Day 52 - Waseda Sai

Hey everyone!

November 2nd was the first day of the Waseda Sai (Waseda festival).

As I mentioned in a previous post the Waseda Sai is the biggest university festival in Japan. It is a long standing tradition and is held every year. It certainly isn't the only event held by Waseda but it is the biggest one and it runs on for two days. 

There are lots of food stalls run by the students and performances by the different circles all around campus.

There were two main stages, the biggest was in front of the Okuma Auditorium and the smaller stage was near the Okuma statue. But there were tonnes of other performances going on around the campus.

The range of showcases was really wide. There were performances from accapella groups to dance and cheer leading. There were so many acts to see and they were all worked really hard to give performances that were at a surprisingly high level!

Here was a performance from one of Waseda's Cheerleading clubs. Yes, that's right, Waseda has quite a few Cheerleading circles!

Another performance from what I can only assume to be a muscle man circle? I think this is the same circle that was performing at the opening ceremony. Waseda may have lots of circle but I think even Waseda only has one muscle man group!

A rather peculiar circle if you ask me! But it's always good to have variety, no?

One of my favorite performances of the day was by the Shockers. Shockers is Waseda's male-only cheerleading circle. They did flips, jumps, formations and pyramids and all so enthusiastically! Not only were they talented but it was clear that they were really enjoying themselves. 

This was dancing circle that performed dances in the styles of various cultures. There were not only Japanese students in this circle but there were some exchange students too.

As you can see it was really hectic! There were so many people that had come to enjoy the festival. It seemed like a lot of the visitors were not from the university either. 

One of Waseda's dance circles

The stage in front of Waseda's clock tower

One performance I was looking forward to see was the W.U.B (Waseda University Breakerz) set. W.U.B is a dance circle that incorporates various styles of urban dance including breakdancing, hip-hop and reggae. They showcased each of their dance styles and it was really well done. There were so many people so it was just as well that there was a big screen because being as short as I am, it was hard to see everything!
Unfortunately I didn't manage to get many good photos of them so I am afraid I have only included these two!

Amy, Zoe and I went off to Waseda's Coop shop to buy some Waseda hoodies so we could show our Waseda spirit during the baseball match the next day. We couldn't resist the sweatpants either, so we managed to successfully empty our wallets at the Coop till.

I have to say the highlights of the performances was the Shockers and W.U.B the performances were done well and the cheerleaders and dancers were very impressive!

Overall it was a really fun day and I was left wishing that I could go to the second day of the Waseda Sai. However I had the Waseda-Keio baseball match to look forward to the next day.