Waseda university

We went to meet Akito at the Waseda University today.

We took the train from Kasukabe to Nishiarai, then the bus to Oji, where we had some makudonarudo (McDonald's) for lunch, and finally took the tram to Waseda. Waseda University is big, really big. Not that I know any other university to compare it with but its size did impressed me. Nao and I went from one end of the uni to the other (it took quite a while) trying to find the one building (out of 26) where we were supposed to meet Mr. Tsuchiya and Ms. Shinjo, an assistant maths teacher who also works at the infamous cram school. We found the building but seeing as we still had some time left, we went to an AmPm and I bought an orange juice and a pack of 'Pocky for men'.

At two o'clock we went into building 14, took the escalator and stairs up to level 7 and went to room number 706. Mr Tsuchiya and Ms. Shinjo were eating lunch when we arrived. We talked about girlfriends - boyfriend in Ms. Shinjo's case. Ms. Shinjo then showed me some of her computer art (she does that as a hobby) and gave me a signed postcard she made. We were all a bit hungry/thirsty after that and decided to go to the a shop in the building. Mr. Tsuchiya bought 6 different packs of Pocky - he said i had to try them all - plus a coke for me and some vitamin drink for Nao. Back up to level 7 we went (we took the elevator this time) and started to work our way through the Pocky packs.

Akito came at 4 and took us to the 'International Liberal Studies' building after we had said our goodbyes to Mr. Tsuchiya and Ms. Shinjo. First, we went to the reception to pick up a few brochures about the new program, which Nao was interested in. The Japanese history lecture started at 4:30. The teacher, Prof.Dr. R. Kersten, welcomed me and Nao and told us a bit about the japanese history course that they offer in the as part of the program.

At this point I'll quickly explain a bit about the program. It is all new and only exists as such at Waseda University. Instead of just one, you can choose three courses - which are all in English - in addition to Japanese and English-writing. In the second year, the students are encouraged to study in another country for a semester.

Back to the University. The topic of the lecture was post-WW2 Japan and was extremely interesting - I wish my classes at school were that interesting. After the lecture, I talked to some of the students (all of which are fluent in English) and found out a bit of info about the program.

Before leaving, Akito invited us to come again in a month (after his exams) and sit in on some more classes. Nao and I happily accepted the invitation.

After our visit to Waseda, decided to go to Ginza to check out the Apple Store there and perhaps even get an iPod Shuffle. No such luck. We were told that they had sold all stock within 30minutes.

Now we're planning to get up at 6 in the morning to get to the Apple Store first and hopefully grab 2 iPod Shuffles ;)

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