AP House

Hi guys!

Today I'm going to write about my place of living during my Master study which is AP House, the Ritsumeikan APU's official dormitory for students (AP stands for Asia Pacific). AP House is mainly inhabited by first years students from all around the world, both undergraduate and graduate students. Undergraduate students can only stay in AP House for their first year, and they have to move to Beppu downtown area during their second year, while Graduate students can stay all two years long during their study at Ritsumeikan APU (yeah!).

Source: http://www.apumate.net/aphouse/images/top_poster_sp.jpg

Though it's isolated from the all the shopping spots, AP House is only 10 minute walk from the classroom, which makes it a really convenient place to stay during campus time because if you stay at downtown area it would take minimum 30 minutes to reach the campus by bus.

There's two AP House building, AP House 1 and AP House 2: both are relatively new as the campus was built only 15 years ago. AP House 1 was built in 1999 (together with the campus), while AP House 2 was in 2001. The graduate students area is in the AP House 1, so that's where I am.

Front Entrance to AP House 1

AP House 1 has various public facilities. There's a common space for gathering, meeting rooms, night shop for emergency foods, media center, billyard, table soccer, and also piano. These last two are my favorite spots: the public bath and the tatami area. The public bath or onsen is open everyday except Monday and going to onsen is an amazing way to end a long day. As for the tatami area, they are commonly used for studying, but I always do my gathering, card game playing, and board game playing over there because it's super comfortable!

Tatami Area for Studying, Gathering, Playing, etc.

Now let's take a look at my personal room! I live in the W-Building of AP House 1 (the westernmost section of the dorm). In AP House itself, there's only a few gender-exclusive floors so most of the time it's mixed up between man and women. In W-Building, the 1st Floor is exclusively for man, while the 5th Floor is exclusively for women. I myself live in the 4th Floor.

W428 is my room number. It's W-Building, 4th Floor, Room number 28.

As you can see in the picture, there's a team of two people wearing orange shirts. These are the RA, or the Resident Assistants, who are also students of Ritsumeikan APU providing assistance for the AP House 1 resident. These two specifically provides assistance for the W4 residents, including me.

Let's move on to how the room looks. These are the bird eye view of my room:

Source: Ritsumeikan APU Enrollment Handbook

It's small but actually quite cozy and compact. Let me explain with picture by dividing my room in three areas: the Bed Area, the Desk Area, and the Closet Area.

The Bed Area

The Desk Area

The Closet Area

As you can see, there are a lot of compartments so we can keep everything neat and tidy. I easily misplaced small things so that's why I'm trying to be as neat as possible, There are several shared facilities on each floor including shower rooms (ranges from 4 to 6 shower rooms per floor), kitchen (IH-stove, microwave, toaster, and hot water dispenser).

Living at AP House is not so expensive. You need to pay JPY 39,000 per month for the rent, including the water, electricity, heater, telephone bill, and the internet. You need to also pay the insurance, deposit, and some other installment but I'm not going to discuss it here. If you want to know more, feel free to contact me!

That's it for this post guys. I hope you enjoyed reading it.

See you later.