The Rec World Hotel is the only accommodation used by Yamasa students that IS NOT owned/controlled by Yamasa's Housing Office. The Hotel Annexe is only used on demand. There are certain times of the year when strong demand for single room accommodation means that the total housing capacity of Yamasa's accommodation facilities drops below the demand for program places. Previously this meant turning applicants for non-academic programs away even if there were program places available. As a non-profit self-funded organization, Yamasa is not able to afford to purchase or build accommodation that would only be used occasionally, nor can new accommodation be built at short notice. So the Housing Office decided to arrange short term lease accommodation in the annexe of the Hotel Rec World so that additional flexibility would be possible.
Location: The hotel is located near the famous Daijuji temple (ancestral temple of the Tokugawa family) in the northern part of the city. As such it is not located within walking distance of the institute. It is the only accommodation where this is the case. As a result Yamasa provides a free bus/car shuttle so that students do not need to pay for public transport in order to commute to classes. By car or bus, the commute takes about 20-30 minutes depending on the traffic conditions.
Description: In addition to the shuttle service, there are some other arrangements unlike all of Yamasa's other accommodation. For example a discount breakfast option is available and all students have free access to the hotel sauna, spa pools and fitness club.
The rooms in the Hotel Annexe are not hotel rooms but 1K and 2DK apartments. In Japan 1K means 1 room with a kitchen. 2DK means 2 rooms with a dining/kitchen. The regular hotel guests stay in the main part of the hotel itself next door. The annexe is for longer term residents and is usually used by large companies such as Mitsubishi to house their staff during training courses at their headquarters nearby.
The design of the rooms is fairly spartan and the design emphasis was purely on function. The apartments are self-contained, the floors are usually the woven tatami matting commonplace in older Japanese dwellings. The height of each door is 180 centimeters - if you are tall you will need to adjust to this, as you will in most buildings in Japan. All of the apartments have reverse cycle air-conditioning/heating, ironing facilities and good natural lighting.
The rooms differ slightly mainly in terms of the location of the bathrooms/kitchen. The essential difference is that the 2DK apartments have a bath with shower and also a washing machine, but the 1K rooms do not have either. Many older style Japanese rooms have bathtubs only or use shared facilities and showers are not as common as in other countries. Students staying in the 1K use either a bath/shower located separately on each floor or the shared facilities in the fitness center. The bath/shower located on each floor is private, however you may need to wait or work out a roster with other students. If you don't want to wait then it takes about 2 minutes to reach the fitness center. The showers and fitness center facilities including spa pool are sex-segregated, but not private. In this regard the practices and customs are more or less the same as with an onsen.
As each apartment has its own kitchen, students can prepare their own meals. Each apartment has a balcony, kitchen with gas range, refrigerator, crockery and utensils. Each apartment also has a television, desk(s) with reading lamp(s) for study. The rooms are Japanese style with tatami matting. There are no beds - students sleep on futons on the tatami mat floors. The hotel is the ONLY accommodation where students do not need to buy/rent or borrow their own futons. This means that the housing cost is slightly cheaper than the accommodation fee schedule suggests. The toilets are western style. There is a large closet in each apartment for storing personal effects - you won't need to live out of your suitcase.
Laundry and free access areas: Students staying in the 2DK apartments will have a washing machine inside the apartment - but students staying in the 1K apartments need to use the washing machines provided. The hotel washing machines are not coin operated so the use of the machines is free.
While facilities such as the restaurants and summer beer garden are pay-for-access, students staying in the apartments rented by Yamasa's Housing Office do not need to pay for access to the saunas, spa baths, pool and fitness center.
Free car parking is available, however we will need to know your car's registration number, and model before you arrive so that we can register these details with the hotel management.
Telephone and Internet: The apartments do not have telephones. You will need to either use the public telephones available in the lobby of the hotel, or purchase a portable cellphone. Most students prefer to use the cheaper option of handheld cellular phones. Internet facilities are very poor in the hotel. You will not be able to access a business center or internet cafe facilities. If you are bringing a laptop, then you should be able to access the web (using a modem connection) through the public telephones in the lobby - but space is limited and there is no privacy. It is basically easier to either bring your laptop with you to the campus each day and connect via Yamasa's LAN or use Yamasa's PC's. If it is essential that you have internet access in the hotel from your laptop, purchasing or renting a PHS card for a wireless connection from the Frontia office on campus is usually the cheapest option.
Futons: Futons are provided by the hotel. (If you don't know what futons are, please click here.
Advantages reported by students: Good option for short term students who are bringing their family with children. The beer garden is convenient in summer (though expensive). Spa pool is popular. Large amount of personal space per student.
Disadvantages reported by students: No wheelchair access. No microwave oven on site. No telephone in apartment. Distance from Yamasa means that students need to be independent.