This summer, we had a total of 45 students attended the Culture Exchange Summer Camp. Out of the 45, 15 students were from Musashi University. Musashi University is approximately 40 minutes from TUJ, and is has a friendship agreement with TUJ. During the camp, we had a photo scavenger hunt, made Japanese curry, sat around the camp fire, made smores, did fireworks, and a few of the participants also helped put together a test-of-courage ghost walk — which was a lot of fun! Everyone got along well, and made many new friends. Thank you all for participating, I hope you enjoy the video footage one of our students put together (see below). It includes footage from this summer as well as last year’s camp.
Please look forward to future semester activities, as we work on having more opportunities to interact and get to know fellow TUJ and Musashi University students!
Photo scavenger hunt: “I can’t believe you all fit!”
Boys will be boys
Pink ladies
Hanging out in the sun
Something smells good!
Making curry rice for dinner
Curry rice (soup?) . . . Tastes better than it looks!
After enthusiastically listening to the farmer’s lecture
Our planting finally began! YAY!
Knee-deep in mud and water
Entering the field barefoot, we enjoyed the tender feel of the mud
TUJ students did half the field!! Very proud of it!
Clear skies
Our masterpiece
On a beautiful sunny Sunday, June 6th, 2010, TUJ students visited a local farm in Saitama Pref. and did rice planting at a farm producing organic foods. Instead of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, or any other additives, they used ducks and planktons to grow wholesome rice. It was the most common style in Japan until about 50 years ago.
We had a short trip to get to the farm by train. It took us about 2 hours from Tamachi to Fukiage sta. with one transit stop at Ueno sta. Fukiage was a very beautiful place with a lot of nature. The planting just started when we got to the farm. We soon changed clothes and got ready to get muddy.
After the work, we had delicious curry for lunch with other participants. All of the ingredients in the curry were grown at the farm, of course! Umm….it was very tasty!! The other participants were all Japanese parents with their children. Not only was the rice planting great, but mingling
with those local people in the suburban area made the trip such a great experience for TUJ students, especially those who had never been out of Tokyo.
Well, it was such a perfect day & we can’t wait to visit the farm again during harvest!!
On this coming Sunday, June 6th, we will be broadcasting our graduation ceremony live online at http://www.tuj.ac.jp/graduation2010/video.html. The ceremony and the broadcast will start from 14:30 (JPT).
The recorded video will be archived for later viewing at the same site.
Also check out our Twitter @tujweb (http://twitter.com/tujweb) for live updates about the broadcast. We will be tweeting with the hashtag #tujgrad2010.
Post from the TUJ Communications and Marketing Support Department.
Hey TUJ students! Check out our webpage to find out how to get involved in TUJ Activities, Events and Workshops.
On Wednesday, February 17, the Office of Student Services (OSS) held a group discussion. After the students arrived, they were broken into diverse groups. The night started out with each person introducing themselves to the group and telling one secret about themselves. Each group then proceeded to discuss a variety of subjects.
The first subject of the night was meant for the foreigners; they asked what things surprised them about Japan. After each group discussed this question then they proceeded to tell everyone what things surprised them the most. The second subject for the night was a decision between four different questions. Each question was based on something important to Japanese people. Each person in the group could then give their input about the subject and discuss how it’s different in their culture. Everyone had a good time and learned a lot about different cultures.
The last of the night was free time for everyone to talk with one another and make new friends. They were having so much fun that they didn’t want to leave at the end of the night.
Hey TUJ students! Check out our webpage to find out how to get involved in TUJ Activities, Events and Workshops.
On Monday, February 2, 2010, OSS held a Koto workshop at Mita Hall. This workshop’s primary goal was to teach students about Koto, a traditional Japanese musical instrument. So, what is the Koto? First, check out this video of my fellow students in action!
Hey TUJ students! Check out our webpage to find out how to get involved in TUJ Activities, Events and Workshops.
The purpose of the Language Partner Program (LPP) is to pair up native Japanese speakers who wish to improve their English language skills with native English speakers who wish to improve their Japanese language skills, though we have a number of participants with neither Japanese or English as their native language. It is also a great way to know people outside of your classroom.
The first meeting for this semesters’s LPP took place on Friday, January 22 in Azabu Hall. Close to 70 students, both Japanese and international (including some friends from Musashi University), registered and showed up to meet their new language partners. We had snacks prepared for our likely hungry students, and it wasn’t long before we started to get things rolling…
Best excursion with host family: I was lucky enough to experience my little host sister’s 7th birthday which is a special celebratory age called shichi-go-san (7-5-3), which celebrates children turning 7, 5 or 3 years old that year. During that day, the child would be dressed elaborately and the whole family would go out to scenic areas to take pictures, and a celebratory meal would be eaten. Since my host mother is a collector of kimonos, I had the opportunity to try wearing one of her fancier ones which was a gorgeous crimson red kimono decorated with flowers and birds with a black and gold obi. We strolled around a scenic park and my host father took many pictures. Afterwards, we headed to a restaurant and ate a meal with countless courses and we all passed out in the warm private dining room waiting for dessert. The celebration was quite short since it was only half a day long and I was quite thankful that I was able to take off the 20-pound kimono when I got back, but I would not have passed out the chance to wear that kimono for anything. I spent the rest of the day relaxing at home and played games with my host sisters.
We are pleased to add “Homestay Testimonials” to our blog. In this section, students who have experienced homestays can talk about the enjoyable times they spent with their new “Japanese home away from home.” Through homestays, many students experience a side of Japan that can only be experienced by living with a local family – a kind of international exchange that is unique to each individual and their family, creating bonds that often last a lifetime.
Name: Tom Macchi
Major: International Business and Culture
Minor: Economics and Japanese
Semester: Summer 2009
Favorite Courses: Okada Sensei’s Intensive Oral Japanese. Seeing as I was living with a host family this class was the absolute most appropriate for my situation and focused much more on practical use of Japanese. It was a ton of fun bringing what I learned in class right home to my family to practice. The course was a big help in allowing me to feel comfortable traveling Japan independently.
Best Excursion: To say there was one best excursion with my host family would severely downplay my experience with them considering we did so many awesome things together on a daily basis. One great experience was when my host mother took me out to dinner with her mother at a local restaurant for a ‘girl’s night out,’ even though I was with them. It was great to follow them down a side-street somewhere in Minami Kashiwa, passing tons of little restaurants and shops I would never had otherwise found. We eventually entered the back door to a building which turned out to be the front door to a little local restaurant filled with people. I quickly became the center of attention at the bar-style restaurant as everyone was eager to ask me, the interesting gaikokujin, an assortment of questions. It was a very fun experience.
I’ve been procrastinating on this post because this is probably the most difficult/uncomfortable thing that’s happened to me in Japan–well, race-related. Now that I think about it, it might very well be the most uncomfortable, race-related situation that has happened to me in my life. And instead of drawing it out, I want to get right into what happened.
It was the middle of May.
My old roommate Kira introduced my to my favorite place on earth, the bar I mentioned in my previous post. After I went there twice with Kira, the bar owner and his wife invited us and a few others to their house for an okonomiyaki party. As we stepped into their house, I noticed that the house looked a lot like their bar–full of American paraphernalia. All sorts of gadgets and toys lined their walls and shelves. Cans of Campbell’s soup, a box of Stove Top stuffing mix, figurines of the Budweiser toads, 1950’s Coco Cola bottles, a stuffed animal of Alf (the 1980’s television show), Tom and Jerry mugs, etc. If you name something American, I’m sure they have a replica of it in their house. And if not, it’s in their bar. (more…)
Name: Tom Macchi