School Spirit

If there is one thing to be said about events held at Japanese universities, it would probably be the sense of school spirit during events. My previous university, elementary, middle and high school had basically no school spirit so coming to Japan certainly was a shocker.
One event that happens annually is the school festival. Most recently, I attended the school festival of the last university I attended - Waseda University in Tokyo. During the school festival (known as 早稲田祭/waseda-sai in the case of Waseda.) The school clubs collaborate with one another to put on performances, food stalls and a variety of other events over the duration of a few days. Some popular events include acapella groups, beauty/macho pageants, Japanese dance, hip-hop and guest artists. In regard to food, its the standard matsuri fare such as takoyaki, okonomiyaki, yaki-soba, wieners, crepes, choco-banana and a sprinkling of other random food stalls.
In some instances, these school festivals are notorious pick-up spots where guys will hit on anything remotely resembling a female. This is especially true for Keio's school festival (三田祭/Mita-sai) where groups of guys will basically jump any girl that walks past them. To see this in full effect, be sure to visit the school festivals around the later hours of the day - especially around twilight.
Being in Tokyo, Waseda-sai and Mita-sai is extremely cramped and crowded - every inch of the campus is carpeted by a slow moving mass of people which means one should set aside an entire day to explore this aspect of Japanese life. As crowded as it is however, it is a lot of fun - especially if you or your friends are running stalls or performing. It is almost a must to get wasted at the end of the day as well...ah, the student life...