So, leading up to this week, I had had 3 blissful weeks of no roommate-ness. It was a nice time, spent in a nice warm room with 2 space heaters, without worrying about people slamming doors and waking me up or having to clean other people’s dishes. I was able to walk around in my pajamas, even at 3pm. The bathroom was always as clean as the last time I had used it. Friends could come and sleepover without and issues. Life was good.

Then, 4 days ago, my new roommate moved in. Naturally, I was worried that roommate #3 would be a repeat of all the rest. But, since this time it would be a Japanese roommate, I had hope that she would probably be 10x more polite and courteous than her American counterparts. Well, so far she has exceeded my expectations. Her name is Kayoko, and she’s from the Saitama area (near Tokyo). This is the first time she has moved away from home, and she was very nervous about coming here. She goes to Japans Women’s College in Tokyo, and this semester she is studying ‘abroad’ as it were. Her English is pretty good, much better than my Japanese, so so far we are talking together mostly in English while I try now and then to talk in a mix of Japanese and English.

Yesterday was just about the most awesome day I’ve had in a long time. The night before I had actually been feeling quite depressed, since I’d really like to go back home and see my family, and the fact that more than half of the students here are new, and I’m about to take level 3, which appears to be frighteningly difficult. That and I’m still slightly sick, and for the past 3 days I haven’t been getting much sleep. So all of them compounded to make me feel pretty blue. Well, yesterday, I knew that Kayoko’s classmate, Youko, would be coming cover in the afternoon, and we would talk together and then Youko would drive us to Caines so we could do a little bit of shopping. I was pretty pumped to be able to *drive* to Caines for once, instead of having to ride my bicycle there. And, when Kayoko moved in, she brought along her own heater, and it was highly superior to the pieces of crap that JCMU has us use. So, since we would be taking a car, I had planned on buying a new, better heater so that I would no longer freeze in my room. I was first surprised by the fact that, around 11am, Kayoko started to VACUUM the room. I don’t think my previous roommate ever even swept the kitchen floor, let alone vacuumed. My day was quicky getting better and better, Then, around 2pm, Youko shows up, and the first thing that she does is unwrap a STILL WARM apple pie that she had made for us. All I can say is WOW. We hadn’t really had lunch at all at this point, so another Japanese student from down the hall (Miyuki) came over, and we cut the pie into 4 pieces and ate it. It was soooooooooo good. I don’t think I’ve had apple pie at all since coming to Japan. After eating the pie, the four of us talked for an hour or two about many various subjects, mostly in English but sometimes I would try in Japanese too. Eventually Kayoko reminded Youko that we needed to go to Caines. So, Miyuki went off and drove to the store, along with some other JCMU students, by herself, while Kayoko, Youko and I drove together. Not counting taxi rides, I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve ridden in a car in the past 4 months. I miss my Camry so much……when I get back to the US I don’t think I will even be able to look at my bicycle. I guess I’m spoiled and lazy.

Getting to Caines, we first went and looked at the heaters. Most of them were maybe $50-$80, but I found an awesome one on sale for 2930yen, so I bought it and we headed over to the grocery section. At this point, Youko split off because she was going to buy the ingredients so that she could MAKE US DINNER. Yes, she was going to teach us how to make something since Kayoko has never had to cook for herself so she wants to learn, and I want to learn how to make more Japanese dishes. So she bought all the ingredients herself to feed us. Kayoko also bought a bunch of food since she hadn’t been to a store since moving into JCMU. Getting back to the room, I quickly unpacked my brand-spanking-new heater, and turned it on. Kayoko also brought her heater out into the kitchen area, and soon it was very nice and toasty in our dorm. The three of us then starting to make dinner, which was a beef and potatoes kind of ’stew’ (I don’t know the name) and miso soup. Very easy to make, and very very good. For dessert we had the strawberry jello that I had made a few days prior when I had a sore throat. After dinner, we just sat and talking about a huge variety of subjects (including discrimination in Japan and the US, English phonics, and also the behavior of my previous roommate, which Kayoko and Youko just couldn’t understand). I told Kayoko that I was worried I would have another sloppy and loud roommate, but that I was very happy that she was neither of those. She told me she was worried that she wouldn’t be able to get along with a roommate (that she had never had before), but that she now felt like she had lived here for a few weeks already.

Today, Kayoko helped proofread a introduction I had to write for my level 3 class. Since class hasn’t started yet, I haven’t had to ask her for help on things like homework, but she tells me that I can “rely on her”. She really wants to help me with my Japanese since I have been helping her with her English (she’s beating me so far…). And since she’s from the Tokyo area and not Kansai, maybe I’ll have a traveling partner as well? This semester is going pretty good so far.
And P.S.: The new heater is AWESOME and I am no longer freezing to death in my room. The only drawback is its a halogen heater so its about as bright as the sun. So, at night, I switch over to the old, crappy, ceramic heater which, when under the covers, suits me just fine.