Wasedasai 2012

On Saturday November 3rd, I meet some friends at Waseda for the first day of Wasedasai, the school festival that happens once a year. It was pretty intense. Clubs work super hard to prepare for the festival, and people from all over (not just Waseda students but students from other universities, families, and just random people) come for the festival. Therefore, it was super crowded. Like really. It took like a half hour to walk through the food stall street. The street with the food booths were especially crowded. People would be shouting, trying to get you to buy what they were selling. And flyers were constantly being handed out. Some students were dressed up in costumes for the event as well. We found the Niji no Kai waffle stand, however, and I bought a waffle (maybe it was one I made the other day?)! At around noon we headed over to one of the main stages to wait for the Male SNSD dance cover group performance to start. At Earlham I saw a video of them preforming, so I was determined to see them during my year here at Waseda. And they were amazing and so entertaining to watch. I never knew a man could look so attractive in high heels and make-up! Haha. I've noticed how cross-dressing is a pretty popular thing here. I mean it's funny, but even so, it seems weird that it is so popular here... Anyway after their performance (which is apparently their last!), we went over to a different stage to check out our friend who was dancing there.

We stayed at that stage area from basically 1:55 to 5 (which a food break in between). We saw a musical/broadway group, the international dance club (which my friend was in), some hip-hop and breakdance dancers, and a k-pop cover dance group. The K-pop dance cover group was amazing. My friends and I were cheering and singing along, but most of the time the rest of the crowd didn't cheer (or even move really) till the end of the performance...we thought it was kinda weird that people weren't being more enthusiastic. We had a great time though. We even went to talk to the K-pop dancers after they were done. Most of them weren't even Waseda students (which was weird since they were performing at the Waseda Festival).

On Sunday the 4th, . I didn't get to Waseda until around 12, so I missed a lot of the morning dances. I was pretty exhausted after standing so much Saturday though, so today I was slow moving.

At around 2 I went to watch some more dances with some of my friends. One of my Japanese friends who studied abroad at Earlham for a year was appearing in a dance, so I was pretty excited. The style of dance she does is called yosakoi, " highly energetic, combining traditional Japanese dance movements with modern music" The dances were seriously amazing.  Everyone in the dance was so expressive and energetic; it looks like a lot of fun! I might ask her about joining (even though they seem way to intense for me). After that I headed over to the Niji waffle booth to help sell waffles. We held signs advertising the waffles and would yell out at people asking them to buy our waffles. Although people usually ignore you, it was a lot of fun getting to take part in selling the waffles. One of my program friends was so good at being a salesman, it was hilarious. He kept pointing at me and saying "mite, gajin! nihongo hanasemasu yo! sugoi desho! waffle kattekudasai!" which is basically: "look, a foreigner! she can speak Japanese! amazing right! please buy a waffle!" Sometimes we would do certain cheers too to try and get people to buy a waffle. We ended up selling out, so I guess some of our advertising worked!

I also ended up participating in the Wasedasai parade with some other Niji no Kai members. At first I was a bit wary when one of the members asked if I wanted to be a part of it, but I'm so glad I said yes. Being in the parade was such a great experience. Our group was behind a car that was playing music and in front of a male cheer leading group called Shockers (who are seriously like celebrities at Waseda). As we walked around Waseda we danced, cheered, and energetically waved our glow scks around. The parade was a bit slow moving at times, but it felt great to be a part of the parade. At the end of the parade we all gathered in the middle of Waseda campus where I ended up meeting my friend who I saw dance earlier. There we did some more cheering and all sang the Waseda school song together (which I don't know yet). It was so energetic and exciting, 盛り上がっていた！Seriously so much fun. This was my first and last Waseda Festival, which is somewhat sad, but I'm glad I had such a great time and was able to participate in the events as well.

It was weird being at Waseda today after all the festivities have ended. The campus seemed so much quieter and less crowded (even when it was a bit crowded at lunch time as usual). It felt as if there wasn't a huge festival there the day before; everything returned to normal. I wish that there was an equivalent festival at my home university. There is really no event that goes on at Earlham, or most American colleges, that can compare to the scale of the Waseda Festival. True there are certain dance performances and other events, but they are no where near the scale or intensity as Wasedasai was. From what I saw, it seems that the students here really put a lot of time an effort into making the best festival that they can. Some groups practice for months so they can perform the best they can at the festival. When the waffles sold out at the Niji no Kai booth, one of the organizers started crying because she was so relieved and happy and had put in so much energy and emotion into Wasedasai. The festival really is a time to acknowledge and appreciate all the amazing things people are doing here. Looking back at Wasedasai I really am so happy that I was able to help sell waffles and participate in the parade. Just going to performances and walking around is fun, but it's a completely different experience actually being a part of the festivities. I hope I never forget this experience!