In my stay as an YSEP, TokyoTech provided me a double room In Shofu Dormitory. It is a student dormitory owned and managed by Tokyo Institute of Technology. It is 10 minutes walks from nearing station, Aobadai. Currently TokyoTech has three dormitories. There are Shofu Dormitory, Umegaoka Dormitory, and Nagatsuta House.
Shofu dormitory is about 10 minute’s walks from Aobadai Station. It is a 3 story building. The first floor is for common room, office, and double room. The second and third floor is for single rooms with all its daily facilities such as share toilet, bathroom, kitchen, and laundry room. I live in the first floor, a double room. In this room I will stay for one year with my roommate came from the same country as me, Indonesia.
The room is very convenience. It has almost all facilities required to have nice living. Furthermore, the rent fee is totally cheap compared to renting a room in an apartment. For a standard apartment for students, usually we have to pay around 40-60 thousand yen/person/month only for lodging. But in Shofu Dormitory, for a double room, we only have to pay 6.000 yen for lodging and 5.000 yen for maintenance. Including gas, water, and electricity fee – which is according to your usage – the total fees can be around 14.000 – 20.000 yen/person/month.
My room is provided with kitchen set (gas stove and washing place), bathroom & toilet (with hot and cold water), two partitioned bed room, desks, chairs, cupboards, cloth washing machine, microwave, vacuum cleaner, and air conditioner (which is sometime not available in ordinary student apartment). I also have a 24 hours internet connection for 1.500 yen/month.
The view from my room is quite beautiful. I have a big window facing to nearby houses and quite far from the main road so it is not noisy. I also can see an elementary school about 500 meters from my room. In a clear morning, I usually open the curtain and see a beautiful blue sky which is very clear especially during winter. The sun is not directly face to my room, it is about 80 degrees from window’s direction but I still have enough sunlight every day. I think it is very convenience.
I often come to common room to play ping pong or watching satellite TV through 40 inch plasma TV provided there. The common room also provided piano, radio, and some books about Japan or other countries.
Living here in Shofu dormitory is very convenience. I only have to walk for 10 from nearest station compared to Umegaoka Dormitory (20 minutes walks) and Nagatsuta (30 minutes walks). I also have good facilities in a very cheap price. However, every student can only stay here for 1 year. After finish living one year in this dorm, we have to move to an ordinary apartment (which is more expensive).
