First Day at Keio University

I woke up bright and early on Thursday the 9^th to prepare for my first day at Keio University. Classes don’t begin until the 24^th, however, until then we have had many orientations on plenty of other administrative business to take care of.  I dressed up to make a nice impression, a dress and tights to keep comfortable in the hot weather – I would later regret my wardrobe choice.

With all my documents and directions packed neatly into my book bad I headed out and finally got to see for myself what the walk from the dormitory to the train station is like. It’s a pleasant 10-15min walk down one of the main Hiyoshi streets, which is filled with restaurants, post offices, book stores, flower shops, and at least five convenience stores (conbini).  I in fact stopped in at one such conbini store to buy my breakfast (the Daily Tamazaki, but there are also 7-11’s, Am/Pm’s, and Family Marts in my neighborhood). For around 300yen I was able to get two onigiri (rice balls), which come with all sorts of different fillings, and a drink. I have to admit the majority of my breakfasts have been procured at conbini on the way to the train station.

At Hiyoshi station I was able to find an express train that went directly to Mita station, and I was grateful to not have to transfer.  There is a great website called Hyperpedia that has tons of info on the Japanese trains/subways and even has a “trip planner” in English. I highly recommend it if you are unfamiliar with Japanese public transit and are trying to figure out how to get around.

While I arrived about 40 minutes before the orientation was scheduled to start, the map I had on how to get to Mita Campus from Mita station was misleading. The hardest thing about navigating around Tokyo is that the majority of Japanese roads do not have names or numbers, and the city itself is not laid out in a grid. Nameless roads curve and dissect one another in such a way that it’s easy to get turned around or head in the wrong direction. After only getting a little lost I eventually found the famous Keio arch (the east gate on sakurandori) and was shocked to look down the road and see Tokyo tower looming less than half a mile away. It’s like going to school in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower.

Mita campus is architecturally very beautiful but unexpectedly small. The entire Campus feels little bigger than the Quad and UW. But like I said with all the old buildings, statues, and cobble-stone walk ways it has a historic feeling none-the-less. 

Once I found the building the orientation was being held in I still had time left before it began, so I chatted with some other international students. We all sat outside in the shade of some trees where it was cool, but unbeknownst to me until later I was being eaten alive by mosquitos. When I got home later that day I came to find that I had over a dozen itchy red bug bites on each leg, even on my thighs where the mosquitos had bitten through my tights L

The orientation itself was straightforward and only provided the most basic of information. The best things to come out of it though were I received my student ID card, lots of info on how to settle in to life in Japan, and then every international student got up and introduced himself before the rest of us. Keio’s international program has 159 students from 22 different countries, and I liked very much that most of them were not from America. There were students from California, the East Coast of the US, Canada, England, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Moroco, Amsterdam, China, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Korea, and Seattle! It was nice to see everyone’s faces because since the orientation I have continued to run into other Keio students and been able to recognize them and start conversations. As well I was impressed with the range of Japanese ability, with some students who know absolutely no Japanese to those who are practically fluent, and those like me stuck somewhere in the middle.

After the orientation we had a tour of our tiny campus (it only lasted about 20min), and then were set free for the rest of the day. I decided to go next to the City Ward office to complete my alien registration. That process unfortunately took most of the afternoon but I made some new friends waiting in the Ward office waiting for the bureaucracy to file my papers (much akin to watching paint dry). 

For those of you who are unfamiliar with immigration processes in Japan, I will give a brief explanation of the alien registration process, which has nothing to do with extra-terrestrials, but is also something we don’t really have in the US. If you are visiting Japan for less than 90 days then you are not required to apply for a visa beforehand. Instead you are given a “tourist” visa when you enter the country and are either required to leave after the three months is up or apply for a change in visa status (i.e. you got a job, got married, etc). For an exchange student like me who will be in Japan much longer than 90 days, I had to apply for a student visa in order to be able to enter the country, and now am required to register with my local government office as a temporary alien resident. When this whole process is done I will have a government issued alien registration ID card that I will have to carry on me at all times and show to police or gov. officials if they ask. In the end it is similar to an American green card, but has a cooler more xenophobic name J.

After registering my alieness I finally went shopping at Daiso, the 100yen store. I bought all the basic things I didn’t think to bring with me or that my dorm did not provide (towels, garbage cans, cloth-hangers, cups, chopsticks, etc) all at a 100yen a piece, which was a ridiculously good deal.

Dinner that night also came from the conbini, because I was just too tired by that point to cook for myself. I am grateful to have cheap, yummy, and fairly healthy, fast food available, but I really can’t keep living out of the conbini forever – I am starting to miss fresh fruits and vegetables too much.

My first day at Keio was a very big day so I ended up relaxing the rest of the night, skyping with my friends, and watching Japanese dramas on my laptop.