Unique activity of our student, "What are you doing?"
Expedition Club's 50th Anniversary!! Expedition Club - Its Tradition and History

Wataru Ando
Chairman of the Waseda University Expedition Club
School of Letters, Arts and Sciences I, Third Year

The first humans to set foot in the canyons of the Bolivian Andes.

A shot from the "Hunt for Migo!". Migo is a monster that is said to live in the lakes of the remotest parts of Papua New Guinea.

A shot from our hunt for the 10-meter giant snake of Borneo, Malaysia. We were the first foreigners to visit the village since Japanese soldiers entered it during the Pacific War

"The Expedition Club? How amazing! So you guys are going to jungles and stuff?"

Whenever I tell people that I belong to the Expedition Club, most of them react like this. Yes, we explore tropical rain forests, but we also explore many other parts of the world. For example, we do outdoor activities such as rock or mountain climbing, or exploring caves and mountain streams, as well as research activities such as investigating living creatures (mainly new and unidentified species), particular ethnic groups, and historic remains. There is no restriction on our activities, which means whatever we are interested in will be the target of our exploration. Planning their own expeditions to foreign countries inspires and motives our members. Till now, we have made well over one hundred foreign expeditions, and some of our recent projects are as follows:

• Crossing the Bering Straits in Winter ('60)
• Hunt for Mokele-mbembe! ('89)
• Inca Project ('90)
• Crossing the Taklamakan Desert ('97)
• Crossing from Mongolia to Russia by Canoe ('98)
• Giana Highlands Project ('02)
• Hunt for Migo! ('03)
• Borneo's Big Snake Project ('05)
• Rumanian Gypsy Research ('05)
• Exploring Unknown Andes Valleys ('05)

Among Waseda's over three thousand clubs, the Expedition Club cuts a conspicuous figure, and it has a history and tradition of half a century, in other words, fifty years. Our seniors first gathered under the flag of the Waseda University Expedition Club in 1956, and now, in 2006, we proudly raise the same flag. I believe that even after half a century, our great ambition towards expedition stays the same.

Last but not least, to those of you who are interested in our club...

Our expedition activities will lead you to wonderful experiences which you would never be able to encounter in your daily lives. We welcome you to a world that you have never seen.

URL: http://waseda-tanken.hp.infoseek.co.jp