Latest news with #MeijiUniversity
Yomiuri Shimbun
3 days ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Tokyo Bridge Connects 2 Cathedrals Across Kanda River; Hijiribashi Bridge Attracts Fans of Suzume for Picture Opportunities
Hijiribashi bridge, which crosses the Kanda River, remains crowded more than 30 years after author Ryotaro Shiba wrote about it in his book 'Kaido o Yuku' (Go on the road). Meiji University and Nihon University are nearby, giving the area a relaxed student town atmosphere. The bridge gets its name from the fact that it connects two holy places on the river — Yushima Seido, also known as the Mausoleum of Confucius at Yushima, and Nikolaido, also known as the Holy Resurrection Cathedral. Hijiri means holy in Japanese. Hijiribashi bridge was built in 1927 as part of reconstruction following the Great Kanto Earthquake that struck in 1923 and destroyed both Yushima Seido and Nikolaido. The bridge, measuring 92 meters long and 22 meters wide, is made of steel and concrete and was designed by Mamoru Yamada, a modernist architect who later designed the Kyoto up from the Aioizaka slope next to Yushima Seido, the bridge is beautiful with its large, smooth half-moon arches. Four small arches adorn the bridge at each end as if they are playing a rhythm. The simple appearance of the bridge conveys its strong will to withstand earthquakes. The JR Chuo and Sobu lines and Tokyo Metro's Marunouchi Line run under the bridge. The manmade valley is deep enough for the subway to reach above the early Edo period (1603-1867), the shogunate had the Sendai clan excavate the valley for flood control. Eventually, the valley became overgrown with plants and trees, giving it the nickname 'Meikei,' and even today, the street just south of the Kanda River is still called Meikei-dori. Yoshio Awano, 84, who runs Cafe Hotaka along the street where he was born and raised, said, 'Even now, with all the buildings around, a nice breeze passes by when I walk along Hijiribashi.' When he was a child, he climbed up on the wide straight railing. 'I would be scolded now as it was so dangerous,' he said with a laugh. On weekends, people including foreign tourists line the bridge with cameras. Fans from all over the world gather to take pictures from the same angle that the main character looked down from in Makoto Shinkai's anime film 'Suzume.' The bridge, which has connected two religious structures for nearly 100 years, is now itself cherished as a sacred place. ***Hijiribashi bridge Address: Between Kanda Surugadai 4-chome, Chiyoda Ward, and Yushima 1-chome, Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo Access: Near the Hijiribashi exit of JR Ochanomizu Station
Wales Online
12-06-2025
- Sport
- Wales Online
Eddie Jones calls in university student to Japan squad ahead of Wales tour
Eddie Jones calls in university student to Japan squad ahead of Wales tour The 21-year-old recently featured for Japan U23s on their tour of Australia in April Japan national rugby union team head coach Eddie Jones poses with a ball (Image: Getty Images ) Eddie Jones has called a university student into Japan's training squad ahead of their upcoming two-Test series against Wales in July. A 37-man group will meet up next week for a training camp in Miyazaki City, with Jingo Takenoshita, a third-year student at Meiji University, included in Jones' squad. The 21-year-old is one of 16 uncapped players in a youthful Japan squad - with an average age of just over 26 years old. There is just one player with more than 50 caps in the training camp, with 87-cap back-row Michael Leitch - a veteran of four World Cups with the Brave Blossoms - likely to be a familiar face to Welsh fans. The vast majority of the squad are based in Japan. Only Toulouse scrum-half Naoto Saito is based elsewhere, having joined the French giants from Tokyo Sungoliath last year. Takenoshita is the stand-out name, given he only celebrated his 21st birthday this week and is still studying at Meiji University. Article continues below He had been involved in the recent tour of Australia by Japan U23s in April, which Jones took charge of. Takenoshita started all three of their tour matches at full-back. Get the latest breaking Welsh rugby news stories sent straight to your inbox with our FREE daily newsletter. Sign up here. Japan started their tour with a 43-31 win over the Australian Barbarians, before losing 26-54 to Australia U20s and 31-36 to Sydney club side Randwick. The full-back - who was playing for Japan's U20s last year - will be competing with Toshiba's Takuro Matsunaga & Black Rams pair Ichigo Nakakusu & Taira Main in order to feature against Wales next month. The wider training squad will meet up on Monday for a training camp ahead of the two Tests against Matt Sherratt's side. Japan welcome Wales to Kitakyushu on July 5, before facing them again in Kobe on July 12. Article continues below Wales head to Japan looking to end a 17-Test losing streak, having not won an international match since the World Cup pool stage victory over Georgia in October 2023. The run of defeats has seen them tumble down the world rankings to 12th in the world - one place ahead of Japan - while it also cost Warren Gatland his job. The search for a new head coach is still ongoing - with Cardiff boss Sherratt taking charge of the summer tour on a temporary basis.
