The first year I lived in Japan, I was in a tiny shoebox of a student dorm adjacent to the university campus. It was the epitome of “efficient use of space”: the bathroom was so small that the bathroom sink would swing over the toilet and I would shower in the place where the sink used to be; of course, getting both the sink and toilet wet because I was basically showering over the toilet. Every time I would have a shower, I had to evacuate the toilet paper to somewhere safe.
For rent of 7000 yen a month, I wasn’t complaining (well, I was, but that’s not the point).
The rest of the dorm was a narrow rectangle of a single bed, a desk and a pathetic excuse of a kitchen, which was a sink, a gas stove and a kitchen bench that was basically the length of a ruler.
Of course, I didn’t cook at all. You can’t cook in Japan in an apartment for one person because it’s physically impossible. That’s one reason why Japanese people eat out so much and rely on convenience store meals.
Anyway, I lived in this pathetic dorm for a year, but I barely spent any time in it outside of sleeping. There wasn’t exactly any space to use in the first place.
Have you ever noticed how many people in Japan, both young and old, congregate in Starbucks and similar chain cafes, setting up camp for the day with their laptop, a book or their homework? Their living environments are so cramped that it’s more comfortable to relocate to a table in a public space to do their actual living.
During my university years, I was a part-boarder at many places: the local Starbucks during the day for study or work or just to escape the oppressively sweaty summers. In exam season, I found myself studying at McDonalds and Saizeriya, of all places! McDonalds was open until midnight in my city because I lived in Saitama, which was by no means rural – but the early closing time of McDonalds cemented its status as being in the countryside.
After McDonalds, there was Saizeriya, which was also popular with university students at strange hours of the nights, gathering in groups under the pretence of studying but really just gossiping and wasting time, as university students know how to do best. Saizeriya was open until about 3am, if memory serves me correct.
Looking back, it seems crazy that I would willing study at McDonalds at 11pm on a cold winter’s night, but it really was the place to be. Being next to the university, I could people watch all the students who were coming to study at such a depressing place at such a depressing time. I would order a coffee and some fries and wonder how exactly I ended up at the one place I never visited in Australia.