This is an extended interview with a resident living in a Hidamari’s sharehouse. This time, we interviewed Takumin, who started living in the sharehouse when he entered a university.
Takumin moved into the sharehouse when he moved to Kumamoto Prefecture for higher education. He thought, “There might be a lot of opportunities to tall.,” and that’s why he decided to move in the sharehouse. What kind of encounters did he have at the sharehouse? How has his mind changed?
We also interviewed him about his decision to study abroad, triggered by living into the sharehouse.
The reason for moving into the Hidamari’s sharehouse was to go to Kumamoto for higher education
– Thank you for having an interview with us today. So, Takumin, how long have you lived in the Hidamari’s sharehouse?
4 years and 2 months.
– Since you were a freshman. First of all, why did you choose our sharehouse?
It was to go on to the next stage of education. I moved to Kumamoto to enter a university, but I didn’t know anyone here.
Also, it was because there might be a lot of opportunities to talk with someone. Personally, I knew I was the kind of person who would die if I didn’t talk to people, so I thought a sharehouse would be the place where I could talk a lot.
Moreover, I imagined that only young people and students lived in a sharehouse at that time. I thought it would be easier for me to talk, but there were no students (laughs). Everyone was older than me, and I was like, “I’m the only student here…” (laughs).
Reasons for living in the Hidamari’s sharehouse for 4 years while studying at a university
– I see. You had lived in the sharehouse for 4 years, but you are the first one to have lived there for 4 years since you entered a university. So, I would like to ask, “Why have you lived in the sharehouse for 4 years?” For example, there might be times when you want to live alone, like when the school year changes. So, is there any reason you continued living in the sharehouse?
I never think about living alone.
– Really!
I was too comfortable here (laughs). I didn’t feel stressed at all. There was no trouble with other residents, and since everyone was older than me, I had nothing to do but learn from them.
– I see. And people in the sharehouse change moderately, so it’s not that you interact with them excessively.
Indeed. In my 4 years, I have gone out for dinner with one of the residents only twice.
– That’s hard to believe!
Everyone eats at home. It’s hard to describe this balanced distance with other residents…it’s like a real family. We rarely ever go out to eat, but we spend time together in the sharehouse.
– Right. By the way, how do you feel about having a community other than university?
For example, there are usually classes, circles/clubs, and part-time jobs in school. If you live alone, basically you live by yourself, but in addition, you have a different community of a sharehouse.
The relationship in the sharehouse is close to a family. I can talk about things I don’t talk about with my real family and discuss sensitive problems. I can talk about a lot of things that I can only talk here.
Especially everyone was older than me when I moved into the sharehouse, so everyone took it in stride and listened no matter how small and difficult my stories/problems were. Only the sharehouse can give me an answer when I talk about something difficult.
What are the changes before and after moving into the Hidamari’s sharehouse?
– So, after living in the sharehouse for 4 years, do you think there are the changes before and after moving in?
Yes, a lot. When I first came here at the age of 19, I met older working adults and realized how detrimental it is to hide myself.
Before that, when I was a high-school student, I was more likely to hide myself and didn’t say what I really felt and exposed myself to others. But in the sharehouse, I felt that different people had their own individuality without limit and valued it. I saw them speaking with such energy and without resistance to expressing their personality to others. I felt like I had wasted so much of my time and felt ashamed of myself.
However, even if I tried to imitate the way they express their individuality, I wouldn’t be able to do it right away. For the first year or so, I was unable to express my true feelings properly.
– Even in a university?
Yes. I couldn’t do so much first though. But around the second year in the sharehouse, I have found that I don’t have to force myself to put in the effort. At night, when we all got together, I talked about what I was thinking. This was the biggest change.
– For example, it’s better to say what you think?
Even if my idea might not be good for them, but I purposely speak it out. Sometimes, I can get out what I really wanted to say, and sometimes there are conflicts by telling them.
However, I talk with older adults in the sharehouse and they are generous and kind. I get angry if someone says something that bothers me even a little, but if it’s older people, they accept even if I say something rude.
