Share house vs Living alone for APU students

By Taiki Kawasaki(The Fountain staff)

January 25, 2019

Takuma Nagatome

“I chose share house, because I like cooking”, Takuma Nagatome said.

Nagatome is a Japanese APU second-year student who majors in APM, and he has been living in an apartment which has a large kitchen in Mochigahama with a Japanese friend since April 2018.

According to him, the kitchen in the one-room apartment is too small for him, so he decided to rent a rooming house which has three rooms, a living, dining, and large kitchen. However, this house is too wide and too expensive to live alone, so he shared it with his friend.

In addition, “I can save a lot of money, because we can share everything”, Nagatome said. For example, they share not only things such as rent, electricity, water, and gas but also some furniture.

This is why he shared a room with his friend called Ken. Secondly, the reason why he chose Ken as a roommate is that they have been good friends before starting share house. When Nagatome was living alone in Beppu, he would often invite Ken to his house. “I thought nothing would be changed if I live with him”, Nagatome said.

Travis Toguchi

“I decided to live alone after living with two roommates for six months”, Travis Toguchi said, “I felt that I was better off living alone than living with others”.

Toguchi is an APU third-year student who majors in APS from America, and he has been living alone in an apartment of Kamegawa since April 2018.

According to him, when he lives alone he has more freedom to make decisions and he has no worry about other people to do that. For instance, he can decorate however he wants, invite friends over anytime, and clean his room more easily.

On the other hand, “Living alone can be expensive, because I have to get a variety of things for myself”, Toguchi said, “Some people think it is a good idea to live with their friends for saving money, but sometimes that does not go well”. In the case of Nagatome, They were often in Nagatome’s house before living together, so the situation was not changed so much as he said. But in other cases, sometimes share house does not go well even if they are good friends, because the situation could be changed a lot.

Nagatome and Toguchi found what kind of people are good at living with someone or alone. “If you hate alone, or cannot afford to pay so much money for house rent or the furniture, you are good at living with somebody”, Nagatome said. “People that would be good at living alone are those who want to have more freedom to decide how they want to live”, Toguchi said, “I think that if finances are not an issue, people should experience what it is like to live alone”.