Moving in with Meiji

The first week of my exchange in Tokyo has flown by extraordinarily quickly. As I have visited Japan twice previously I was excited more than anything to experience living here for a semester and further enhancing my understanding of the culture/language & just exploring the city like a local. Of course, it was still a little daunting to realise I’d be away from friends and family  (and living away from home for the first time is still something I’ll have to come to terms with) but Meiji Uni has made the process of starting my exchange quite smooth.

Over this semester (which runs from September – February) I’ll be staying at Izumi International House. This was my first preference out of the dorms available at Meiji as I have my own room/bathroom, but still get to live with other people and make friends from different countries more easily. This residence is close to the city, only a 10 or 15 minute train from Shinjuku or Shibuya respectively and also has no curfew (which is apparently a thing at other dorms, and not ideal when you lose track of time with friends just wandering the streets or laughing in an izakaya after surviving the day’s heat and humidity which still remains from summer).

There’s been a lot of time to explore around Tokyo this week as I moved in on Sep 1, but classes don’t start until the 20th. I’ve found this really useful to get more acquainted with the students living in my dorm and just Tokyo in general, particularly the train system which looks scary compared to ours back in Syd but is exceptionally better once you get the hang of it. I haven’t had a dull day so far and am hoping that won’t end even when classes start up.

Tokyo is a crazy city filled with paradoxes, great food, interesting nightlife (which doesn’t end at 1.30am) and new discoveries around every corner – I’m so excited to see what happens next!

Annika Uremovic | 11970718