Japan Times
07-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Japan Times
Tokyo Humanities Cafe feeds hungry minds
What do cookie decorating, lesbian cinema and Roger Fry's theory of art have in common? That sounds like the set-up to a weird joke, but the answer is that they were all recent presentation topics at Tokyo Humanities Cafe, a free quarterly event held in Ryozan Park Cafe in Sugamo. Conducted in English, THC meetups consist of four speakers from the world of the humanities sharing a 15-minute presentation on their research or passion, a setup similar to a TED Talk or Pecha-Kucha Night. THC is organized by two professors, Alex Watson of Meiji University and Laurence Williams of Sophia University, both of whom specialize in 18th— and 19th-century English literature. The idea for the event came about back in 2016 when Watson, Williams and two other Tokyo-based academics were looking for a way to connect the city's humanities researchers. The Japanese capital is home to some 145 institutes of higher learning, with a dizzying array of programs, lectures and initiatives. Yet the group found it difficult to keep tabs with what was going on outside their own academic bubbles, and discovered a lack of awareness among their overseas peers with regard to the high caliber of research being conducted here. As a solution, the four founded the nonprofit Tokyo Humanities Project, which involved launching a Facebook page to list upcoming events and publish short interviews with academics about their current projects. To promote the page, the group decided to host an informal spin-off event in 2017, inviting four professors to speak. Even with Facebook as their sole vehicle for publicity, they attracted an impressive crowd. The response was so positive that Watson and Williams felt there was enough demand to continue hosting live events. 'People just like to hear people speak live, right? We live in a world in which everything gets consumed through screens and our attention span is just broken up into two-minute YouTube videos,' says Williams, 44. The in-person experience, meanwhile, forces deeper engagement. It's a chance in the multitasking, perma-connected digital world to just sit and think on one thing, encouraged by politesse to focus on the speaker and genuinely consider their thesis. A live presentation offers a richness of nonverbal cues and an immersion in atmosphere and community that's missing when you're behind a screen. For academics too, the experience of speaking to a diverse lay audience has benefits. 'Presenting at the cafe is a really good challenge for them,' Williams says. 'Because often if you're presenting as an academic, you're speaking to an audience that you know already has a certain kind of background knowledge about the field. You don't really have to try and think in broader terms like: Why is this important? Why is this interesting to a broader audience? How can I explain this in terms that make sense to the person on the street?' Over time, Williams and Watson began reaching out to speakers beyond the academic world as well, exploring the question of what exactly the humanities encompass. 'Some of the best talks have been from people who, when we asked them, they're like, 'I'm not sure I'm exactly humanities,' but they bring something completely fresh to it,' says Watson, 45. The crew behind THC are always on the lookout for new presenters with fresh perspectives as a way to keep the events interesting for regular attendees, including themselves. While there is an odd theme, they are usually looking for a balance of disciplines and a mix of Japanese and non-Japanese speakers. Recently, they've begun inviting musicians to perform, and they want to consider how to include more visual arts and branch into new areas like video games. Anne-Gaëlle Saliot of Duke University gives a lecture on the classic French New Wave film 'Hiroshima mon amour.' | Courtesy of Alex Watson Watson avoids adherence to a narrow definition of the humanities, referring to a 'vast field of endeavors' instead. 'We've never really put boundaries around it in this cafe, where you can get people from an enormous range of disciplines,' he says. THC has also made networking and community-building a priority. In between presentations, participants can circulate, ask questions of the speakers and introduce themselves to each other, all facilitated by a cabaret-style setup with many shared tables rather than forward-facing rows. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the event went on hiatus rather than move online because Watson and Williams felt so strongly about the value of getting people in the same room to connect. At the group's most recent event held in January, the value of the in-person dynamic was clearly on display. Around 30 people of various ages and nationalities attended, some newcomers and some regulars, all of varying ages and nationalities. It was the second THC for Glen Burns, 65, who enjoys the informal atmosphere and broad array of presenters. He was talking with first-timer Mami Oyamada, 33, who had come to support one of the night's speakers, and Heidi Lee, 30, a previous speaker. Burns said the event's appeal is the chance to meet up with a diverse group of intellectuals and 'inquire into what makes things work the way they work.' As Burns suggested, the night's conversations often turned to issues of 'real world' significance and the impact of shared experience. The cyberpunk poet talked about how advances in technology sometimes outpace futuristic fiction, with art and science feeding each other. A speaker describing challenges she's encountered as a multicultural Japanese person prompted discussion about how helping schoolkids and teachers navigate questions of identity can improve academic outcomes. Yutaka Kikugawa, founder of the music education program El Sistema Japan, speaks at a Tokyo Humanities Cafe event. | Courtesy of Alex Watson The atmosphere presented a stark contrast to the image of the humanities as fanciful, impractical or stuffy, disparagements that have been used to justify department cuts at universities worldwide. 'The humanities have been in crisis for a long time,' Watson says. 'We need to rethink how we make ourselves part of the contemporary world as it is. 'Humanities are about interpreting events and understanding the significance of events,' he continues. 'Being able to judge different arguments and ideas based on evidence, to understand your own subjectivity and how that informs your perspective.' While these skills are certainly useful in the current 'post-truth age,' they are also vital to the sciences as well as in business and in life more generally. 'Humanities work in Tokyo is exciting. It's cutting edge. It's totally relevant to people's lives — and it's not an ivory tower,' Williams says. 'Nobody comes away from the cafe thinking that the humanities aren't relevant. The humanities are what it means to be human.' For more information about Tokyo Humanities Cafe and to learn about upcoming events, visit or follow THC on Facebook at
