my conclusions when I needed to be.
In regards to the questions I have recieved that do need answering/clearer answering, I plan to update the article so as to include feedback to those questions sometime this week if possible. For the many people that have emailed me, I ask that you take these updates as a response to your email.

As an ending note, please understand that I am not the SILS office and thus find it hard to answer people's questions about financial aid, due dates during the application process, etcetera. If you have questions regarding the mechanics of the information process, please
contact the SILS admissions office by email or phone,
or read the latest admissions guide.

Thanks for your emails, and I appreciate your patience as I am in the middle of my Term Finals m(_ _)m

Sakaime, Winter.

It's been a very busy semester. More than two months has passed since my last entry... sorry about that. My busyness is probably reflected in my email unresponsiveness. There are a lot of you I haven't gotten back to, and a few in particular that I really need to get back to, so your patience is really appreciated.
I also appreciate your understanding on account of the change in my english speaking/writing ability. The ratio of japanese-to-english speaking has changed in favor of japanese to about 70:30 in the past month, so my english is out of practice. :( don't worry, I didn't get a concussion.

I looked up to the sky as I was walking down to building 22 the other morning and noticed that all the yellow leaves were gone. Consequentially the street sweepers were gone, too. You might call that last leaf dropping from the tree what i considered to be my 季節の境目 kisetsu no sakaime(or seasonal boundry marker)... but there are more ways that have come to signal to me the coming of winter.
There's the first evening where I'm convinced to turn on the heater in my room,
the first time the dorm offers mikan oranges at meal service on curry night,
or on the morning train when I realize I can't count on both hands the number of beige trenchcoats girls are wearing.
When Ai-chan on the morning weather report starts wearing a muffler,
when it becomes impulsive to say 「風引かないように気をつけて！」(Be careful not to catch a cold!) when waving goodbye to somebody,
or the day that the sun sets before the end of 4th period...

...when I hear some 青春(seishun) riding by on a bike say 「さぁムイすねぇ！」(samuis-sne! It's freezing!)

when they stop the morning AC service on the train. that too, is a signal of the coming season.

In my Japanese class, we had to write a paper about Sakaime, borders. It's interesting to think about, albeit in a predictable way.
There are borders created by humans, like the borders between city and city, country and country.

Humans create completely nonexistant borders as well when they line draw. There seems to be this pressing need to first define one object from another from another... but look as hard as you can and you'll never find lines between objects.

Then there are borders that have ambiguous definitions, like the border between child and adult. You see a person every day of your life and you don't observe a change; You see them after the passage of time and your reaction is "Wow, you've grown!". It's doubly hard to be aware of your own body changing, but all too easy to look at a photo of yourself from five or ten years ago and feel embarassed at how you looked "when you were young". Sure there are kids and sure there are grown ups, and sure, we define adulthood in countries by a legal age, but really, the boundaries of age are loose if not nonexistant. It's simply a natural progression, benchmarked by words.

In the example of seasons, there are obviously four distinct ones in human culture... but it's pretty silly to try and mark them off by these solstices and such, in my opinion. I mean, seattle is pretty much Fall, Spring, Fall, Fall, right? and my singaporean friend contests that where she lives it's Summer, Summer, Summer, Summer (check a globe, she's on the equator). Seasons don't necessarily fall into strict patterns, is what I mean. It's a natural progression that once again has been defined by humans, and applied even in places where there is little to no climate change. But in places where they do change a lot, or even in places where they change a little, it's interesting to try and spot the change.

Why humans create these seemingly inaccurate or unnecessary borders is all probably a matter of linguistics. There's no good way to define lots of things in life, for sure, but it makes conversations go by faster, and more efficiently for that matter, to simply say "I plan to go skiing this winter" instead of "I plan to go skiing when it's that time of year when snow usually falls on the ground in places that are of high altitude."

If we don't define, or refuse to define the world around us, then we're just being too artsy, quite frankly. Our brains are essentially compartmentalizing machines, and it's pretty tough to walk through life thinking everything is the same. Whether or not everything is connected, well that's just one more cliche philisophical discussion to save for another time.

The Japanese writer of the essay concerning Sakaime that we read basically came to this conclusion, and sorry for the bad grammar:
人間が作った境目が存在しているのをちゃんと意識して、そこからその人間として、場合によって、ある意識の正しさを判断すべきである。
That is, roughly, We as humans should first be aware that man-made borders exist, and from there we should judge the relative correctness of the borders we encounter according to the situation at hand.

