I Ran with Q-chan! | Hideyuki Tokuda (Dean of the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies)
2008.07.18
Dean's Diary
I Ran with Q-chan!
Hideyuki Tokuda
Dean, Faculty of Environment and Information Studies
On Saturday, June 28, we invited Hiroshi Kato, the first dean of the Faculty of Policy Management, and Hideo Aiso, the first dean of the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, for a joint class of "The Creation of Policy Management" and "The Creation of Environment and Information Studies." The four of us—Professor Agawa, myself, and the two former deans—held a panel discussion on "The Past, Present, and Future of SFC." I would like to once again express my heartfelt gratitude to them for taking the time out of their very busy schedules to speak to the first-year students of SFC. First, each of them spoke for about 20 minutes about their passionate aspirations at the time of SFC's founding, which was followed by the panel discussion and a Q&A session. Hearing their voices again after so long, they sounded so vibrant that if I closed my eyes, I felt as if I had time-slipped back to 1990. This year's new students are truly lucky.
On Saturday, July 5, the day of the Tanabata Festival, Professor Agawa and I gave a presentation about the faculties at an SFC information session. The venue was filled with prospective students and their parents, and I was surprised to see that many had come all the way from the Kansai region. The Q&A session ran 30 minutes over schedule, but I believe we were able to answer a wide variety of questions. One comment that particularly stuck with me came from someone working at a company, who said, "I have four Keio University graduates as subordinates, but compared to graduates from the Faculty of Economics, don't graduates from the Faculty of Policy Management tend to not see things through to the end, or perhaps lack a fundamental grounding?" After Professor Agawa's response, I added a somewhat superfluous comment, but I believe that assigning the right person to the right department is also crucial for fully drawing out their abilities.
Now, regarding this entry's topic of the "Olympics," there is one Olympic Games that holds a personal memory for me: the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
At the time, our beloved dog Cookie had not yet joined our family, so my wife and I decided to join the IBM Olympic team. Due to my work schedule, the two of us had to travel to Sydney separately from the other members, arriving on the day of the women's marathon. From the airport, we went straight to our accommodation, a luxurious(?) cruise ship, checked in, dropped our luggage in our small room, and rushed to the main stadium. With the spectator tickets we received on the ship in hand, we headed for the train station while looking at a map, and we heard that a Japanese runner, Naoko Takahashi, was in first place. The pack of women marathoners had already passed through downtown, but the course route still held the raw aftermath of the runners' passage.
We found the station and finally managed to jump on a train heading to the stadium. Several helicopters were flying in the sky in the direction we were heading. It seemed the lead group must be somewhere around there. The train was also pushing forward, and the sound of the helicopters grew louder and closer. By the time we got off at the stadium station, it felt as if the helicopters were almost directly overhead. We could also hear loud cheers coming from the stadium. An attendant told us that Takahashi was running in first place. They said that if we ran to our seats, we could still see the moment she crossed the finish line. So, we silently dashed up the long flight of stairs. Our assigned seats were quite high up. The moment I looked up at the sign to check our seat numbers, there was a tremendous roar of cheers and applause.
Yes, it was the exact moment Ms. Takahashi crossed the finish line in first place. Just a few tens of seconds later, we reached our seats and were able to catch the very end of her victory lap. It was a shame we missed the moment she finished, but it's a fond memory that while she was running, we were also running inside the same stadium.
P.S.
I took some photos of the night view of the main stadium and the Water Cube just before the Beijing Olympics, for your reference. I think marathons are tough not only for the athletes but for the spectators as well.
(Date Published: 2008/07/18)