Had the honor of giving a lecture at the largest university in Japan - Nihon University. And you could squeeze them like this while making a "puni puni" sound.
Zooming back in time to the morning at about 10:40. Is making our way by car to the economics building at Nihon University which is also known as Nichidai .
Cant for the life of me remember what the canteen was like at SOAS.
Professor Barry Natusch and I going over a few details before my talk begins.
I first met Barry at Tokyo CGM Night episode 2 and we talked soon after about the possibility of me giving a talk to his students.
While looking up details for this article, I came across info in English about the Monbukagakusho Scholarship which gave me the idea of interviewing some of the students to find out more.
This then lead to another idea of maybe bringing a group of readers to Nihon University to mingle with the Japanese and foreign students. Would you be interested in something like that?
Some diligent students studying hard. Visiting Nihon University gave me a flashback of my times at London University SOAS where I studied Japanese and Korean language.
SOAS was great - the teachers that I had really cared about whether students were learning or not and done everything they could to support us.
The location was great too near Tottenham Court Road station - I could take a No38 bus straight home to Graham Road Hackney.
Are you pleased with the university that you went to or are attending? If you are not at uni yet, will you choose one in your region or move elsewhere to attend one? Which one will you be attending?
My wife moved to Japan to attend university. After graduating she then moved to the UK to learn English and we met when we were both working part time at a Japanese restaurant.
Is moving overseas to attend university an option for you?
This student is from Taiwan who attended my talk earlier. Here we see him studying English. Unlike this chap however, there are a load who don't study much.
It is a common fact that many (not all) students in Japan have an easy time and don't do an incredible amount of study when they get into university - was able to confirm this with many students and professors too.
One of the reasons is that they have been studying hard all their life to make it into a good university and are drained after getting in - thus many of them take it easy.
While its tough to get into universities over here and easy to graduate once they are in, I found that London University was the opposite. I jumped into the second year of a 4 year degree through a Japanese language entrance examination - all my studying up until then was self study through manga, anime, games and music.
Once I was in however, the actual course with constant tests was difficult enough to eliminate most of the class by the end of the 4 years. Only 3 or 4-ish out of 30-ish students made it through to the end.
What are your courses like? Is it playtime or work your nuts or eyes off?
In the parking lot to discover a Mikoshi used during Japanese Festivals.
And this is what Barry uses to get to work. Could do with a few stickers.
A snap of the ceremonies that take place when new students join Nihon University. Didn't have anything like this back in the UK! And this is what one of the graduation ceremonies was like for Nihon University students. Do let us know what your entrance/graduation ceremonies are like.
More Japanese schooling related photo posts below.