Ruben Ramos
Exchange Student
School of International Liberal Studies
Photo by S. Sakurai
One of my main desires when coming to Japan was to discover more about the country’s culture and history. I was thus very excited when I heard about the ICC Event “Waseda Historical Expedition”, because it would allow me to learn more about Waseda University, where I would spend the following year, and all the amazing places nearby.
On the day of the event, we were split into groups of 6 people. The ICC staff then explained to us how the event would go and gave us our first mission: talking with the members of our team! This
Photo by author
actually revealed to be very important, as knowing each other a bit then allowed us to work better as a team and have during the event very interesting conversations, learning more about each other’s countries and cultures. Our team was a good mix between international and Japanese students, the second being very helpful when we had to translate Japanese signs!
Photo by author
Every team had a different course, ours being “Temple Town”. Following our guides, we discovered many places and delved into the History of the neighborhood, fulfilling the missions by trying to find information on these different spots and the historical elements attached to them. We were for example able to discover the oldest bell in Shinjuku, many places that marked the life of famous author Natsume Soseki, the small Kikuicho campus where stands a memorial for students who lost their lives during WWII, etc. At some point, we had to find an ICC Student Staff Leader who then joined our team and guided us with precious advice. Time went very fast, and we soon had to come back to the starting point, where our team received gifts for having answered most of the questions.
Photo by S. Sakurai
As the Student Staff Leaders told us we could get copies of the other courses’ guides, I managed to get some from the ICC and thus explored many more places by myself in the following weeks: temples, shrines and parks, as well as the surroundings of my dormitory, Wakeijuku, with gardens and even the pond that inspired Matsuo Basho’s famous haiku!
I would definitely recommend this event for future students. It is a great way to learn more about the hidden History of places that surround us on a daily basis during our Waseda years, but that we wouldn’t necessarily notice otherwise. I was really impressed by the high number of interesting locations in a relatively small range from Waseda campus: it proves that the neighbourhood really has a rich history! Finally, as all ICC events, it is also a great way to make new friends while having fun!
Photo by ICC
