I’ve been steadily going through a list of well-known places in the Tokyo area while here. Each trip has yielded amazing sights, good food, and surprising cultural events (not all the time, but every once in a while). However, one thing I recommend that everyone should check out if they have time is a university cultural festival. I don’t know about the spring, but I know a bunch of cultural festivals occur in November. My friend and I managed to attend two: Waseda University’s and Keio University’s. Two reasons why you should go: it’s cheap and a great way to experience some Japanese culture.
The two cultural festivals I attended were both free of charge. The trick is finding it. Waseda University’s cultural festival my friend had told me about (and she had found out from a friend). Turns out the festival we had attended for that school was not its main festival but rather a smaller section done by its science department located at the science campus (go figure). It was still great fun though and probably better for us because it meant a much smaller crowd. Keio University I heard about from the Japanese girls on our hall (a good number attend Keio). We arrived there fine because we just followed all the college-aged kids who left the train station at the same time.
Outside you’ll see lines of stalls, probably selling food. All of them are decorated with construction paper and are probably manned by one particular university club. Be prepared to be bombarded by college students, holding posters, and advertising for their stalls. These stalls are a great place to try some Japanese food for cheap. I had hashimaki (okonomiyaki on chopsticks) for the first time at Keio.
If you follow along these stalls, you’ll eventually hit a stage. My friend and I got to see many awesome performances there. Waseda University had a bunch of dances that looked like classical Japanese dance with a modern twist (maybe). At Keio my friend and I saw a couple of juggling performances, Michael Jackson dances done by the Michael Jackson club, and a bunch of awesome dances done by another dance group. Everyone was very talented and blew our socks away.
Don’t spend the entire time outside. I recommend going inside the university’s buildings because there are events inside. Waseda had a bingo sheet with the room numbers as the spaces (we did not know where we would have gone if we had gotten bingo). Each room had a different kind of activity, probably relating to the club that was hosting. Keio had a floor dedicated to each music club and each held a performance. The third floor had a bunch of lecture halls with more performances. I’m sure there was more but I had no idea how to go about finding them.
A fair warning to all who decide to attend a cultural festival: they are not super English friendly. These events are not catered to tourists so that means while some things may be written in English, not everything is. Also, the level of English each college student knows is different so you may end up getting someone who’s struggling with English or someone who knows a decent amount (chances are that you’ll meet the former rather than the latter). That should not deter you from going but just be prepared. Probably go in with a basic understanding of hiragana and katakana. It’s definitely worth seeing to see what Japanese college students get involved in.
