Hi! I come from Sweden and I am studying fashion at Shinjuku’s vocational school now. Actually, I came to Japan 6 years ago for studying Japanese until 2011 when the Tōhoku earthquake happened. My family was worried about me, so I went back to Sweden that year. But I really love Japan, so I decided to come back here again.

Now I go to school and home on both sides and have school assignment to do every busy day. I want to stay in Japan longer and hope I could have my own brand one day.

Because my school is at Shinjuku so that I searched the Nakanbo area which is closet to Shinjuku and convenient, then I found the Nakano Machiya. When I came to view this sharehouse, the first impression is　”clean and beautiful”, so I decided to live here.

The garbage trashes are separated and clean, so I think the insects won’t come into the house even in summer. By the way, I haven’t seen any insects this year so far.

I had lived in other sharehouse before, and that is a sharehouse for both man and woman. There were so many students living so we had party almost every day. Although it was really happy, but after the party, the garbage increased and I couldn’t concentrated on my homework.

Now I am living in Nakano Machiya, and it is my first time to live with Japanese housemates. The residents here follow the house rules so that the house is always clean, and they are workers and do their work hardly. We don’t have party every day now, but when I come home, I could relax and I like this atmosphere.

Everything's all right. Oh, I had a problem in the beginning that I didn’t know how to use the washing machine, but there was other housemates at home, so she taught me how to use. It was really helpful when I moved in in the beginning.

I have a classmate in school who lives so far and from her home to Shinjuku takes around 40 minutes. Compared to her, I am very easy to go to school with only one station distance.

I think the number of residents in Nakano Machiya is very good.

It’s hard to find who doesn’t follow the house rules and stain the sharespace in the big sharehouse. But it is easy to know that who just used the kitchen and didn’t clean after using now.

But the residents here use the common space clean, the house is always beautiful.

I like the common space especially the big TV and the big desk. I need the big table when I do the pattern making, so I always use the dining table. Doing the homework with the TV program, I could do the practice of Japanese listening, too.

Of course I won’s use the table during the dinner time to avoid bothering other people, I usually do the homework in other time. I can also take a rest in that time and talk to other girls to share the daily life to each other. It can make me change the stress mood.

Sharehouse is our home and everyone has the same opinion of belonging is the best thing.

When I catches up with my school homework, I’ll focus on it all day and don’t talk to anyone. But it will be the stress because people is not a robot, we would like to talk with someone.

In the night, other housemates will come home and cook together, eat together, and just talk what happened today with each other. It really settle my mood and I can keep it up. I think it’s a good thing for living in a sharehouse.

I use both English and Japanese. Actually, I speak Japanese more than English now. When I talk to the English-speaker housemates I use English, and when I talk to Japanese housemate I use Japanese.

By the way,　my design homework needs to be to written in Japanese with the design concept. If I don’t know how to say in Japanese, I will ask my Japanese housemates.

Conversely, if my housemates have English questions, they will also ask me. It will be easier to improve the language skill by language exchange. If someone is in the common space, then I can ask her immediately. If I live alone then I think it takes time to ask other friends by communication software.

They are always help helpful. For example, when I do my own clothes I will ask other housemates to try it. The cloth have to wear on people. Because I have to check the difference between people and model dummy, and then I can fine tuning it. I appreciate for everyone’s help. If I live by myself, it will be hard to do it.

Living in Nakano Machiya, I really feel that we take care to each other to live. When I have some trouble or just want to talk to someone, I could just go to living room to talk with other housemates, and my mood will change.

Of course when someone is bothered by something and want to talk to others, I could talk with her and maybe give her some advice. They are other residents here so I don’t have to be worried about the loneliness and feel so relieved.