The Beginning of a Busy Weekend

As it's been about a week since my last post, I'll start there with my updates.

Class as usual on Monday and Tuesday (though Tuesday Kate and I got to give a presentation on how the US election will affect Japan in our Japanese politics class). Wednesday was an errand day. Kate, Laura, and I all headed off to the Immigration Bureau to apply for work permits. Living in Tokyo is very expensive so I've started searching for possible students (might have found one already!). Then there was class again Thursday.

Since I don't have class on Fridays, this will be a four day weekend for me. Monday is a National Holiday (Culture Day). Waseda will be holding a festival starting tomorrow though some activities started as early as yesterday.

This is a video of some cheerleaders that were performing during lunchtime on Friday. They gave us candy :D They are somehow affiliated with Waseda though I'm not sure how as Waseda's colors are red and gold (no blue) and we're not the Falcons, our mascot is a bear. (Also, please ignore Rachel and my conversation bits in the background, it's not that interesting.)

Today I went to the first of the Waseda-Keio baseball games (SouKeiSe, where Sou is Waseda--don't ask it's a kanji thing, Kei is Keio, and Se is fight). And Waseda WON!!! 3-1! Now, I don't particularly like to watch baseball as I think it's incredibly boring to watch. However, this was different as I barely paid any attention to the game. The Japanese are very into their cheering. We sat down in the stadium about an hour before the game started so we could learn cheers. So much fun.



Here's some cheerleader video from the game. These are Waseda cheerleaders. There are guys too but I didn't get any good shots of them though they are INCREDIBLE! Being a male cheerleader here does not carry the same stigma as it does in the States.

Now for some boring old photos:

Here we have the sign behind the Waseda section of the stands. There's our bear mascot ready for baseball!

This is the Waseda flag. These guys would stand there and hold the furled flag horizontally for about half an hour before unfurling. Those things looked way heavy, but they just stood there with these serious expressions on their faces. Also, that silver tip looked like it was designed to harpoon whales.

And the winning scoreboard! By the way, once we won instead of leaving the stadium, everyone stayed for over half an hour to complete the formalities. Waseda sang our alma mater then basically saluted the Keio students then Keio did the same back. The players all bowed to each other probably more than once, and the flag guys on both sides bowed more than once to each other too (with the flags). Japanese people have some peculiar habits...

I might post again after the activities of Monday for this is a busy weekend so there'll be lots to tell about hopefully. Tomorrow is Su-chan's birthday (and Kathy's!) and Monday my Aunt Suzanne arrives. So look forward to more later!