Yamate Gakusha

The Yamate Gakusha is an international students' dormitory located 10 minutes' walk from Takadanobaba Station in Tokyo, Japan. The Yamate Gakusha is unique in that it is the home to at most 16 students at any one time. A dormitory rich in tradition, the institution was established thanks in part to the generosity of American members of the YMCA after the end of World War II . Their hope was that the Yamate Gakusha would enable young men from poor, rural areas of Japan to attend universities located in Tokyo. (At the time the Yamate Gakusha was established, the monthly fee was quite low. This was because the greatest obstacle preventing rural citizens of Japan from attending universities in Tokyo was the high cost of housing). Historically, an obachan (elderly woman) served as dorm cook. However, sometime prior to the 1990s she died and was never succeeded.

Although the majority of the members of the dormitory are Japanese, in the past decade students from China, Korea, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, and the United States have cycled through the Yamate Gakusha.

The working language of the dormitory is Japanese, but even non-native speakers can survive with a modicum of Japanese language skills. During the Kobayashi-Hackett co-presidency of 1996, an initiative was launched to rid the genkan (entrance) of the Yamate Gakusha of old, unclaimed shoes. Ultimately 5 cardboard boxes filled with old, unclaimed shoes were (amazingly) removed from the premises! Annual Yamate Gakusha events include the following:

* April: Dorm Entrance Ceremony
* June: Dorm Excursion
* October: Softball Tournament
* November: Curry Rice Cook-A-Thon
* December: Annual Christmas Party
* January: New Year's Party
* February: New Member's Recruiting Activities
* March: Dorm Graduation Ceremony

In recent years the administrators of the Yamate Gakusha attempted to unilaterally shut down the dormitory's operations. However, thanks to a hunger strike launched by the current dormitory residents a shut-down has been averted.