So, last year in the fall season there was the first 文化祭 (School Culture Festival) that I went to in Japan. It was held in OKAYAMA University, except it was the other campus. SHIKATA Campus is known for all things medical; ie: dentistry, doctors, nurses, etc.
SHIKATA Campus is about a 40 minute bike ride from TSUSHIMA Campus. Along the way, our group actually another market festival which the photos above show. A short stop there and then we continued onto our destination.
Reaching the school, we actually ran into a buddy of mine. His name is JUN, and he is part of the arm wrestling club. He wanted to know if any of the people in my group were interested, and Ben (England) was up to the challenge. It was actually really impressive, Ben took on three Japanese challengers and won all three with the same arm. Because of it he took home a t-shirt with KANJI written on it.
At the culture fest, there were many different stalls selling food, and a stage with various singers and dancers. There were also people walking around selling food and drink. It was a very interesting experience, especially because there are not that many foreigners at this campus.
We were treated a little differently, because we are foreigners, and the Japanese kids didn't know how to react. Nevertheless it was a very fun time. The worst part about this whole trip was the lack of money on my part to buy food, and it started to rain near the end of the event. It meant that we had to ride home for 40 minutes in the down pour.
Going over my other old photos, I noticed that I didn't really have that many photos from our campus culture festival. It is unfortunate really. Because our festival was bigger than the one at SHIKATA, the only thing was there was no stage for performers. There was a rumor going around that there was a room that had performances in it, but I couldn't find it.
Oh well, next year? Haha... More photos, click HERE!
For the rest of the photos, click on the title or HERE!
Wow! Another set of, what to me feel like, ancient photos. There was a dodgeball tourney in OKAYAMA, and as part of the English Cafe, we were asked to participate as the foreigner team. I believe the event was back in November 2009.
We all gathered early on a Sunday morning, and went to a gym that was near the east entrance of OKAYAMA University. It was an interesting event, especially because we get to see the difference between Japan and America when it comes to indoor sports for the first time.
An example would be: no outdoor shoes on the gym floor. If you look closely at these photos, you will notice that some of us don't have shoes on, where as others do. It was required that you showed a bag at the door with another pair of shoes in them. If you didn't you had to leave your shoes at the door.
That meant that there were a ton of shoes that were left at the vestibule of the gym. I wish I got a photo of it, because it was really crazy.
Next, we got into lines and greeted each other. It was an interesting experience, because we don't do that typically in the U.S. Maybe if there were only two teams, but not when there are 10 - 12 teams waiting. After the greeting we sat down, and listened to the rules. Unfortunately, they were all in Japanese, and there was no translation.
On that note, I will say that the English cafe did come in last place. Not only did they not know how to play, but it was a sport that was not played often in our native countries. It was still a fun event to go to and spectate though. The Japanese really had fun with it.
The Japanese people really took to the sport, and played it seriously. Although, a lot of us had a hard time taking them serious, because they were dressed up in ridiculous attire. It really wasn't until viewing them play, that we were really shown the seriousness of the teams. They didn't mess around.
All in all, it was a fun event. Not that many photos were taken, but the rest of them can be seen by clicking HERE!
For the rest of the photos, please click on the title, or HERE!
SHIKATA Campus is about a 40 minute bike ride from TSUSHIMA Campus. Along the way, our group actually another market festival which the photos above show. A short stop there and then we continued onto our destination.
At the culture fest, there were many different stalls selling food, and a stage with various singers and dancers. There were also people walking around selling food and drink. It was a very interesting experience, especially because there are not that many foreigners at this campus.