Very Japanese.


Winter break starts in 2 days now, which is very relieving :) This semester has been very busy as of late. Midterms were a real pain, and no sooner did I think those were over was I penning in the report and finals schedule for december and january.

One 2000-character Japanese Essay (you know me, I spilled over to 3500)
One Mobile Communications Paper
One Japanese Industrial Development Term Paper & Group Presentation
One International Politics Essay

All due before January 10th. some things due before New Years.

As a result, my return trip is being cut a little short; I am only back for 6 days... this is really tough. 22nd to the 28th. Yup, New Years in Japan. Yup. 安心してちょうだい。
I hope to see as many people as I can!

I'll be back for spring break in february and march, so if not than I'll see you there.

Climbing the Ladder, Autumn.

There are many many overused statements about Japanese culture.

My personal favorite (and frequently abused) is "Japan is notable for it's four distinct seasons."
For studiers of Japan and its culture, there is a certain ledge that one reaches--on what I like to call the "Japanese Aficionado Unanonymous" bookshelf--at which point previously insightful phrases like this one are reflexively scoffed at.

"Oh please" you snob, "are you here to tell me that the nail that sticks out gets hammered down, too?"

This is nature of the pathetically eclectic social order I belong to... With each successive step up the ladder, admittance to the next level becomes harder and harder.

Greenhorns don't count on this scale, but I suppose it's worth mentioning that most people start out their journeys by loving ramen, and memorizing catch phrases from their favorite anime... striking the peace sign in family photos.

But truly, the first rung of the ladder is much above this. In the earlier stages of development you have very simple tasks, such as denouncing your love of Japanese animation, saying you prefer Dramas, feigning love for acquired tastes such as umeboushi, prefering miso or tonkotsu ramen over cha-shu.

From there things get a little more tricky. Membership requires you to naturally blush red with embarassment when foreigners sprawl themselves out in the reserved seat section of the trains, learning to wash your hands before entering a shrine... you eat nigiri sushi (not that silly maki business) with your hands...

Then you get into all these aformentioned concepts about Japanese culture... "I know about Honne and Tatemae, about Aimai, about Shuudan Ishiki and Giri and Oku." "I know what Japan is really like."

Somewhere along the line you head off to Japan and then it just gets tougher and tougher. You must first declare all those cultural observational statements as plebian knowledge. You must look down on those below you on the ladder. You must reflect on your actions: do you go all the way to the Family Mart across the street to get the particular brand of tea you like, do you only listen to summer songs in the summer and winter songs in the winter, do you have a teiki on your PASMO, and did you get the PASMO because at one time it was more convenient than Suica and you knew it? Have you walked all the way home after missing the last train? Do you really like umeboushi?

What's interesting is that once you get past most of this standard qualifier stuff, moving onto the next level of Japanese snobbery requires you to renounce statements and beliefs that got you to where you were: You eat tekka maki after all, liking Anime is okay and necessary in the case of Sazae-san and Chibi Maruko-chan, Anpanman and Doraemon; you have to have cried when you saw The Dog of Flanders, you have to like Laputa best. You embrace the four seasons, you get excited by Japanese Royal Family gossip... You get above it all only to slowly sink in and flow along.


I can't quite fathom how many more shelves I need to climb in order to be able to see how high up Dave Spector is, but I do know I'll need to start liking natto before then (not to mention bleaching my hair blonde) so I'll have to stay content for the time being at the level I am at now, somewhere between reconciling my past love of anime and being able to separate newly burnable from unburnable plastics. Let me tell you, I'm pretty well up here.


So back to this statement, "Japan has four distinct seasons," I admit to it, knowing how stale the phrase has gotten, but agreeing like the good wa-protector I am. October first, I swear by the Chuo line being delayed at this very moment, the Japanese government flipped the season switch and it became Autumn. An instantaneous, almost 30degree faerenheit drop, and now it's 60 every day and cloudy. The short sleeved tshirts are away in storage, the trench coats are out, chestnut candies are back in stock, and school is back in session. 風邪引かないように(kaze hikanai yoo ni) don't catch a cold, as they say, because new TV announcers are in the studio and we all need to get on with fall.

And Onward

Recenty I've been thinking about moving out of the dorm and getting my own place. ...Well as my friends know this technically isn't a recent thought, but I think I've finally caught a wave of follow-through in my mind.

