Campus Life
Letters from Ohio State University

A sprawl-crawl

By Akio Iijima

アメフトの試合がある日、コロンバスの町は活気に包まれる。

My favorite pastime is roaming about a city without any particular purpose, walking through crowded streets lined with elegant restaurants and windows displaying the latest in chic couture, discovering my own special places hidden from the public eye, such as a fine, little ethnic restaurant tucked away in a quiet side street. The livelier a city is, the more likely a serendipitous encounter.

My university is situated in Columbus, Ohio, and at first, I found the city a monotonous place compared with Tokyo, where I am from. Columbus is the definition of a sprawl city. Suburbanization has set in: Downtown is empty and everything is spread out, with the suburbs dotted with shopping malls, all selling the same things in the same, standardized shops. Yet, in recent years, my perception of Ohio's capital has changed for the better and I have learned how to enjoy Columbus to the full.

To make the most of urban entertainment in a sprawl city, you have to be at the right place at the right time: You have to actively collect information from the local newspaper, the Internet and friends. With this in mind, time will never hang heavily on your hands because Columbus is a large city with much to entertain sophisticated urbanites.

I first heard of Gallery Hop through a friend and now it has become one of my favorite events. A certain district, packed with galleries, antique shops, bars and restaurants throws open its doors on the first Saturday night of each month. Several blocks fill with crowds of townspeople and college students, musicians playing jazz and street performers juggling torches. Unfortunate drivers who have forgotten about this festival get stuck in jams, and yet even they seem to enjoy the cool, urban scene.

Another favorite of mine, which I discovered through the Internet, is the free jazz in the park on certain Sunday afternoons. With the music in the background, I like to just sit in the shade of a tree and read.

These entertainments are, however, only one slice of life in Columbus. The most important and distinctive feature of Columbus is the Ohio State University (OSU), located just a few miles from downtown. The campus population is over 50,000, in itself larger than most of the towns in the United States. Therefore, its influence on the city is huge. Businesses make a point of targeting college students, and several thousand international students contribute to the startling variety of ethnic cuisines on offer.

The largest influence of OSU on Columbus is through college football. Games take place in the Ohio Stadium, which stands on the OSU campus itself, and the major games bring together more than 100,000 football fans, decked out in scarlet and gray - the official colors of the OSU team or the Buckeyes as they are popularly known. The last game of the season is the most important, when the Buckeyes play against the University of Michigan, the arch-rival of OSU for over 100 years. Some go so far as to say that they are satisfied with a season as long as OSU beats Michigan, even if it loses against all the other teams.

People here are so passionate about the Buckeyes that the town becomes deadly quiet when games are on. Only the screams of joy or anger from behind the odd closed door remind the casual passerby of the presence of any life. OSU offers not only football, but also other sports for the townsfolk, with basketball the next cause for buckeyefever after the end of the football season. Ice hockey and baseball are popular as well.

You can have some fun with the urban entertainment on offer in Columbus, but to fully experience this city, you have to share the sentiment and the passion that the people have for the Buckeyes. Short-term visitors and newcomers, like myself in my freshman year, tend to have an apathetic impression of Columbus. It takes time to understand the true lure of this city - the enthusiasm for Buckeye athletics, which is the beating heart of the people of Columbus.

Shukan ST: Oct. 18, 2002

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