Month: October 2019

Just like those of the previous years, the 2019 Tohoku University festival has a wide variety of performances scheduled. This includes dancers, singers, bands, and comedians. However, the full list of entertainers has not yet been released. It will apparently only be available once the festival is opened to the public. 

Aside from the entertainers, the university festival also has trial lectures on various topics. This year, there will be six lecturers: Mr. Kiyotaka Naoe, Mr. Yutaka Furuya, Mr. Toshiaki Muramoto, Mr. Norihiro Nakamura, Mr. Tomoyuki Yambe, and Mr. Hajime Mushiaki. Each lecture will be held at Room 202 at Building B for 1 hour. Forty-five minutes of each lecture is dedicated to the speaker while fifteen minutes will be allotted for questions from the audience. We have summarized the dates, lecture time, and topic of each lecture below. Sadly, for the people who cannot understand Japanese that well, the lectures will all be in Japanese. 

Lecturer	Date	Time	Title (translated from Japanese)
Mr. Kiyotaka Naoe	November 2	10:30 to 11:30	What is learning? Liberal arts? Literary fusion? Questions from scientific history and scientific philosophy
Mr. Yutaka Furuya	November 3	13:30 to 14:30	The History of Economics: Following the “Economic Principles” of Philadelphia
Mr. Toshiaki Muramoto	November 4	10:30 to 11:30	Word, mind, and communication
Mr. Norihiro Nakamura	November 2	13:30 to 14:30	Big history that unites history and natural science
Mr. Tomoyuki Yambe	November 3	10:30 to 11:30	Introduction to human-machine theory: Basic and clinical aspects of artificial organs
Mr. Hajime Mushiaki	November 4	13:30 to 14:30	Brain rhythm and frontal function: brain network and human network

However, there are other activities that even people with little experience in Japanese can enjoy. Some students have planned to set up a “haunted house” in one of the rooms on the campus. The premise behind it is that the location is an old, abandoned hospital where illegal human experiments were once conducted. The ghosts of the patients that died there still roam the halls, and they don’t want you to leave. 

The university festival will also have a popular comedian’s performance. In 2017, around 1,000 people graced this show and enjoyed the event.

Finally, there is the Mr. and Ms. Tohoku University pageant. It is highly popular amongst Japanese universities to host personality pageants, and it has become quite a rage across the country. In every way, the university festival this year is surely expected to be something of dreams while living the mortal life. The committee is excited to welcome you from November 02!

Schools in Japan regularly hold festivals on-campus, and Tohoku University is no different. For the past 70 years, Tohoku University has held its own school festival. This year, the 71st Tohoku University Festival will be held from November 2 to 4 at the Kawauchi-Kita campus. The festival, which is open to the public, draws in large crowds every year. In fact, last year alone, 41,000 people visited the festival. 

The university festival celebrates and showcases the activities of the students. As usual, there will be several exciting activities, such as food and refreshment stalls and booths for children (Ennichi). As always, there are a variety of performances scheduled for the festival, but these performances will be split into two groups. Some will be performed at the main stage while others will be held at the plaza stage. 

Every festival has had its own theme. For example, the 2017 festival had the theme of “recalling the memories of our childhood and celebrating the passions of our youth”. The theme of the 2018 festival was “laugh and bring good fortune”. The theme of the festival this year is “dancing in the mortal life, living in the dreams”. The festival committee has chosen to follow an Edo period vibe as they will decorate the festival with Japanese lanterns. 

Tohoku University festival is no small affair. In 2017, the festival attracted 33,000 visitors and the 3-day festival costed ￥10 million to put on. It was also the first year where an approach towards internationalization took place and English translations for several stalls and general information were made available.

The festival committee itself is an official club at the university and anyone who is interested can join. The 2017 festival leader Ryuhei Notsuke, spoke to The Sentinel in an interview and explained the process. He said, “Anyone who wants to make a change and has a strong feeling for the school can join the club. The selection of the executive committee is random. The leader of the festival is chosen through voting by former members. The leader is always a sophomore and this activity is meant for freshmen and sophomores only.”

With the year-long planning finally taking shape in early November, the university festival is a memory enshrined by the students, their year-long activities and more importantly, the celebration of university life.