Zelkova House, the Basics

One of the main problems when I first got to ICU's campus was finding my dorm.

"Do you know which dorm is yours?" Mr. Spengler asked.

"Um...I think it is called Zelkova." I replied. "Excuse me, Mister Entrance Guard, do you know where Zelkova House is?"

"Hmmm. I'm terribly sorry, but I do not think we have a dorm by that name."

Well isn't that just tanoshi?

Actually, ICU does have a dorm called Zelkova, but th

e Japanese name for it is Keyaki. In Japanese, keyaki is the name of a specific tree known for growing in the area, and in English we call that tree a zelkova (not that I have ever heard of such a tree before - maybe the Russians named it first?).

Anyway, when I found out this little bit of information, I got really excited! I wanted to find these keyaki trees and send a picture home to my nature-loving sister. But everyone I asked said the same thing. "Oh, yes, those trees are everywhere! But I don't know what they look like."

So, they are everywhere. You know they are around. You have named a dorm after them. You have named restaurants after them. The local elderly home is named after this tree, too. But no one knows what they look like?

Correction: one person does. I sought out one of the older professors on campus (such an adorable and knowledgeable old man!) and he gave me three clues to finding the mysterious, but abundant, keyaki tree.

1. It's core-middle (aka trunk) is of a medium size.

2. The branches grow upwards.

3. It gives anyone who looks at it a "round feeling"

.....um....yeah....thanks, sensei.

My only other clue was a picture of the keyaki leaf that is drawn on my dorm key. But armed with these pieces of information, I set out on a tree search the other day, and I think that I found the keyaki! But I'll let you all decide. Go to my "Campus and Heya 2" photos to see what became of my Great Tree Trek!