Photoessay #1112 - Hitotsubashi University

Captains of Industry, Innovators of Society - a slogan of Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo Japan.

Going back 7 months to our trip to Japan...the last weekend was spent with Natsuko in Tokyo. She asked what we would like to see. Certainly on reflection, I realized that I didn't know that much about places to see in Tokyo (or Japan really). I said that I would like to see her university (she's a graduate student at Hitotsubashi University in the Tokyo's suburbs. She thought that amusing, why would anybody want to see that? I said that I wanted to buy a t-shirtor(or similar)

Hitotsubashi University, a small university specializing in social sciences. Founded in 1875 as a commercial school, it has since reorganized on the American model. Natsuko is a PhD student in anthropology studying local reactions and effects to wildlife conservation. She came to Seattle shortly before we took our trip for two weeks visiting the Snow Leopard Institute which coordinates conservation in remote location.

So she picked us up near our hotel near Ueno Park and we took the bus out to the outlying area and walked the short distance to the university. Very attractive residential area; Natsuko said it was popular for retired folks. The campus looked like any small campus in the US with brick buildings. She showed us around, presented me with a Hitotsubashi University t-shirt as a gift. Later we walked down the street and had lunch in traditional Japanese udon restaurant (pictured)

Later we went back to the train and went to a large local park that had many Japanese houses (urban and rural) from different historical periods. Really interesting, full of picnicking famili8es. Resting near the end, Natusuko and I talked about the US vs Japan. We agreed that the dress of the people (with the exception of kimonos for formal occasions) in the US were just about exactly the same.

Prior coming to Seattle, Natsuko's American experience consisted of a year's stay as an exchange student in a tiny rather remote rural Iowa town. She loved Iowa but got a very different view working and riding public transportation in Seattle, a reasonably large American city.