The morning of Friday the 10th I met up with some other girls who go to Keio and we all headed to campus together. While so far I have been able to reconnect with many of my Japanese friends from the past, I am also slowly making friends with other international students or people in my dormitory.
I spent the morning in more orientations about student life, housing/dormitory info, and other important information on getting settled into our new lives in Tokyo. In the end I feel like other than the paper work they had us fill out and turn in, they didn’t explain anything to us that wasn’t already in our information packets/student handbooks. Oh well…
After orientation a bunch of us students went to Suitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) to open Japanese bank accounts. While it is possible to take care of a lot of my financial business through my Bank of America account from the US, Keio requires us to pay rent for our dormitory via automatic bank transfer from a Japanese bank. SMBC is a major Japanese bank, which is why I chose them, and having an account with them will make transferring funds from America much simpler. All I needed to open an account was my passport and alien registration card, the process was pretty straight forward, and soon I will have a SMBC debit/bank card that I can use at their plentiful ATMs - I have seen dozens while traveling around Tokyo. Their service was really great too and opening a basic account was free so I highly recommend them to anyone who needs to open a Japanese bank account.
On my way home I also bought a student commuter pass to use on the train/subway line between Hiyoshi and Mita. Eventually I will be able to buy a Suica or Pasmo card, which is a transit card you fill up with money and then swipe every time you use the train/subway/bus/etc so it automatically deducts your travel expense. Those cards can be used on the majority of public transit. But for now I just have my pass that I can only use between Hiyoshi and Mita (if I go elsewhere I have to buy a separate ticket). However, I did the math and I think I will be saving quite I bit of money this way.
The breakdown is as such: it costs 380yen each way between Hiyoshi and Mita, so a roundtrip costs 760yen. I bought my commuter pass for 7,000yen for one month, so as long as I use it for at least 9 round trips between Hiyoshi (my home station) and Mita (my school station) I will be saving money. Then seeing as I have already used it a few times, need to go to more orientations/meetings/etc, will start classes soon, and can also go from Mita to other destinations I think made a good decision. In general though, I feel like my life in Japan so far has largely consisted on riding on trains.
After all that I headed back to my dorm and proceeded to relax, snack, and get ready to go out on the town for my first time since I arrived.
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