Before coming to Sharehouse Tony&Moly I was living in a dormitory in Venice to study Japanese at University. I came to Fukuoka for an internship as part of my studies.
Sharehouse Tony&Moly was reccomended to me by a girl who did the internship before me. The location was very convenient: I could go to work and to the center by foot, and it’s close to the prettiest parks in the city. Then, from the website it seemed friendlier than warmer than the other places I had seen, and I was sure about this when I contacted the manager DonDon. He was kind, always available and quickly replied to all my many questions. He wants everyone to feel comfortable and have a good time.
I came to Fukuoka for a work experience, so I didn’t expect to have so much fun. I really enjoyed play nights, dinners and trips with the other flatmates! Since we all had different schedules the only time we could hang out was at night and DonDon would often invite everyone to play board games or Switch so we could have fun after work and get to know each other better.
Another thing I really appreciated was everyone’s effort to speak Japanese as much as possible. Sometimes it’s easier to slip into English (with me) or Chinese (among the chinese speaking flatmates) but we were all trying to improve our Japanese. I didn’t speak much Japanese at work but thanks to my flatmates I could improve nevertheless.
I think living with many people one should be careful about personal space, for example not taking too much space or time in the bathroom, and also not be afraid to speak your mind if there’s a problem, everyone is in the same situation so one shouldn’t be shy to speak, everyone will understand.
I’m a rather shy person so I’m not keen on initiating the conversation, but thanks to the parties and trips I managed to come out to my shell and become friends with everyone, especially thanks to DonDon, who makes sure everyone feels part of the house.
Moreover, I became more confident in speaking Japanese. Before coming to Japan I just spoke if I knew how to say something perfectly, but after little time in the sharehouse a realised I just needed to be understood, even without a good grammar. So I got more at ease with the language and also with my flatmates.
It was my first time in Japan and thanks to Sharehouse Tony&Moly I have very nice memories.
It was a difficult time due to the epidemic and, being young and so far home, I had many worries, but DonDon was always careful and took great care of everyone. He understood my worries and needs and helped me a lot.
I will always have great memories of my stay at Sharehouse Tony&Moly and I would recommend it to anyone!