Orientation

I woke up from my nap, left my room, walked down the stairs and then entered the meeting hall located near the entrance of the dorm complex and sat down in a chair seconds before the orientation began. I looked around the room to scoop the others out and it appeared as though everyone already knew at least one other person. When the orientation began everyone was asked to tell their names and where they were from. The Aussies, Swedes and Frenchies all knew each other before departing, just like I knew the two others (Eli*-whom I have not yet mentioned-and Brad) who came from my school. The only problem was that this was the girl dorm and I was without friends or people I knew so felt lonely and a bit shy compared to the others who seemed a bit more at ease.

Malinda "The Boss" and the other dorm assistants introduced themselves and then started the orientation process. First, they explained the laundry rooms and the schedule and sign up forms for getting a new change of bed sheets and blankets. Then they passed out sheets explaining the AC/heater remotes since all of the buttons were written with Japanese. This did not help me because my AC/heater and remote were different than all of the others. Last, the explained the complicated procedure of taking out the gomi. To be honest, I never figured it out so I just wore a hoodie to cover up my face every time I went to the garbage dump area at the dorms because they set up cameras to monitor everyone to make sure they were doing it correctly.

The New York Times article "How Do Japanese Dump Trash? Let Us Count the Myriad Ways", along with a slideshow, reveals just how tedious taking out the trash is in Yokohama:

"YOKOHAMA, Japan - When this city recently doubled the number of garbage categories to 10, it handed residents a 27-page booklet on how to sort their trash. Highlights included detailed instructions on 518 items."

During the orientation we were instructed to literally separate everything (i.e., plastic, wrappers, papers, string, clothes, metals, cardboard, etc.) from each other, and depending on what certain items were we were told how to dispose of the gomi in the garbage dump area. Certain items were to be placed in a plastic bag that was to be tied up; other items were to be placed in a plastic bag that was not supposed to be tied up; and many items were not supposed to be in a bag at all. Oi.

From what I came to learn at the end of that semester, most cities in Japan did not have to follow such tough guidelines for removing their trash and that the guideline was a decision made by the city of Yokohama itself in order to cut down pollution.

Here is Yokohama city's guide on removing gomi: "How to put out Your Garbage and Recyclables"

After the orientation was over I asked one of the Japanese dorm assistants to help me set my keitai up into English and then I exchanged numbers with him, Malinda and a few others. By that time I was pretty exhausted from waking up extremely early and then running around all day so I decided to get something to eat at the shopping street (a tonkatsu bento) and then returned to my dorm room and crashed.

-Ofilia