AIU Student Voice: Room Share in Sakura Village – Mareju Suzuki, Degree-Seeking student (Sophomore year)

In “AIU Student Voice,” AIU students introduce their experiences with student life at AIU that they would like to share with international students. In these articles, you might find some information that only AIU students would know, as well as tips for enjoying your study abroad life at AIU.

Here is a message from Ms. Mareju Suzuki.

Hi, I’m Mareju Suzuki, a sophomore at Akita International University (AIU)! 

I live in Sakura Village, one of the student housing residences located on campus. The Sakura apartments are all triple occupancy, but now, I’m sharing an apartment with only one other housemate. There are other apartments where three people including international students are living together. Life in Sakura is really comfortable for me. Our privacy is protected because each of us is assigned our own bedroom. 

My room

I love its location as well. In spring, we can see sakura🌸 (cherry blossoms) in front of the housing. I think the name of Sakura Village comes from this beautiful view from our windows. In addition, it takes only three minutes to go to lecture rooms from Sakura. It’s so convenient! 

Sakura in front of Sakura Village

My favorite picture of sakura on campus🌸

I feel that having a friend in the same apartment is good for my mental health. Since AIU students have a lot of assignments, they tend to stay alone in their rooms for a long time. It is what actually often happens to me. However, thanks to my housemate, I can enjoy conversations with her even when I’m really busy. 

Another good point of Sakura Village is that we can share the kitchen. I think this helps us save money and time. We go shopping after our part-time job and usually buy enough food for two people. Although we don’t do it every day, sometimes we have dinner together. We take turns with cooking depending on our class and club schedule. It allows us to use time efficiently and flexibly. When we have time, we cook together. This is a picture of a Gyoza (dumpling) party we held! 🥟

Dumpling party with my roommate!

Though our lives are restricted under the current situation of the pandemic, we are enjoying roomshare life! Since AIU has a lot of lovely points, it was hard for me to select things to introduce here. Why don’t you come and experience a beautiful life in Akita with us? I’m looking forward to meeting you on campus!

From the Center for International Affairs

At AIU, all short-term international students are required to live in on-campus housing, and we regard the dormitories and student housing as a place to experience “diversity”. Living together and communicating daily with students from different cultural backgrounds, discovering and sometimes coming to terms with each other’s differences and similarities will be a valuable experience for the rest of your life.