welcome to keio

 Before the big fancy Welcome Party (taking place in the cafeteria) I ventured up on the 7th floor of a building on campus and discovered this 'roof terrace' thing. It's an outside area with chairs and tables for studying/socialising and you can spot Tokyo Tower all lit up in the background! Very pretty indeed.

Too bad summer is more or less over. I imagine it'd be a tad too cold to be here in winter. Cool place nevertheless!

 Then it was time for the longed-for Welcome Party. Mostly because there would be food. A. No cooking, B. Free. Win-win in other words.

And it exceeded all expectations. I mean, come on, when you hear it's going to be in the cafeteria, you sort of imagine bowls of crisps/sweets/similar and perhaps a bottle of tea or two. No, no. About 200 people were there, and professors and principals welcoming us to Japan and Keio. There was even a communal toast!

And look at the tables! There was sushi, fried chicken, onigiri, noodle dishes - and fruit! Pineapple, grapes and grapefruit! I have not had proper fruit in a month, so that pineapple was delicious. Probably the last I'll have for a year as well so I had my fair share let me tell you that. Oh, and I didn't realise (or wasn't told) until the very end of the party that you don't eat the skin of Japanese grapes. Woops. It's not dangerous or anything, just doesn't taste very nice. I thought it was a wee bit bitter...

 Speech, speech, speech. By principals, Heads of International Center, an exchange student etc etc. I'd love to share what they said but as it was all in Japanese/Japanese English I don't know myself. I'm sure it was very warm and nice and welcoming though. However at this point we wanted to get to the food more than anything else, so it felt a bit dragged out.

 Afterwards there was an after party organised by one of the student's organisations, but cheap as we were (it was expensive) we headed out a group on our own. Found a bar/restaurant place where there was space and what an entrance we made! Imagine 8 foreigners in this little side street/alley area in Tokyo stomping in to a local bar. Heads were turned in such a manner you'd expect whiplash went around like a viral disease. And the staring - the staring! Rather amusing.

No late night for us tonight though, but was nice to go out even just for a drink with friends. Also met a girl who plays for the Keio basketball team and who promised to let me know when they have games so I can watch! She was sort of my Japanese equivalent: played for 11 years, shooting guard, loved shooting 3-pointers and sometimes even played in number 7. Maybe I can live my basketball Universe through her?

Welcome to Keio!

Jo x