Just as I was enjoying the cherry blossoms in full bloom, the green leaves suddenly appeared on the trees all over the campus.  I hope each of you started the new academic year feeling refreshed.  We say, “Time and tide wait for no man,” or “Saigetsu hito wo matazu” in Japanese.  Some of you might find the passing of time to be too slow, when you are eager to create your own worlds in your youth.
　　In 18th-century Europe, living in countries other than one’s own was an important part of education.  Wolfgang Mozart, later to become famous as a “musical genius,” traveled extensively around Europe with his father Leopold, to Paris, London, Prague, Berlin, and Venice.  As a child prodigy, Mozart spent his youth traveling on performing tours.  Sometimes away from his native land for as long as one year, young Wolfgang learned new ways to compose music and developed his marvelous musical motifs.  I believe such benefits from studying abroad remains the same today in the 21st century.
　　Studying overseas gives us the opportunity to experience firsthand and absorb with our five senses the cultural diversity and to grow through these experiences.  Yet we must remember to make due preparations for obtaining the maximum results.  Though it is physically very easy for us to go abroad these days, let me stress the great danger of acting according to one’s personal convictions and/or beliefs when we are overseas.  We should remember always that such behavior might cause a lot of trouble for many people around us.  We need to plant our feet firmly on the ground and equip ourselves with the guts to study toward a goal, in order to gain fruitful results from studying abroad.
　　Soseki Natsume, the famous Japanese author in the Meiji Era, gave the following advice to Ryunosuke Akutagawa, another literary genius, who was then a young and promising student: “Be like an ox, and never panic.  What you need to succeed is not a brief brilliance like the fireworks but rather a patient perseverance like an ox slowly moving forward.”  I send these words to all Waseda students about to study overseas, with my very best wishes for your success and happiness.