Artistic swimmer and Waseda student Ayami Wada takes on the world
Ayami Wada, a second-year undergraduate student of the School of Sport Sciences, has been training in artistic swimming since she was 5 years old and is still captivated by the expressiveness of the sport that she compares to other sports such as dancing. Although the World FINA Junior Championships she was set to compete in were canceled due to the pandemic, this setback allowed her to have a discussion with her coach that helped her remember the passion she held for the sport in the first place. This moment was the turning point that launched her into her college swimming career. As a Waseda student, she has won two consecutive titles in the solo free routine and three consecutive titles in the duet technical routine at the Japan Swimming Championships.
Despite this great success, Ayami continues to raise the bar both in sports and the classroom. She challenged the World Aquatics Championships in July. She works hard to balance this level of athletic rigor with her studies and insists that her studies in sports nutrition are invaluable to her not only from an academic standpoint but also as an athlete herself. Perhaps this is one of the reasons behind her great success as an athlete.
Japanese article:日本選手権連覇中！ アーティスティックスイミング・和田彩未が世界に挑む
A passion for theater: Interview with Waseda alumni and NHK employee Tomohiro Kuwano
Waseda Weekly interviewed Tomohiro Kuwano (a graduate of the Faculty of Political Science and Economics), who has directed and produced numerous dramas as an NHK employee, including “Okaeri Mone” and “Idaten”. He started acting after seeing a stage production with his mother for the first time just before entering high school, recalling being struck with awe at the world of theater as the curtain rose. To this day, he still speaks passionately about the stage, noting how performances are experienced through all five senses and therefore leave a strong impression on the memory.
Mr. Kuwano became interested in filming on video and joined NHK as an assistant director. He cites the Great East Japan Earthquake his inspiration for the 2021 drama “Okaeri Mone”. He believed many viewers could empathize with the heroine’s guilt from not being impacted by the tsunami. He also talks about the theater’s impact on his dramas, specifically in how he leaves out certain details or scenes for the viewer to imagine, much like on the live stage. As a final word, he recommends that Waseda students watch “Warai no Daigaku” by Koki Mitani to experience the charms of the imagination behind theater and a play with an excellent script.
Japanese article:初心者のあなたに伝えたい NHK職員・桑野智宏が語る演劇の魅力
From Yong-sama to BTS: The path of translator and writer Yuka Kuwahata
Yuka Kuwahata, an alumnus of Waseda University, supervised and translated the Japanese version of the book “Beyond the Story: 10-year Record of BTS”, commemorating the 10-year anniversary of the group’s debut. This year also marks the 20-year anniversary of the Japanese broadcast of the Korean drama “Winter Sonata” starring Bae Yong-joon (“Yong-sama”), which led to a boom in Korean pop culture’s popularity in Japan known as “Hallyu” (Korean Wave). Ms. Kuwahata has been delivering the latest information from Korea to Japan since the early days of this boom and has led a truly extraordinary life.
Since her days at Waseda, she has wanted to broadcast about the perspectives of cultures other than Japan. She realized the differences in the content of different countries’ media reports during her time studying abroad in the United States as an undergraduate student. She then pursued a master’s at George Washington University in the United States, where she encountered many Korean students. While enrolled at George Washington University, she attended Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea, as an exchange student. She then pursued another graduate degree at Seoul National University and spent 3 years in South Korea. While there, she began to write articles for the Japanese media about North Korea and South Korea. After returning to Japan, she began introducing about Korea through the world of television. Even after marrying and having a baby, her desire to convey about Korean culture did not fade, so she continued her career as a writer and translator. She interviewed Yong-sama, which was a huge breakthrough in her career. She also began writing articles about K-pop artists, such as BTS, before they became popular worldwide. Despite her long career communicating about Korean culture, even she is surprised about just how popular Korean culture has become in Japan and the world!
Looking back on her path, she is grateful to have always had a connection with Waseda no matter where she went in the world, and she encourages current students to challenge various things.
Japanese article:ヨン様からBTSまで、韓流と共に歩んだ道 翻訳家／ライター・桑畑優香
