My Dorm! Part 2

So, my dorm information has been fully confirmed. The dorm stuff I linked before in a previous post is all correct; I will have roughly 1-1.5 hr commute one way, but at least the route is pretty straight forward. I'll have to walk or take the bus to the metro station, which is about 20-30 min walk due north of my dorm. Then I'll take the train across town to a station near the school. My train route only has one transfer, so I'm less likely to get lost (but the transfer is at one of the busy, larger, transfer stations in the area, so that sucks). After I get off at the final station, the main school building is about 5-10 min north of station.

The program director sent me a nice, concise little packet that has some general info on my dorm. The dorm has a dining hall that I can purchase meals from, and it's set up on a ticket system. I'll purchase a ticket for breakfast and/or dinner, and then give it to the dorm manager. The dining in the Japanese dorms seems to be different from the US ones, in that it's not a cafeteria set up. It's rather a set meal that varies day by day and is prepared according to the number of people who reserve the meal with that ticket. Seems like an efficient system that reduces waste :) The breakfast will be 250円 ($3) and dinner will be 500円 ($6). There's no lunch served; I'm responsible for that. I'm totally gonna have lunch at the Mister Donut across the street! Mmmm donuts. I actually like this set up better than the static meal plan I was expecting; this way I can choose whether or not to get meals and can save some money there if I want. If I choose to eat every meal then it'll still be the exact same price as the meal plan would have been. In all likelihood though, I'm totally unlikely to get up for all the breakfasts or be home in the dorm on time for all the dinners :) There is no curfew, which I actually didn't expect. The main door locks at 11:00 pm, but my key will open the side door to let me in. Awesome.

On a side note: I mailed out my Visa stuff yesterday, and so it's on its way to Chicago. It should be there tomorrow morning ish. With luck I'll have my passport with a Visa stamp back in hand next week!