Joint Event at the Tsunamachi Mitsui Club – July 2014
On Thursday, 10th July, the Cambridge & Oxford Society and the Harvard Club held a joint party at the beautiful Tsunamachi Mitsui Club in the Mita area of Tokyo. It was Camford’s third time in this handsome building overlooking a large period garden that slopes steeply downhill almost to the boundary wall of Keio University.
The Club was designed in 1913 by the British architect Josiah Conder as a reception and guest house for the Mitsui family. If it reminds visitors of the Akasaka Palace (now the State Guest House), there is good reason: the palace was completed a few years earlier, in 1909, by Conder’s distinguished Japanese student Katayama Tokuma.
The garden fountain at the Tsunamachi Mitsui Club.
To give attendees a chance to enjoy the garden while it was still daylight, the Club authorities kindly allowed us inside from 6:00 p.m., half an hour before the official starting time of the event. Some attendees stayed on the lawn near the fountain with its mythological guardians, while others ventured down the steep stone paths to explore the grounds more fully.
A sudden deluge of rain eventually brought everyone back into the building—perfectly timed, as it happened—for drinks followed by an excellent and varied buffet, served with the Club’s customary style.
The chef preparing carved roast beef for the buffet.
Attendees gathering before the buffet.
Evening view of the Tsunamachi Mitsui Club.
Not for the first time, the party was enlivened by being a joint event with the Harvard Club, creating a refreshing change of pace for both societies. There are, interestingly, subtle differences in the character and experiences of Japanese men and women who studied in one country rather than the other. It raises the question: might it be worth holding such joint gatherings more regularly—perhaps twice a year—with each society alternating as host?
Guests enjoying the buffet in the banquet hall.
The season’s eighth typhoon had been making worrying headlines, but fortune smiled on us. The rain held off while guests made their way to the Club and enjoyed the garden. Then, almost theatrically, heavy rain began just as drinks were being poured. From the shelter of the terrace, guests sipped their glasses and watched sheets of rain sweep across the greenery below. As the evening drew to a close, the storm eased, leaving the return journey pleasantly dry.
— Doreen Simmons (Girton, Cambridge 1950)