Not a very exciting post yet, just some general information and pictures explaining where I am while attending Nagoya University of Foreign Studies (NUFS) in Nagoya, Japan. The pictures are at the bottom of the post, and you can click to see a larger image.

While in Japan, I'm staying in the International House (I-HOUSE), which is just a short walk from campus. It's two stories (my room is on the second), with a large entry way, a communal TV/computer area, and an inner courtyard. There are several cooking stations on each floor where we can prepare our food and sit at tables. The only strange thing to me is that we have to remove our shoes as soon as we step into the entryway of the building. I assumed "inside" would start when we reached the doorways of our indivduals rooms. One girl commented that I-HOUSE is what a dormatory would be like on a sitcom, and I guess she's right--tile in the entry way, hardwood in the dining areas, and lots of open space is pretty luxurious.

Most interesting about I-HOUSE is probably all the people who live here. I believe the largest group is probably Americans, followed closely by Australians (who aren't actually that far from home compared to the rest of us). There are several students from Britain, Belgium, and Montreal, along with at least one from Mexico. There are also girls from China, Korea, and Vietnam, those the rest of us don't really know them very well yet, though they do seem to speak very good Japanese.

I have my own room in I-HOUSE, which is fairly small, but more than enough for one person--it even has a private bathroom, a far cry from my accomodations at Goodnow.
In my room there's an entryway, with shelving on either side when you walk in the door (a refrigerator, is on one side, along with my food. Walking further into the entry is the door to my tiny bathroom on the left and a closet on the right. The bathroom is quite tiny, but there's room enough to shower comfortably, and although there's no shelving in there, it's otherwise a fine space.

There's a sliding door from the entry into my wider bedroom. I have a futon with two drawers underneath, a desk unit with ample drawer space, and on the opposite side of the room is a large, low shelving unit that I don't have nearly enough things to fill up.

At the back of my room is my balcony. It's not very large, but has a line for hanging out clothes (the dryers here aren't very good). It's not very scenic from my side, in fact my balcony overlooks a car dealership, but it's still nice to be able to open it up and get some fresh air in.

A sign welcoming us to NUFS -
The I-HOUSE entryway and shoe cubbies -
The inner courtyard -
My fridge and food -
My little bathroom -
The left side of my room -
The right side of my room -

I'll hopefully get some more interesting photos of life in Japan soon, and explain what I've been doing while waiting for classes to begin and more about the people I live with.

posted by No_Fluff_Reviewer @ 10:08 PM