Arrival!!! Week 1
I decided to leave for Japan on March 30th, 2022 to give some time to myself to explore and relax before my dorm move in on April 5th. I booked 5 nights at APA Hotels Keikyu-Kamata Ekimae which was amazing. The hotel was right next to the station so traveling with all my suitcases was extremely easy. During those first few days I explore the Kamata area a lot and found a few great places to eat. Those five nights at the hotel flew by and before I knew it I was moving into the Motosumiyoshi International Dormitory. I ended up taking a taxi to the dorm because I didn't want to travel 30 minutes on the train with them. It was about $30 from my hotel the dorm and took about 20 minutes. Dorm check in went very smoothly and after checking in at the front desk, one of the RA's showed me around the dorm and eventually to my room. Im super excited to start life in Japan and at the dorm!!
First Few Weeks in Japan!! Week 2-3
It’s been about a week since I have moved into the dorm and started classes and so far, it has been amazing!! The dorm is located about 8 minutes away from the station on foot so it is extremely convenient. Everything about the dorm is great, theres a Lawson’s located right next door and there is also a cafeteria that serves breakfast from 6:30-8:30 AM (for ¥200) and dinner from 6:00-10:00 PM (for ¥410). However if you don’t want to eat in the dorm there are numerous great restaurants around the area. Classes at Keio have also started and as MIX students we are required to register for 7 classes (to transfer back 12 credits). Registration at Keio is a little different from UH as registration takes place in the first 2 weeks of the semester. You select the classes you plan on taking and the first week is used as a sort of “test” period where you can attend the classes but add and drop them as you please. It makes it very easy to switch if you feel like the class is not for you. Classes in general meet about once a week for 1 hr 30 minutes and so far they are fairly relaxed which is great for us study abroad students as we get more time to enjoy Japan rather than studying. I’m super excited to enjoy my time in this amazing country.
Week 4-5!!!
Now that the first weeks of classes are over and my schedule has finalized, its been great!! For this first half of the semester I only have 2 in person classes a week and 1 on zoom, and then the 2 others I have are asynchronous. So I have a lot of free time which I mostly spend eating amazing food here. I try to eat out as much as my budget allows as I want to experience as much of the great cuisine this country has to offer as I can, plus its so cheap!!! Especially compared to eating out in Hawaii. I also have been spending a lot of money on myself on things like clothes and accessories because I don't do much of that kind of shopping in Hawaii and I really like the fashion of Japan.
Week 6-7!!
This week I decided to finally get a gym membership at Anytime fitness near Motosumiyoshi station. It came out to about 8000 yen a month which is quite expensive when you compare it to gym memberships in Hawaii and the facility is also a little small but I make do with it. I chose to go with a commercial gym rather than use the campus one as you have to make a reservation beforehand to use the campus gym as well as being limited to only 1 hr and 30 minutes to workout. I didn't want to be so restricted and non-flexible with my workouts so I decided to bite the bullet and just pay the extra money to get an Anytime fitness membership. It is also much more convenient as I can just walk about 5 minutes from the dorm. We also went to Yokohamas chinatown to get some really good Chinese food as well as just explore the area.
Week 8-9!!
This week we went to Yokosuka, which is about an hour train ride away from our dorm to visit my friends grandma who lives there. She is a tea ceremony teacher so we got to experience what it was like to perform a traditional Japanese tea ceremony. After that we all cooked a meal together and it was a nice change of pace to have a home cooked family meal after all the eating out we did. My friends and I also really got into a type of rhythm game they have here in the game centers called Mai Mai and have been spending a few hours each week playing, it's super addicting. Again I have still been eating amazing food and trying to stuff myself as much as I can while I am here as I know its gonna be the thing I miss the most after coming back to Hawaii in a few months.
Weeks 10-11!! Osaka Trip!
For our first trip outside of Tokyo, we decided to visit Osaka. To get there we paid about 9000 Yen each way on the Shinkansen after our 30% student discount that we printed out at school. It was a great deal and I recommend anyone who can to get it as it reduces the cost by a lot. In Osaka we visited the classic tourists spots like Dotonbori, where the iconic Glico man is, as well as bought some famous Osaka Takoyaki. We also visited the Kaiyukan aquarium, one of the few aquariums in the world to house a whale shark! There I saw some of the craziest sea life I have ever seen in my life. While we were in Osaka, we also took a 1 hr train to Kyoto to visit some famous historical sites, like the golden temple as well as the famous site with thousands of tori gates lined up along the mountain. On our last day in Osaka we went to Universal Studios Japan, or USJ for short. It was about 8400 Yen for the entrance tickets and we bought them the day of. I recommend purchasing your tickets in advance as it makes getting into the park much faster, we spent about 1 hr just buying the tickets and entering the park and that was on a Monday which should be the least busy day of the week. We rode so many rides there even if the lines were long and it was without a doubt one of my favorite parts of Osaka.
Week 12-13 Tattoo!!
I have always wanted to get a tattoo and I thought what better place to get it than here in Japan! It will serve as a great memory of my time here that I can carry with me forever which makes the meaning that much more special. After researching on instagram for a while I found a great shop here that is actually pretty famous worldwide. The name of the shop was TokyoThreeTides and my artist was Ichibay. The process first started with me sending an email with some references of what I was interested in getting and after a few emails back and forth we came up with a date to come in for a short consultation. In the consultation I talked more about what I was interested in getting and once we decided on a design and appointment date, I had to put down a ¥10,000 deposit which would be deducted from my total price. The total tattoo took about 8 hours split over the course of three sessions with about a week to week and a half between each session to allow it to heal. The total cost was about ¥130,000 which is quite expensive but for such amazing work and professional service I am very happy with it at the end of the day.
Week 14-15!! Matsuri and Finals!!
This week there was a matsuri in Tokyo which I went to with my friends here and also a friend who was visiting family from Hawaii. We went at night time and with all the lights along the paths it just was beautiful. Unfortunately the crowds were quite large at all of the food stalls so we decided to not eat any of the food there but it was still a great experience. There was live shows with music and although it was raining everyone still seemed like they were having a great time so the vibes were amazing. This week was also finals week for school but thankfully I had no tests, just one presentation and lots of essays. I don't know if it was just the classes I was taking but it seems like the majority of classes here prefer essays over examinations to determine grades which I was happy about. In total I had about 4 essays for finals totaling around 6000 words combined. But once that was over I was free from school!!
Week 16!! Planning to head back to Hawaii
I leave Japan in about a week and leave the dorm in about 4 days. Before I leave Keio University sent a checklist of things I need to do before going back home. First you need to notify the city ward office that you are leaving so they can make note of it. Next you need to notify the post office that you will no longer be in the country so they can stop sending mail to the dorm. There is also a dorm check that needs to be done before you leave and you just set that up with the dorm manager who has been extremely helpful throughout my stay at Motosumiyoshi International Dormitory which I can't recommend enough. It was an overall great experience here and I can't wait for the next time I get to come back to Japan. Once I leave the dorm I am gonna be staying in the hotel I stayed at when I first arrived in the country for 4 days before my flight. So now that I have just over a week more in Japan I will be making the most out of it by eating and visiting all the places I haven't yet.