Tales of the Traveling K

I have internet in my room now! For my first post from home, I'm going to introduce my dorm to you.

To begin, the entrance to Seminar House 1 (where I live):


The doorway with sun shining through is where you enter the dorm. Shoes must be removed before you step on the white tile floor, and they are stored in the room you can see through the door to the left. The window to the right of the entrance looks into Okasan and Otosan's office; if you need to sign in a guest or ask a question, that window is the place to go.

My room is a bit of a mess right now because we have three people living in a room meant for two. Fawn is moving to her homestay family's house tomorrow, so Begum and I will have a bit more space and we'll put our things away in more permanent places.

If you look carefully, you can see Begum's feet peeking out from the end of the middle futon. She was pretty well hidden under those covers; I didn't realize she was in the room until after I'd taken the picture!

In traditional Japanese style, we have bathroom slippers for use in the toilet stalls:


In each stall, Okasan has drawn a cute sign to post above the sanitary products trashcan, reminding us that it is for "Napkin only."


One of my favorite parts of the dorm is how the showers work. They have really good water pressure but are also efficient. You turn them on by pushing a lever, and they automatically turn themselves off as the lever slowly moves back into place. The water stays warm, so you can push it, rinse off, then let it stop while you shampoo, etc., and it will still be warm when you push it again.


It saves so much water! I want one at home. Well, actually I want one that has a stool so you can take a sit-down shower, which they have sometimes in Japan, but now I want it to work on a push-lever.

I'm going out to dinner soon. I think my next post will be about outings and food.

Posted by K. Raila at 10:05 PM Comments