First I thought I'd only stay here a semester, then only a year, and now it's moving on my second year and I don't feel antsy at all. I guess my biggest problem is I've always liked my dorm so much. For one, I adore my Ryobo-san (dorm mother)... she is the sweetest, funniest, quirkiest Japanese lady I've ever met. My dorm mates are all really great, too, and I know my Japanese has benefitted a lot from living here with everybody. Then there's the free breakfast and dinner bit, and not having to clean a shower or bathroom... the free furniture...

Why move, then? Haha... that's the thing, there are so many reasons not to. But I guess the few that I have are pretty substantial:

For one, I want a bigger room.plain and simple: I've outgrown my dorm room. And it's not as though I've really accumulated a lot of junk... (you guys all know me but I'll tell you something I've really cut back.) The room is 9.72 meters squared, and looks something like this:

It's hard to tell here but there's a clothing rack that actually straddles the foot end of my bed, with a mid-layer rack that holds my TV. And yes, my bed is blocking the balcony door, but I get a nice breeze in the summer.

The point is... it's crowded in here--the floorspace in my room is actually eqivalent to a double-long rectangle tatami mat (I have one covering the floor that just fits).

I've had a pretty cluttered mind as of late, and I know if I move to a bigger space I know it will clear my head up a bit. It might help with my health, too. I'm not a believer in Feng Shui, but I do know that it's harder to sleep at night when there's a bunch of stuff on your bed.

I also want to learn how to cook, clean, manage rent payments... This is a time in my life where I could be learning these life skills... but living in a dorm is kind of like a crutch.

I want to live closer to school. The Seibu Shinjuku line is too much in the mornings for me to handle... I'd like to cut my commute time. At first I thought about maybe moving to Nishi-Waseda, the area right by my school, but I was talking to a friend of mine who moved out to Yoyogi the other day and he brought up a good point: Your life shouldn't necessarily be so attached to school. I think I actually agree there. Moving that close to school would make me sleep in until 10 minutes before class every morning, it would make me stay up extra late writing papers, and it would probably keep me in the neighborhood most of the time. If I could just move closer to school than where I live now, I think that would be really great.

Most of all I know I'm ready and able to rent.When I first got here, I was certainly not comfortable enough with conversational Japanese to think about searching for and renting out an apartment... but now I know I can handle it. Living in the dorm was really an imperative for me when I first got here, but I think I'm ready for the next phase.

So I think I'm going to start oiling the wheels... maybe start looking around for price points or something. Fall is the season for change, and I really feel like I could benefit from some.

Fall Cleaning

My first day of the semester was yesterday... man was it exhausting. The night before school, my senpai invited me out to sushi at Tsukiji Market (the famous fish market in the Ginza district of Tokyo), and not only could I not really say no, but I didn't want to turn down the offer either! The unagi that I had.... good heavens would you be blown away... I'm sort of at a loss for words, here... the skin was just slightly crispy, the meat was soft and flavorful, the sauce complemented everything wonderfully, and there was this certain smokiness to it all that was not overplayed. A really poor description of what was one part of the best sushi experience I've ever had in Japan.

even the kuruma-ebi was delicious

So anyhow, I didn't get back until 11pm that night, and as such I didn't go to sleep until 1 or so. There was an earthquake at 2 in the morning as well, so that didn't help either, haha.

Having to wake up at 6:30 was, needless to say, a headache.
But I had a good first day. My Japanese classes once again look promising, and my seminar teacher didn't show up today, so I had an extended free period of time spanning from lunch (12) until 5th period (4:20). Very relaxing.


Notice anything different here? That's right! Save for the entry about SILS, last year's entries are gone! It's sort of a part of what I've been occupying myself with for the week: Fall Cleaning. It seems that as soon as October hit Japan, the hot weather decided to kick it. I couldn't be happier, honestly, I don't fair well in 100 degree weather.
So yesterday I put away my summer clothes, brought out the jackets and long sleeved shirts, and in the process turned my room into robbery crime scene. I sat down on my bed and looked around at the state of everything:
"Ack," I murmured "This is bad."

As such I've decided to do an overhaul. That includes overhauling my blog, too. When your hair grows too long it gets heavy... it takes longer to blowdry, it's more unruly, you get split ends and such. That's the kind of feeling I have here... like I'm in desperate need of a haircut.

Ironically I'm actually growing my hair right now so I doubt I'll get more than a trim when I go to get a haircut this week, but if I can have a clean room and a fresh blog and a few things in order, I know I'll feel a lot better.

SILS Setsumei