Dorm Party

Today the dorm manager and dorm mother threw a party for all the residents! I'm not sure why today was chosen, we've all lived here for over a month and it's Mother's Day but whatever. And at 1130am on a Sunday morning, most of the girls were in their pajamas.

They bought us all the junk food I've been craving -- KFC (they call it something like kenta in Japan, short for Kentucky), Pizza Hut, burgers and fries. I grabbed pizza without really looking at the toppings, and bit into tuna, corn, peppers, and some kind of ham.

Note the lack of SPRITE. I miss lemon-lime soda.

Dorm manager put out some beer and brought out some sort of mini-keg. He was a little tipsy by the time we started taking pictures. After we all had our fill of drinks and food, we played bingo! No pictures of it, but I got some sort of gift card or phone card.

The Americans and Australian in the back making a scene.


With the dorm mother.


Ashlie, Christina, me, Natasha, and Rakellie with the dorm manager.

About halfway through the fun, dorm manager decided that we should all introduce ourselves. Everyone was very pleased and/or amazed that the Americans spoke enough Japanese to do introductions. I always get big gaijin points for being from Hawaii. It turns out most of the other girls in the dorm are from Taiwan and they all speak Japanese very well. My language skills are still lacking but I feel like I can understand more, even if I can't speak well.

Friday night, I went with Jim and Kaori to an izakaya. It's a restaurant/drinking establishment where you go in with a bunch of friends, sit at a table on tatami mats (you get your own room if you book in advance), and order alcohol and pupus. The place we went to felt a bit classier than a bar, and it was certainly more relaxed than going to a restaurant since you're sitting on the floor getting tipsy. Jim and I told Kaori that when you eat in America, you go "NOM NOM NOM." It's only true in LOLcats, but it got a good reaction out of her.

Next weekend there's a big festival at Asakusa, so I might have even *more* pictures from the temple. Otherwise it looks to be a dreary, rainy week of school.

Dorm Series: Dining Hall

***Note about last post:
I reread what I wrote, and it sounds slightly negative. I think the culture of keeping up appearances, looking cute and nice on a daily basis, is a good thing. It kind of sucks for me at Sophia because I don't dress up as girly and I look kind of sloppy, but in general I think it's something a lot of my American peers can learn from. You don't have to look like a model everyday or spend an hour doing hair and makeup in the morning, but you shouldn't go around looking like you just rolled out of bed either. It's probably just another sign of conformity, but I like it better than Creighton where it seems like some girls try to out-ugly each other.

I'll start my dorm post series with one of my favorite places -- the dining room! Yay food. I realize it might seem lame to do posts on such mundane, everyday events like eating. Too bad. Breakfast and dinner are served Monday through Saturday; we're on our own on Sundays and national holidays. There is a set menu for each meal: an entree, side dish or salad, rice, and soup. Shoyu and some sort of pickled vegetable are by the iced tea and ocha (green tea).

When I come into the dining room, there's a sink and a ticket board on the right wall. Each resident has a ticket on the board, and you turn that in when you grab food.

I live in A105, so this is my ticket.

I grab my ticket and drop it off in a little container in the same shelf area were the main food is. Grab a tray, grab my individual servings of the entree and side dish, and move on to rice.

In the picture there's nothing set up, but there are usually containers of bowls for soup, rice, and tea cups. There's a jar of chopsticks, shoyu, and saucers for shoyu or pickled veggies. Tea and rice are also in this area.

You can sit at the little wooden table if it's open, but most people sit at the tables. It's a very small dining area to service a few dozen residents, but it's okay.

The sink and stove area where the girls are in that photo is open for residents to use. There are pots, pans, knives, and cutting boards under the sink. If you use it, you wash it. I'm not sure who controls the TV during meal hours, but it's usually tuned to some crazy Japanese game show.

When I'm done eating, I put my tray with all the dishes I used on this shelf.

I've never seen more than three older women in the kitchen at one time, either cooking or washing dishes. They make great food compared to the dining halls at Creighton; it's practically home cooking. I'm told dinner is better than breakfast (I've had breakfast twice). I'll have to try to get them something at the end of the semester.

I'm not sure how I'll illustrate my daily commute, because any pictures of the train would just be of the person smooshed up next to me. Seriously. We'll see.