Studying and Living in Princeton
There is some good information on the Internet in Japanese about studying and living in Princeton, but not a whole lot in English (that I could find), so I put together this little page. It has information about news media, government offices, transportation, shopping, university departments/facilities, eating, entertainment, selling stuff, and blogs/websites.
News Media
- The Daily Princetonian: "Founded in 1876, The Daily Princetonian is the daily newspaper of the University Community. A student-run, non-profit organization, 'The Prince' is financially independent from the University. Daily news coverage focuses on University issues and debates, campus politics, varsity sports, and Princeton community issues. The Thursday Street Section features local and campus entertainment and Monday's Sports Extra provides added athletic coverage."
- The Princeton Packet: "Packetonline.com was founded in 1995 and was launched on March 12, 1996. Packet newspapers serve more than 40 municipalities in six New Jersey counties ---Mercer, Middlesex, Somerset, Hunterdon, Monmouth and Burlington ---and one Pennsylvania county ---Wayne."
- Town Topics: "Distributed free to every household in Princeton Borough and Princeton Township, and to parts of Hopewell Borough, Hopewell Township, West Windsor Township, Lawrence Township, Pennington, Montgomery Township, and South Brunswick Township, Town Topics has an estimated readership of 30,000."
- Trentonian
- Princeton Info
- NJ.com: We used to have this delivered, but were rarely able to get it by the time we asked (6:30 a.m.), and sometimes it came as late as 8:00, so we ended up cancelling it. They were very kind and refunded us for the days when it arrived late.
- Princeton Online
Government Offices
- Rt. 1 Traffic Cameras
- Motor Vehicle Commission (DMV): The Lawrenceville office about ten minutes away seems to be the closest location, but the map on their website is wrong. On the Google map you can see it is the building off of Office Road. You can get to it by taking the Quaker Bridge exit if you are going South on Rt. 1 from Princeton.
The DMV is a lot more demanding than other states like Kansas, so make sure to read carefully about the documents you will need, get the official card from your insurance company showing you have New Jersey insurance, and bring all of the paperwork you might possibly need. If you want to complete it all in one day, I would go right when the office opens so you can avoid the horrible lines and make it to the inspection before they get busy. - Princeton Township
- The Borough of Princeton Official Website
- Mercer County
- State of New Jersey
- 在ニューヨーク日本国総領事館 Consulate-General of Japan in New York
Transportation
- Airport Bus: It looks like you can reserve a bus pretty easily from Princeton's website, but when I used it last year I called. They are friendly and relatively inexpensive.
- Bicycle: I prefer to bicycle around campus and around town. The roads here are rather nice compared to the potholed ones I had to negotiate in Lawrence, KS, there aren't any steep hills, and there are some pretty bike paths around the lake. I wish they had some covered bike areas on campus, and more places to lock up your bike on campus and downtown, but it is OK.
- Campus Shuttles: These are a great way to get around campus because they are free and the one that connects to Butler Apartments (graduate student housing) comes about twice an hour. If you miss the Green Line bus to Butler from North or South Campus I recommend walking, because the neighborhoods are nice, you'll get some exercise, and you'll likely beat the next one.
- Walking: It depends on where you are, but I would say that most Princeton destinations (downtown, campus, graduate housing, etc.) are within a 30 minute walk, even for people with stubby legs like me.
- Car: I have heard that it is expensive to own a car in New Jersey, but I don't agree. The insurance is only slightly more than what we had to pay in Kansas and the gas is relatively inexpensive. The gas station on the corner of Harrison and Rt. 1 usually has the cheapest gas. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be much university parking.
- New Jersey Transit: You can get from the campus to New York pretty easily by train. If you catch an express train you can get there in about 50 minutes. Princeton's website has nice directions to the airports.
- Princeton Area Bus: It seems like it would be pretty easy to get around by bus, but since we have a car, I don't have any experience with it myself. Princeton itself is pretty small, but just a few minutes away you can find just about everything you might need: shopping malls, grocery stores, Walmart, Sam's Club, Target, Best Buy, etc.
Shopping
If you can't find what you want in Princeton, a short drive (usually 10-15 minutes) will get you to a lot of great stores. These are just a few of them. I tried to locate the places using Google maps, because (in my opinion) streets in NJ are particularly difficult to navigate; you might have to get there using a "jug handle" (cloverleaf exit), the same road might change names for no apparent reason, the street signs might be faded to a fine shade of illegible, the road signs (one in particular near IKEA) are just wrong, or there might not be any street signs at all.
- Bicycles: Halter's Cycles (Cannondale! and others), Jay's (Trek, Klein, and others), Kopp's (Bianchi, Fuji, and others),
- Bookstores: Barnes and Noble (the marker shows the entrance to the parking lot), Borders, Labyrinth
- Large Retail Stores: Best Buy, IKEA (Elizabeth, NJ), Sam's Club, Walmart
- Malls and Shopping Areas: Downtown Princeton, Market Fair Mall (I could only mark the entrance to the parking lot), Quaker Bridge Mall, Princeton Shopping Center
- Supermarkets: McCaffrey's (Princeton Shopping Center), Mitsuwa (Edgewater), Shop Rite (Mercer Mall), Wegmans, Whole Earth Center, Whole Foods (I could only mark the entrance to the parking lot on the map)
University Departments / Facilities
- Printer Clusters: Printing is free for Princeton students. I live in Butler Apartments, so the computer cluster there is the most convenient for me, but I also recommend the computer cluster on the third floor of Frist (two printers), the second floor of Frist (one printer that is often busy), and Firestone (many printers). Apparently, you can send jobs to the printer from home, but I have not done this yet.
- Housing Office
- Graduate Housing: Butler, Graduate College, Hibben-Magie, Lawrence
- Graduate Housing Internet, Telephone, etc.
- East Asian Studies Department
- Libraries
- Office of the Registrar
- Graduate School Announcement
- FAQ about Admission
- Office of Information Technology
- Interactive Campus Map
Eating
There are so many wonderful restaurants in Princeton and the surrounding area that I couldn't include them all, so I just put some of the ones that are close to campus.
- Restaurants around the university
- Chancellor Green Cafe: They have a nice selection of sweets, Odwalla drinks, coffees, tea, and even sushi. It is (F) on the map.
- EQuad Cafe
- Frist Campus Center: There is a lot of food available here, but not much seating inside. Outside on the lawn is beautiful. It is (H) on the map.
- Genomics Cafe
- Prospect House: You have to be invited by a faculty or staff member. It's quite beautiful inside, the food is good, and the garden outside is very nice.
- Woodrow Wilson Cafe
Entertainment
- Movie Theatres: AMC, Princeton Garden, UA (Marketfair)
- Other: Belmar Beach, Dish Network (satellite dish), Patriot Media (cable)
Selling Stuff
- Craigslist: I have not had a whole lot of success with this yet.
- Tiger Trade: This seems to work better than Craigslist, but you need to be associated with the university to post.
Blogs / Websites
- プリンストン大学虎の巻: This is probably the most comprehensive website about studying and living in Princeton.
- PrincetonMary
- Mercer Co-op Wiki
- プリンストン日系人会・リンク集
- Eitelshire