Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Students can listen to traditional Japanese music, learn calligraphy, play Japanese games, improve those not-so-skillful chopstick hands and learn about Japanese art without even leaving Lawrence.
The fourth annual KU Japan Festival will be held Sunday. The event is sponsored by the Japanese Students Association and will be held at the Kansas Union and Ecumenical Christian Ministries.
The event consists of a show, workshops and dinner. The show and workshops are free and open to the public. The dinner that ends the night is sold out.
The organization strives for cultural awareness of both Japanese and American cultures. Japanese students are paired with non-Japanese students as conversation partners and meet on a regular basis. This helps students studying Japanese with their language skills and helps Japanese students learn more about and fit into U.S. and KU culture.
Along with the annual Japan festival, the organization participates in monthly events, including the annual Taste of Asia Festival, a barbecue at Holcomb Park and a Japanese Curry Party.
The organization started planning for this year’s festival late last year, said Hitomi Nakamura, organization president and executive director of the festival.
pullquote
The design is very popular in Japan. The biggest railroad uses it as a commuter pass.
-Tatsuo Kasuya, organization adviser and festival ticket coordinator
Funds for the event are raised through ticket sales, fundraisers and sponsors.
“This year was the first year we had a fundraising party,” said Nakamura. “We also ask companies in Kansas City to be sponsors.”
The first KU Japan Festival was held in 2004. The idea for the festival came from “Japan Night,” held at the University of Nebraska, which featured Japanese skits and dinner.
The Japan festival will kick off with a show at 3 p.m. at Woodruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union. The show consists of traditional Japanese music, a Rakugo comedic performance, Japanese Folk Songs, Yosakoi, a mixture of traditional and modern dance, a Taiko drum performance and a skit of The Tale of Kimuraya’s An-Pan. Door prizes and presentations will also be given.
After the show, workshops will be open from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in the Big 12 Room. There will be 12 different workshops, each expressing a different aspect of Japanese life. Workshops include Sumie, Shodo, chopsticks, music, handicraft display, Fuwarai, Kamisuki, Pivi, Sucia, origami, Taiko and an information booth.
The third part of the event will be a dinner held at ECM. Dinner will be cooked by members of the organization. The meal will be Chirashi zushi, a colorful sushi garnished with shrimp and other seafood; Tempura, deep-fried seafood and vegetables; Kiriboshi-Daikon, sundried radish with soy sauce and seasoning; Koya-Dofu, freeze-dried tofu; Dashimake-Tamago, Japanese rolled omelet; and tea.
Dinner tickets were modeled after Japanese Sucia cards, a big part of Japanese lifestyle. The cards have a number of capabilities.
“The design is very popular in Japan. The biggest railroad uses it as a commuter pass,” said Tatsuo Kasuya, organization adviser and festival ticket coordinator. Kasuya designed the tickets to not only resemble actual Sucia cards, but also to have functional bar codes.
“The actual Sucia card has a wireless chip that can be read in less than a second,” Kasuya said. “The dinner tickets are equipped with a bar code that will be read by a machine that allows participants to have a virtual Sucia experience. One in every 10 tickets will have a winning bar code good for a full refund.
More information about the Japan Festival can be obtained online at www.ku.edu/~jsa/jf or by e-mailing questions to jsa@ku.edu.
— Edited by Ryan Schneider
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