Okashira Relay Talk: "A Ritual I Performed in My Student Days" | Hideyuki Tokuda (Dean of the Graduate School of Media and Governance)
2004.06.19
Congratulations on the two consecutive wins in the Keio-Waseda rivalry after a long time. This is all thanks to the people from SFC who went to cheer them on. Since this relay talk has been lively with stories about the Keio-Waseda rivalry, starting from our student days, I will share a story about it from my own student days, but please also support the Keio-Waseda rivalry in other sports.
There are three things I started in junior high school: tennis, skiing, and computers. In the tennis club, I practiced almost every day on the tennis courts of the Keio Futsubu School. As for skiing, it was mostly just at ski classes in the winter and spring. I was able to use a computer with assembly language for one week a year during a workshop held at the Faculty of Engineering in Musashi-Koganei. Luckily, I am still involved with all three. In college, I was in the Faculty of Engineering, so I belonged to two clubs on the Hiyoshi Campus: KCS (Keio Computer Society) and KSA (Keio Ski Association). Of course, the Keio-Waseda rivalry was a main event, along with the welcome training camp for new members, so I went to cheer with my club mates quite often.
KCS was a relatively quiet club, but KSA was quite extreme. First-year students had the duty of saving seats for the club members all night. We would go to Jingu Stadium the night before, lay down newspapers, and wait in line almost all night. The next morning, senior students would appear from somewhere, bringing us rice balls and miso soup they had made. They were truly delicious. At that time, Tabuchi-kun was still at Hosei University, and they had won four consecutive championships until the spring of 1971.
I believe it was the autumn Keio-Waseda rivalry. Elated by our first championship in a while, we headed to Ginza for a celebratory drink, as was customary. After that, the "ritual" began. All of us linked arms in a scrum, and with a shout of "Ready, set, go!" we jumped into the fountain. It was the large fountain in Hibiya Park. As it happened, my friends on either side of me lost their footing and slipped into the water. I was lucky (?) enough to remain standing, so I ended up having to hastily pull them out. Our student uniforms were soaking wet. When we got out of the fountain, one of them exclaimed, "My wallet is gone!" We were already freezing, but we went back into the fountain to search for the wallet. When I put my hand on the bottom of the fountain, it was all sludge. I remember our celebratory mood vanished in an instant, but now it's a fond memory of the Keio-Waseda rivalry.
By all means, have a fulfilling student life with no regrets.
(Posted: 2004/06/19)