Namaste Tsukuba（15003A）

Ankit Kumar Srivastava
Founding members: Ankit Kumar Srivastava(Author), Professor Randeep Rakwal, RiteshPatel, Ranjith Kumar Bakku
Namaste Tsukuba: The beginning
Namaste is the Indian way of greeting each other. It isa courtesy greeting when people meet or leave. Namasteis spoken with a slight bow with hands pressed together,palms touching and fingers pointing upwards, thumbs close
to the chest. Literally Namaste can be translated as ‘I bow
to you’. The bowing down of the head is a gracious form ofextending friendship, love, respect and humility.
And it was for this reason only that Namaste Tsukuba
was conceptualised in 2015. It was for extending the handof love and friendship to the new incoming student andto bring together all Indian students of the University.
It was also meant to establish a friendly environment oninternational grounds, providing a common platform forinter-cultural exchange.
Through this platform, the group has been able to tie
and inter-connect most of the Indian students studyingin the University of Tsukuba. Last semester we welcomed
and assisted new students and introduced our Universityand Tsukuba city to them. We are in the process of doing
the same for students who are about to join the university
in the coming semester. Through this inter-connection
we were also able to find many new friends of different
nationality, including Japanese, and build a healthy
friendship at the global level.

12While we were seeing the memorial monument of Radha
Binod Pal, one Japanese came to us and asked, ‘are youfrom India?’, and hearing a yes from us he expressed asense of gratitude and said ‘Thank you very much. Thisman helped my country when nobody helped us.’ After thisoverwhelming experience, we experienced a Japan that hascome far away from those war tragedies. We witnessed thepresent day Cool Japan, i.e. animation, Manga, and Cos-playat the Comike (Comic Market). The Cos-players were out infull force and while beating the unbearable heat they posed
for the Otaku.
Other Events and gatherings
Apart from these events, we also participated in a
number of events and visited many places. We participatedin the Breast Cancer awareness program of the Pink Ribbon
Festival on 29th April as volunteers for New Mira, an Indian
Restaurant near the university. We enjoyed the Tsukuba
Beer Festival on 25th July with beer, lovely Japanese songs
sung by artist, and doing Bon odori. Next we went to theTsuchiura Kirara festival on 2nd August, where we saw
people dancing and singing to the rhythmic sounds of Taikodrums in a complete festive mood.
On 9th Aug., we went to Oarai sun beach where weenjoyed a lot with the high rise waves of the ocean. We also
visited the ancient Isosaki shrine and saw the majestic
view of Kamiso no tori, i.e. Kamiso Gate that stands on
an island rock in the sea. Splash from the oceanic waves
hitting the rock washes the gate repeatedly. The mysticalatmosphere and the divine sound from those splashes werevery refreshing and calming.
We also participated in the Bon Odori festival on 16th
August, held near Tsukuba Centre. We enjoyed dancing
with Tsukuba people and in fact I won a prize in the lottery
which made the day even more special. We also enjoyed thefair and the festivity of the Tsukuba Summer festival on 22ndand 23rd August. The parade with Nebuta, dragons, lanterns,bod odori, food stalls, and other booths took our heart away.
We among ourselves competed to get hold of the lucky bells
that the parade people throw towards the crowd.
Apart from this we have been conducting many social
gathering and dinners, where many Japanese and foreign
friends and professors participated. We organised welcome
parties, farewell party and also a gathering collaboratingwith other groups such as City Chat Café and Tokyo food.

Major Events and Visits
We participated in events such as the Tsukuba
International Festival (9th and 10th May), where we had
expected a moderate number of visitors to our booth. But
to our surprise the booth was filled with visitors throughout
the two days. In particular, Tsukuba kids liked colouring
Indian animation characters. The Mehndi session was
the highlight of our booth and kids, girls mostly, women,mothers and other foreigners enjoyed it. We also had aphoto exhibition introducing India (depicting its
architecture, natural and wild life, important geographicallocations and tourist attractions) and a spice exhibition
with real spices from India on display. Many curious peopleof Tsukuba came to enquire about it and many profoundly
shared their experience of personal India visit. One cutelittle Japanese girl, filled with imagination came to us andasked ‘why there are so many elephants in India?’ to which
we could only reply ̶ because we have many forests.
Our group also visited the UNESCO world heritage siteof Nikko Toshogu for the Grand memorial service on 17thMay, marking 400 years since the death of Tokugawa Ieyasu,
the founder of Tokugawa Shogunate in the Edo period.
We went around the grand grave of Ieyasu, saw the threewise monkeys that aroused memories of the ambassador ofpeace Mahatma Gandhi and witnessed prayers, rituals andYabusame (Archery on Horseback).
On 15th August, with patriotic feelings we went to theIndian Embassy for the Independence Day celebration;
this day also happens to be the ‘Memorial Day for the endof the War’. Hence, we also visited Yasukuni Shrine andwitnessed another aspect of Japan. A Japan that regrets
the war and makes sure that it never takes place again.

Well Began is Half Done
We started with a very small aim of bonding all theIndians together in a group, which we achieved with thehelp of T-ACT. We made many new Japanese and otherforeign friends and organised and participated in many
events and programs. This was made possible due to thecontinuous support and encouragement from our mentor,
Professor Randeep Rakwal. However, there is a saying ‘Wellbegan is half done’, we have just started the group and did
few events but the real challenge is to maintain and carryforward the group with the same vigour and zeal. We havejust started and we have many miles to cover.

Group PhotographMehndi session at Tsukuba International Festival

つくばスチューデンツ・平成 27 年度№ 3（通巻 666 号）