Apart from the academic challenges and a number of events from parties to seminars on various topics, there are some small things/moments I really love here; jogging in Oxford, or example, is one of my favourites. I remember writing to a friend of mine just after arriving here saying Oxford is such a beautiful place that even jogging around my residence is so lovely. Three months later, I still find myself amazed by the picturesque sights each time I go jogging either with friends or by myself to let off steam.

It is refreshing, of course, to run through such beautiful places, but I feel that it might affect you even more than just allowing you to let off steam, in a longer term. I wonder if it makes the sense of colour or the sense of beauty keener, wider, or deeper. I wonder if it somehow affects the sense of time since the scenery here with old buildings and old trees doesn’t seem to have changed much for hundreds of years. I even wonder if it makes me a more poised person. Running through these favourite places made me feel calm even when I was stressed very much with all the readings and assignments; it is indeed so easy to think, “It’s not a big deal,” when you look at the landscapes that are totally unaffected by the rush of the MBA life.

And I’m pretty sure that I’m not alone in constantly being amazed by all these landscapes here. For me, it’s mostly when I’m jogging, but one of my friends told me how he was amazed while he was rowing when the sun was about to set and the wind blew rippling the surface of the river, making it shine with the reflected sunlight. Another classmate told us about how nice it felt when he took a walk along the Thames early in the misty morning. No wonder my former professor from Tokyo who stayed in Oxford 15 years ago told me how “dreamy” this place was.

Here’s a video of one of last year’s MBAs jogging on Port Meadow and by the Thames: