Went to the GITS Entrance ceremony today at Honjo Campus...
Two main reason for going to the ceremony.. Firstly, I want to feel connected to my Graduate School and this is the best way to do it.. I get to meet fellow first year Masters students and see all the Professors of GITS, which some of them I would not see at all as I will not be taking any of their classes at all.. At the very least, I know how they look like.. :p Secondly, I want to see Honjo Campus, which is located at Saitama-ken, about 1.5 hours train/bus ride from Nishi-Waseda (main campus). Honjo Campus is the most high-tech place with fiber optic internet connections and sophisticated equipments..
Got up about 7:30am and left my room around 8:30am.. Reached GITS Building 29-7 around 9.30am. Rested a while and had my breakfast. Then went to the admin office to wait for the bus to Honjo Campus. If by train, it would cost me about 1,500yen to get there from Takanadobaba Station.. Meet one of Obi-Sensei's new PhD (Japanese) student.. We talked a bit.
The bus left the campus about 15mins late as we had to wait for some students who had some miscommunication. The bus was only 60% full.. The journey by bus took roughly 1.5 hours and we reached Honjo Campus slightly before 12pm.
Mmmm... How should I describe the place?? It was practically as 'ulu' (means isolate or remote in Malay) as you can get.. It was really just a few buildings in the middle of nowhere! There were plenty of wide empty spaces with trees and car parks.. I felt like I was back in Malaysia at some housing estate next to the highway.. In a way, it was the prefect place for doing research and development as there was no distractions at all!!! There is only 1 restaurant at the whole campus.. Didn't feel like eating at that restaurant, so I didn't... Went walking around the place and took a few photos.. Met a fellow Malaysian lady, who is from the government, who will be in Prof. Urano's lab.. she and her 2 friends didn't eat too, as they were fasting...
The entrance ceremony started around 1:30pm. All the professors were seated in from of a small lecture hall facing the new students.. First it was the Dean, Prof. Urano's welcome speech. From his speech, we got to know that in this new intake, there are 34 new Masters students and 10 PhD students, out of which 38 are foreign students!! :o That's more than 85% of the intake of this semester.. Then it was the congratulatory address by Prof. Mochida, who is the CTO of France Telecom Japan. After that it was a short self introduction by all the Professors of GITS from all 3 research areas..
Some of the Professors are humorous while some are serious.. Some told us to work hard and go to the research lab everyday, while some told us to enjoy our two or three (for PhD students) years stay in GITS... Some of their English were very good, while some were barely understandable.. But one common message was sent out to us loud and clear, all of them want us to be the dedicated, hardworking and contributing students of GITS.. which I do plan to do so in my next 2 years.. :)
After the self-intro, a short break and then it was a scholarship award presentation. It was then followed by a brief guidance of the three areas of study for GITS by 3 Professors and the school admin procedures by Kishimoto-san..
At around 4:30pm we were ushered in to the only restaurant in the campus for a reception. The food was okay, but I didn't really get to eat a lot as I was talking to Obi-Sensei and some of my fellow new labmates.. Two from the Philippines and one from Taiwan, all guys... Met a lady from China and another lady from Taiwan from other professors' labs too... Think we will be seeing each other rather often in classes in the future.. There were some entertainment by a group of Japanese Tai-ko (Big drum) players and it was quite entertaining.. We ended the reception singing (in gusto) the Waseda University Anthem. :)
The bus back to Nishi-Waseda left Honjo Campus around 6pm and by the time I reached my room it was almost 8:30... It was a tiring but fruitful day.. :)
Prior to the ceremony I was given my new Student Card, one that proclaims my status as an official tertiary student (no longer a research student), one that I could now use to 'claim' any tertiary student discounts.. :)
Tomorrow, I will be going back to Waseda to register for my Japanese classes and at the same time settle some of my admin stuff that are still pending at GITS.
Some photos of Honjo Campus
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