I think I have grown up as a result of repeating that. I think that’s where I’ve grown the most.
This is definitely not something you can get from the same generation.
Things learned from living in the sharehouse
Living in the sharehouse has helped me learn how to tell my thoughts to others clearly.
The first one or two years, I just spoke it out. But from the third or fourth year, I put more emphasis on my own words to make it easier to convey what I was thinking. Talking to people in communal living made me feel that nothing would come out if I didn’t choose the right words to tell my thoughts.
– After living in the sharehouse for 4 years, have you noticed any differences between in communication with people from your generation and people in the sharehouse?
Yes. It’s not that it’s hard to talk with people of my generation, but when I try to talk about difficult/touchy things with them, they just say “yes” or agree with me, and it never develops into a discussion. There is no one who will express his/her own opinion, saying like, “I think this is what I think.”
– Yes, that’s true.
In the sharehouse, they don’t mean to speak ambiguously, but I have seen several situations where a person tells others, “Well, but you might be wrong.”
So I have realized that I’m getting better at telling the story as the years go by. There were times when I had to tell the same story that I told in my first year of university again in my third or fourth year of university. Even though the basis of the story was the same, I felt that just by changing the way I spoke, the delivery of the story had improved dramatically.
When I was a freshman, I would just say what I thought and talk about things that were not established and illogical, like a rant. But, I felt like, “I voiced my opinion to adults for the first time, yay!”
But when I told the same story to another person, I thought, “Hmm, there is a better way to tell this story.” I was able to see the difference because I had lived in the sharehouse for a ling time.
The moment that has changed my thoughts during the shreahouse life
– Among many things during your sharehouse life, have there been any episodes you feel that your way of thinking has changed?
Hmm…I guess it’s something like, 「”the importance of asserting my own opinion.”
When a Japanese resident named Ai-chan lived in the sharehouse, she often had a conflict with another resident named George, who was from overseas. But George could only speak in English, and Ai-chan understood him roughly.
One day, Ai-chan was talking back, like “No no, you are wrong.” only in Japanese to George who doesn’t understand Japanese. The fact that she insisted that much means she values her opinion. I felt that expressing one’s opinion in a language that is not understood by people who speak a different language means it was quite important problem/issue to Ai-chan.
I think that asserting your opinion is a way of defending yourself. Saying nothing is kinda denying yourself. I thought, “Wow, this is the time/moment you really have to speak up.”
– Even if you cannot tell clearly, is it still necessary to say?
It was quite shocking to me…because I was like, “We all live together here, we all get along, sometimes we disagree with each other, and we all say things even though we don’t communicate in the same language.” Because…it doesn’t make sense (laughs).
Telling what you think even if a person doesn’t understand means you value your opinion. I thought that might be important.
Living in the sharehouse led to the decision to study abroad
Also, living with people from overseas inspired me to study abroad. I will go study abroad this August.
All through the first three and a half years here, there was a period of time when I lived with residents from overseas. I’ve made up my mind after interacting with international residents, George, Mac, and Sander.
Actually, I haven’t been able to travel to Japan for about a year and a half since my original plan due to the corona pandemic. But, I still feel, “I want to study abroad after all!” because I have been living with people from overseas at the Hidamari’s sharehouse for a long time.
– Really!
Living together with them in the Hidamari’s sharehouse, I was like, “We’re all the same even though they are foreigners!” I felt that although there were some differences in culture and customs, they were the same. I had lived with them for about three years, so I lost all resistance to studying abroad.
– Why did you decide to go study abroad?
When I thought about what I wanted to do and the direction I wanted to take, I surprisingly started to think,、“Maybe I want to work outside of Japan.”
– Wow.
I began to think that I could leave this life behind and live somewhere other than Japan. To do so, I needed some kind of skill, and speaking English was the major premise. One of the ways to learn English is to study abroad, and I decided to do so to experience what it is like somewhere.
During the period when I could not depart due to the pandemic, I had the opportunity to talk with people living in the sharehouse, so I did not let my passion be extinguished. I can finally depart this August. I probably would go study abroad if it people from overseas didn’t live in the sharehouse. I would be working somewhere in Japan by now.
