Kyoto University

Most people think that this is one of the best university in Japan, but I suppose it is the oddest university in Japan.
For example, the season of an entrance examination, around the end of February, you can see the strange statue made by some students.
It named Dr. Orita’s statue, and always modeled a kind of animation character.
Dr. Orita was the first president of this university, it’s very strange and funny.
Around the university, there are a lot of signboards insist the students’ opinion.
But most of them are very eccentric, they are like 1970s student movement.
I was a student of this university and felt they were really free from everything.
Everyone can enter the university and use the restaurants in this university.
If you want to feel Japanese university culture, it is the best place for you.
多くの人が日本の最高学府の一つだと思っている京都大学ですが、私は最も風変わりな大学だと認識しています。
例えば、2月末の大学入試の時期には、毎年、ハリボテ像が登場します。
名前は折田先生像。かつてキャンパスにあった初代学長・折田先生の銅像を模したものですが、なぜか毎回、微妙にマイナーなアニメキャラなどが選ばれています。
もちろん、横にあった「この銅像を汚さないでください。」の立て看板も再現されています。
大学の初代学長といえば、慶應では福沢諭吉先生、早稲田では大隈重信先生、そして同志社では新島譲先生と、そんな扱いをできるとは思えませんが、京大では普通です。
私が学生の当時は本物の銅像がありましたが、毎回、何かコスプレやら落書きをされていて「汚さないでください」の立て看板があったのですが、初代学長にしてその扱い。
やっぱり変です。
そして今でもその伝統が続いているというわけです。
そんな京都大学ですが、誰でも自由にキャンパス内に入れますので、ぜひ自由な雰囲気を味わいたければどうぞ。
大学周辺の百万遍は美味しいお店や、学生向けのやたらとボリュームのある定食屋などもあり、なかなかいいところです。
学食も美味しくはないですが、安くておもしろいですよ。

I envied the students of this university which boasts a vast ground of campus unlike the one I graduated from. In my college days, I had lunch in this campus, which was reasonable price and fashionable.
I had lots of acquaintances who are alumni of this university. They are playing leading parts of various fields. One, assistant professor of the associated institution. Another national public servant. My favorite novelist, T.M. is also alumni, whose stories are largely on the stage of Kyoto. I feel the alumnus of this university are generally unique and characteristic. It is convinced that most winners of the Novel Prize come from this university.
I often saw a man climbing the stone wall of the campus like rock climbing, who was so outstanding as to attract pedestrians’ eyes.