The University of Tokyo held its May festival (gogatsusai) last weekend. One of the biggest surprises for me was the Lego club. I think it’s both odd and awesome that Japan’s most prestigious University even has a Lego club. Particularly amazing were the Lego portraits of two famous graduates, Dr. Kajita and Dr. Koshiba, who both won Nobel prizes.
The demonstration I was most interested in seeing though, was the one performed by the Kashima-shin Ryu Kobujutsu club. Kashima-shin Ryu is one of the most respected kobudo (traditional martial arts) schools in Japan. Holding on to the old ways, the training is still kept “secret” from non-members (but I did manage to get these shots before I was told to put my camera away). The footwork and movements looked very similar to the kobudo I study (which is what I was hoping to find). They gave demonstrations of jujutsu, sword, naginata, bo (six foot staff), and tanto (knife). It was all good stuff, I wish I could’ve filmed it.
On the cool-tech side of things, the Robot club, VR club, and Formula racing club all had impressive exhibits with fun gadgets to play with and try out.
Robert R. Gray 