– I see.
Also, I was inspired by the residents, Sander and George. They told me that “getting a job” is not the only career path after graduation.
They came to Japan when they were like 26-27, I think. Sander graduated from a local high school, dropped out of college, and went to a Japanese language school one more time after that. Moreover, when I heard that he was starting his freshman year again at a university in Kumamoto, I felt that “There is more than one choice in life.”
I had the image that everyone was on a straight life path: going to high school, graduating from college, and getting a job. But I realized that it is really just one of many options.
That is also why I am getting ready to study abroad, as I work part-time instead of finding a job after graduating from college (laughs).
– So, they were kinda a role model in some ways…
That’s right. There were good role models in front of me. I realized that graduating from college and going straight to work as a new graduate is not a thick/stable path, but it is actually one of the narrower/thinner options.
Normally, going abroad (or to Japan) before the age of 30 makes people very anxious, I guess. I would say to them, “If you graduate from college at that age, you will already be 30. What are you going to do after that?” with vague anxiety (laughs).
But they don’t feel that way at all. I started thinking that graduating from a typical university, getting a job, and working somewhere is just being a pushover, and now I’m trying to resist that (laughs).
A message to the old ‘YOU’
– Lastly, do you have a message for high school seniors or the old ‘YOU’?
High school seniors!? (laughs)
A message… It’s all about “how quickly you free yourself” (laughs). As soon as possible, no matter what you see, you must let yourself out that you are holding back. This will definitely be the catalyst for big changes in the future. I’ve already found this out by living in the Hidamari’s sharehouse.
– Kinda being relieved?
Yes. There is something to be lost by speaking honestly, but there is also something to be gained by losing something. All about the experience. Living in the sharehouse has made me realize that this is the most important thing.
In that past, I have always read the atmosphere of the people around me and have a way of speaking that matches them, but for me, it is incorrect. What is right for the people around me could be wrong for me. If the incorrect answers continue to accumulate, one day I would collapse.
– Once you have been relieved, it becomes natural?
Indeed. When I first opened myself up, I was not very good at speaking, and I felt that I was not telling anything clearly. But since the last year, I started to feel that I was able to speak right.
I think how quickly you free yourself will change how well and clearly you can tell your stories to others in two or three years.
– That means the sharehouse would be a good environment to free yourself?
Yes. It was also the sharehouse that made me realize I was not liberating myself.
– So, everyone in the sharehouse is free and open-minded?
At least, in my image, Yes (laughs). Everyone says their opinions. Everyone gets deeply in a discussion. Even they say something totally opposite. I feel like, “Well, we can’t go further if you start talking about it…”
In this sharehouse, I gradually began to realize that the state I had previously considered natural was unnatural, and I began to liberate myself along with the others.
– I see.
It has become quite an asset for me now.
– Thank you so much, Takumin! Good luck with your study abroad!
Summary: There are many encounters and new discoveries in a sharehouse life!
In this article, we interviewed Takumin, who has lived in the Hidamari’s sharehouse for 4 years of his university life.
At first, he moved into this sharehouse because “there seemed to be a lot of people from the same generation.” When he entered the sharehouse, he found that many of the residents were older than him, but this seemed to have given him an opportunity to rethink how to communicate.
Also, interaction with residents from overseas led him to think about his future career path after graduation. Although the corona pandemic made it difficult for him to study abroad, he has been able to keep his passion alive because of living in the sharehouse.
Although it’s not that many, Hidamari also has student residents like Takumin. Why don’t you experience a slightly different lifestyle since student life is so precious.
There are many sharehouses in Kumamoto that offers low rent and where students can live easily! If you are a student of Kumamoto University or other university, please just take a look at one of our sharehouses.
About the sharehouse where Takumin lived.
https://sharehouse-hidamari.com/honjo
About the Hidamari’s sharehouses in Kumamoto.
https://sharehouse-hidamari.com/熊本のシェアハウス一覧
