Ok, so today is my last day in the Seminar House (student dorm) before checking out tomorrow and beginning my backpacking trip of Japan. I still need to “pack” my stuff… but a slight dilemma, Paul is bringing me a travel backpack from Australia, meaning I’m gonna put my suitcase into storage here at Seminar House 3.  This is a slight problem, because I need to put all my stuff (school backpack, suitcase) into storage today – the latest, then I’ll leave to go to a hostel tomorrow… but… what do I cart all my clothes and things I need for the trip in???

So the plan is that I’ll have to find a garbage bag of sorts, shove everything in there, and train my way to Tennoji station in Osaka – HOBO STYLE! Just thinkin if I should wear shoes or not… or better yet: wear ONE shoe… Meh, I think I get enough looks and stares just being a foreigner.

The seminar house is slowly emptying as people leave for home or travel.  Our apartment alone has been reduced down to 3 people (me, Mitch, and Sunny [or Sunshine as I call him]).  Only about a week ago it was full with 8 people + randoms who always seemed to sleep on our couches…

I’m not really gonna miss the Seminar House, the novelty of it slowly wore off after a few weeks, also I had 0% chance of practicing Japanese.  In fact, I even got to witness people trying to use their Japanese with their room mates and was immediately hit with the whole “hey, we speak english” thing.  Lovely.

The Seminar House felt exactly like living with your entire High School grade.  Maturity levels are pretty much about that too; constant bickering and bitching, everything was a drama, and the “if you’re not in, you’re out” mentality – which is fine if you can live with that kinda shit.  But not everyone is like that of course, I met some seriously cool people, after I filtered my way through all the pain-in-the-ass’s.

And if the other Kansai Gaidai students don’t get to you, the crazy rules put in place by either your Okaasan and Otoosan (“Mum” and “Dad” – caretakers of the Seminar House) or by Kansai Gaidai itself will get you lifting an eyebrow – even if you couldn’t lift one eyebrow on its own before.  Things like, visitors who visit cannot eat meals anywhere inside the Seminar House.  Yep, they have to go away to get a meal.  Now… I can *sort* of understand this if we’re talking about a visitor coming over and utilizing the kitchen and plates and cutlery… sort of… but this is where it get’s crazy, if I ordered a Pizza, and I had a friend over, that friend couldn’t eat the pizza inside the Seminar House (even though pizza requires no plates [eat outta the box] or cutlery) – BUT! They can eat cake (requires a plate and maybe cutlery).

That’s just one example, of many many insane rules forced among the students i’ve even met Kansai Gaidai staff who o_O’d at Seminar House rules.  Trust me on this, if YOU stay at a Seminar House, I promise you that you will have a rant session.  At least 10 actually.

However, not everything about the Seminar House is bad… Not all the people were immature either (however, the cool/mature people are all getting apartments next semester).  I guess it also served as a way to get to know more people, it was convenient and its quite big.

This is my opinion on the Seminar House… No, I didn’t like it, but it doesn’t mean future Seminar House residents won’t like it.

I got an apartment next semester.  It’s a bit further away from Kansai Gaidai, but still pretty close and conveniently located a 5 minute walk to the heart of Hirakata-shi.

Good bye Seminar House 3! How I will never miss thee.

Ciao forever!