This is a photo walk on the way to visit the Haruki Murakami Library at Waseda University. The accompanying equipment was the LUMIX S5 and LUMIX S20-60mm lightweight full-size walking kit.
The monument is located just after getting off the subway at Waseda Station. I personally like the Yayoiken restaurant in the background, but on this occasion it is a little too much for my eyes, so please use the mind’s eye filter to remove it (lol).
It’s a little hard to tell from the light rays, but this is the birthplace of the great writer Soseki Natsume. The year 1867 was before the Meiji era, and this area of Shinjuku must have looked completely different from today.
About 10 years ago, I visited an old building near the station where an acquaintance of mine had a laboratory as a visiting professor at Waseda University, half for work and half for pleasure. I was walking around thinking that it looked like an old junior high school building, but to my surprise, it had been rebuilt into a modern, shiny, pushy building.
I didn’t check, but I wonder if this is still a Waseda facility in the first place? In any case, I felt something like the passage of time.
On the way to the main gate of Waseda University, I found a building with an unusual atmosphere.
I found out later that the building with this intense design is a rental apartment building named Dorado Waseda (!). The first floor is a members-only gallery. The building was designed by the well-known architect Jyutsuna Bon, and it is indescribable.
Across the street is a very ordinary (lol) bento shop, which seemed to be popular with student customers at lunchtime.
I am relieved for some reason I can’t discribe.
I guess the pictures of Waseda University campus are so common that it’s no use to introduce them to you. But since I haven’t been here for a long time, I thought I’d share a few of them with you.
The Waseda campus is relatively spacious and comfortable. The students you pass by look smart and sophisticated, very different from the image of the old Waseda University, as if they were modern youth.
I also visited the Haruki Murakami Library (see previous article) and enjoyed the atmosphere of the Waseda campus and its surroundings.
Let’s take a short detour on the way back home instead of getting on the subway right away. And as you start walking along Waseda Dori street, the first thing you will notice is the red torii gate that you see.
This is… the Ana Hachiman Shrine for those in the know.
The rest of this article will be long again, so let’s leave it for the next time.
