KEIO University Circles (Sakuru)

     We were back around 8 a.m. from last night. Met lots of people from our dorm going to school on the way. I decided I needed to get up at 12, as today was the last day to enjoy crazy days at campus, where people are dancing, singing and recruiting you. 

     I managed. The day was sunny and warm. On the way out I saw Kyohei, our Japanese friend, and we headed to the campus together. 

     I was simply enjoying the weather and great people, and awesome atmosphere. After a tasty lunch, I went around to search for interesting clubs and talk to people. Many clubs tried to recruit me. To my luck I found a representative of Keio boxing club sleeping on a table. Luckily, he spoke Japanese. He explained, that this is all serious, they train 6 days a week. He gave me his number and a map with directions how to get to the gym. And here came Kyohei, just on time. He was now free and was eager to show me the way to the boxing gym.

     We walked to the eastern  of the campus, down the hill. Along the road there were many buddings for different sports: tennis, judo, sumo, gymnastics and many more. The sports culture in really strong here in Japan, I was completely wrong in one of my first posts. We passed by the boxing gym and saw some people there, they waved at us asking to come it - that's what we did. They have taken us with Japanese hospitality. Two guys were on the ring, others looking. Few girls were also there watching the match. Kyohei helped to explain my situation in Japanese and the guys were eager to see me the next day (Saturday) at 11 in the gym. Awesome.

     Kyohei left and I returned to the main square and main stage, freestyle ballers were performing: 

Then it seemed like it was over: the guys in the suits started to walk around yelling smth loudly. I went in to the building which is headquarters of all clubs. There are 5 floors and all the rooms there are occupied by circles. Yesterday all walls of this building were full with promotional posters everywhere. Now people were taking everything off- school was about to start tomorrow. Japanese people have classes on Saturdays as well. 

     On the third floor I found a big room full of people, my favorite band (from yesterday) was playing again. I joined the dancing near the stage. After the performance, I asked, when I could hear them play again. One of the guys took me to their room, gave me a brochure, explained the schedule and gave a CD of their songs. Great people! Japanese hospitality! I returned back to the big room, thanked all the musician and vocalists (and they thanked me), and  a tour around the building. On some of the floors people were just practicing musical instrument (by themselves) in the middle of the corridor. WOW. These people are strange in a very cool way.

Performance of K.B.R. modern Shacks band

NEW JAPANESE FRIENDS

     Kotani-san's wife was downstairs and willing to study some Japanese with me. We learned for around an hour till it got busy in her office. I decided not to disturb and left. 

     In the lobby few Japanese guys met me. They said they were pleased to meet me, and were happy to hear I was Russian. One said, he wants to go to Sochi Olympics, but without Russian friends he can't do it... We exchanged contacts in Line. In a few hours both guys sent me messages, how pleased they were to meet me, what their hobbies was, where they were from and that they wanted to hand out some other time. Being a foreigner in Tokyo is definitely an advantage. 

DAY 9: Helpful nation

HELPFUL NATION & BAZAAR

     Japanese people are amazing! In our dorm there is a guy called Masa. He is always downstairs helping Kotani-san. And he also helps us a lot.

     Today was the day of announcement of Japanese language placement test results. We could see them at Mita or Hiyoshi campus. We invited Masa to accompany us and he was happy to do that. As usual we didn't know where to go... Neither me nor Ondrej. Not because we didn't know where the place we were looking for was located, simply because we didn't know what place we were looking for. After wondering around, we figured out the location. We found the board with the results: great, level 1-2. 

     We heard from other CEMS student, that today was the day of sale of kitchen stuff  in Hiyoshi International House dorm. We needed some things thus we decided to go there, traditionally not knowing where it was located. Luckily we found an ad in the wall of international office about this sale with an address. We grabbed a random Japanese guy and asked if he knew where it was. He started to search on his mobile. It took quite a while. Then he asked to wait, took our Japanese guy (Masa) and left... In around 10 minutes they came back with a printout of a map. Awesome! Some random guy has done such a effort to help us out. But it wasn't done yet. He said, that he would show us how to get there. Really??? This is not the first time it happened to ask when we asked for a direction, a person took us to a place instead of just explaining how to get there. The place was 10 minutes walking distance from the campus. Outside there were few things for free takeaway (hangers, kitchen towels). Then we were invited to go inside to a small room full of cups, plates and stuff of this kind. Japanese ladies ruling that place (around 5 ladies many years of age) were happy to see foreigners there and were asking where we were from. A young looking energetic woman came to me and asked where I went to school here in Tokyo. I said Keio. She replied that all ladies in the room were Keio graduates and and she had graduated 57 years ago (she said she was 81 now). She was so little but sooo energetic! Speaking quite good English! I was really impressed. 

    We managed to pick up lots of things for our kitchen and paid around 4 Euro for all the things. Now our kitchen was fully equipped and ready for guests. 

GUESTS

     CEMS group hasn't been together in a while, thus we decided to have a dinner at Shimoda dorm. We got some noodles from the supermarket and went to the common kitchen they have. It was a nice evening with lots of laughs. As we were officially signed in as guests, we had to leave at 10. However as usually we didn't want to stop on that and decided to show Celine and Joana (our CEMS colleagues) our dorm and how life goes here. 

     We arrived at Motosumiyushi. Kotani-san has met us downstairs friendly and happy as always. A big group of Japanese students was hanging out in our "hanging out room" and they were happy to see us. The first thing they gave us was some Japanese sweets and tea. Then Kotani-san (as always) brought some more sweets and cakes. The people in the room were quite young (18-19 yo), but we were happy to meet them. Guys were shy and gathered outside the room discussing something. Girls were sitting with us asking many questions about where we were from. One of the first questions of one young girl was: do you have facebook? I said that I didn't use it so often... The guys outside seemed to like Joana very much. The bravest one came and asked us if she had a boyfriend. After a while, another guy was literally pushed into the room by others. He said: "Hello! my name is ..." (looking at Joana). Then he attempted to leave the room, but the others pushed him back in and told him to continue. He continued: "I am 19 years old". He tried to go out again, but they wouldn't let him out. Then he said something else and finally others let the poor guy leave the room. 

     The girls seemed to like us also. One of the girls who asked about facebook came to me with her phone and asked to spell my name so that she could add me (here I couldn't say no...). Now I have a new facebook friend! 

     We stayed for another little while. I was hoping that Kotani-san's whife would come out, but it was quite late and apparently she was already in bed. CEMS girls said, that their dorm was completely different and they would come visit us again to talk to more Japanese people. 

RANDOM FACT

     Every evening around Hiyoshi station after 11 o'clock you can see people queuing. I was wondering why...  In Russia they sometime queue waiting for a marshrutka (a small bus). Here it was different. People were waiting in line for a taxi. The line was moving quickly, but there were around 40 people standing. Impressive.

VIEW FROM THE BALCONY