Dorm Tour

So this is where I'm staying. It's called Waseda University Exchange Student Dorm, or Soudairyou (早大寮), and this is the view from the street, down a set of stairs, and to the front door. My dorm is actually the South Wing, and the smaller North Wing is to the right of the picture.

The house directly across the street from my dorm is actually really beautiful. Soudairyou is set back from the street in a neighborhood-esque residential area, so there are a lot of houses like this nearby.

Here are some views down the street, taken from the front steps of my dorm.

When you first walk in to the dorm, you see the genkan (玄関), which is essentially an entryway where you have to take off your shoes. Shoes aren't allowed beyond the tiled area, so I always end up just carrying my shoes to and from my room. To the left, there are cubbies for the residents of each room to leave their shoes, but I think they're annoying and would rather just leave my shoes in my own room. The gray boxes on the right are our mailboxes.

Now on to my room. I live on the 4th floor out of 5. The 5th floor has a kitchen and common area. There's wifi up there, and I can mooch off of it when I'm sitting in my room a floor below. Here is an overview, taken from the wall closest to my balcony.

And here is a video explaining everything anyone could ever want to know about the room. It's short because there's really not that much to know.

From what I've gathered, the rooms in my dorm are a bit bigger than those in the other dorms and we pay less rent. In the next few days I might post some pictures of the common area, kitchen, and showers. Spoiler alert: the showers suck.