Reading Week Keio Style
Whilst back at Warwick, those of us lucky enough to study BAs, have a well earned break (sorry reading week if any faculty members are reading this) week six in first and second terms due to the sheer scale of the mental prowess required to prepare and study for our 6-12 hours of class a week, here at Keio they take a more egalitarian approach and cancel class for everyone for a week for Mitasai 🙂
At Mitasai the campus in central Tokyo is transformed from an already pretty cool downtown oasis of calm in the middle of the biggest city on earth, into a bustling market for four days, full of hundreds of stalls selling all kinds of foods and drink. Alongside this there were two stages featuring performances from students of varying quality.
On the main stage whilst I was there there was a university rap battle, imagine BUCS for rap, except this being Japan, the judge was wearing a full three piece suit and rimless glasses. Following this there was the somewhat unusual sight of neon leather clad k-pop dancers, then a Mr Keio competition where the winner walked off with over £7,000.
However, as we had the whole week off I decided to make the most of it, so went and climbed up Mt. Kumotori at 2017m, with three of my dorm mates. Though getting up before 6am two days in a row was not the most pleasant experience inthe world, the views from the top were simply incredible, the photo below doesn’t quite do it justice. If you looked one way you could see Mt. Fuji and the snow peaked Japanese Alps, look they other and the entire Tokyo metropolis, and beyond into the pacific ocean, dappled in the morning sun came into view.
One thing that popping up Mt. Kumotori made me realise is how little I had made of my reading weeks back at Warwick. I’ve had four since I stared uni and can only remember one thing that I did across any of them. When I get back next year I’m definitely going to try and make the most of my last two.
