Backtrack a bit...to the bedding situation

Note to parents: I know this is probably a story you don't want to hear, but looking back, we just laugh now!

So, as resourceful college students, through our group blog we tried to figure out ways we can save money in Japan. The DK House gang decided we would buy bedding for our dorm room instead of renting it because the rental fee is 11,025 yen/semester (about $110) plus an optional mattress fee of 525 yen. Through Natalie's research, we found that we'd be able to purchase bedding for under $80. Thus, we canceled bedding rental with S. Uzuki, the manager of DK House, who made sure we understood that this meant we would not have bedding until we bought it, and we'd be sleeping on a wooden bed. So, we made our first objective upon arriving in Japan to go search for bedding, and we'd be set. Well, as it happens, we didn't even get to the dorm until nearly 8pm and we were pretty tired, and we didn't have much time or energy to go shop around and buy bedding. I said that I was probably tired enough from the flight/jet lag that it wouldn't make a difference if I had bedding or not. And that could not have been farther from the truth.

It wasn't the wooden bed that was the problem for me (or the others it turned out), it was the COLD. I only had my small suitcase and backpack with me since my big suitcase was going to be delivered from the airport the next morning (I didn't mention this either...we three girls went to the Black Cat/KuroNeko delivery service and had our heavy things (my one big suitcase) delivered straight to the dorm (for a reasonable price, don't worry!) but it wouldn't arrive until the next morning between the hours of 9am-12pm (and hey, just like in the U.S. it didn't arrive until almost 12!) We did this to avoid riding the trains with huge luggage, especially during the rush hour bustle. And it ended up being a rather good idea, since we would've had to go up and down stairs, and get lost with all of this in tow.) So basically I had very minimal stuff with me.

Anyway, around 11:45pm, I changed into these gym sweats as pajamas and kept on my long-sleeved shirt and zip-up hoodie, put my wrapped-up yukata on the bed as my pillow, and covered myself with my towel. I wasn't down for long when I realized I was way too cold to fall asleep.

12:04am: I got the T-shirt I had packed in my backpack and stuck my legs in it because there was some skin exposed from my gym sweats, and also put on a pair of socks. Got back on the 'bed' again.
Still too cold. Shoved on my jeans over my gym pants. Put on T-shirt over long-sleeved shirt and zipped up my hoodie again. Tented the towel over my face so the CO2 from my exhales would stay under the towel and keep me warm.

12:something am: Went to the bathroom. Thought about taking a hot shower, but the showers close at midnight and don't open until 6am.

1-ish am: Tried to stay in one position so the wood under me would warm up.

1:later am: Went to the bathroom again, just to move around some. Passed by open-doored non-occupied rooms with bedding inside and was so desperate and wanting to take it for my own that I walked into one and started feeling the blankets and futon, etc. I decided against taking even a blanket because a) I'm not sure where the security cameras are in this place, b) I felt it'd be awkward if the manager and his wife saw me on camera or found me returning it to the room in the morning c) Maybe it was just stubborn me, but I wanted to do this on my own.

2:ish am: I checked my clock again and made my way to the A/C unit remote control. I started playing around with buttons and noticed that the highest temperature you could set it on was 30 Celsius. Which I couldn't really realize is actually quite...warm...because my brain was frozen. But even with my frozen brain, I came up with the idea of checking the temperature read-out on my little clock and switching the setting to Celsius. After seeing that it was about 18 Celsius, I realized that hey, maybe 30 Celsius would be a lot better. So relying basically on my Chinese-reading ability, I played around with the remote and got hot air to come out. I celebrated by sitting right under my heater and played several rounds of 3 different types of Solitaire.

3 am: The room was sufficiently warm and I was getting tired, so I headed back to bed under my towel. The rest of the night still went by pretty slowly though, as even though it was warm, it was still a little hard falling into a deep sleep on a hard wooden box, basically. After waking up pretty often, I finally got out of bed at 9am to join Natalie downstairs in the cold lobby to wait for our luggage. We exchanged stories, and luckily both had figured out how to use the heater, but we found out later that Greg had not, but at least he had all his belongings which meant he had more clothing to layer.

We ended up searching for and purchasing bedding the next night. A 3-piece set (futon, padding, and comforter) for a total of 7920 yen. The best part was that it was a pretty bulky bag of stuff as you can imagine, and we carried it all the way home, and had to ask for directions 3 times and most people told us to take a bus or call a cab, but the san-nin felt we could do it and didn't want to spend that extra money after going through all this trouble to save money in the first place. We were quite a sight though, for sure.

So, for a savings of about $31, was it worth it? Of course! Twas a great and unforgettable adventure!