Japanese Expo

On April 5^th, 2012, after months and months of hard work and planning put in by the AHM committee (Alice “Vitalia” Wu, Moxi “Comet” Zhou, Hakyeong “Aranea” Lee, Trissha “Nouvella” Higa, Jessica “Firefox” Yao, and headed by Yichen “Misaki” Qiu) Iota Chapter put on our first ever Japanese Expo! Since there currently isn’t a cultural club on campus that focuses on Japan, we decided to take this opportunity to explore Japanese culture. It was a great success, with over 200 members in attendance!

Our beautiful flyer!

So what did we have at this Japanese Expo?

We had tables for learning the language. Upon entering, each participant would receive a nametag with a beautiful background and learn to write their names in Japanese. Then, they would be able to take a leisurely stroll table and learn to write a few simple words. Their reward for learning would be a stamp. (If you collected all three stamps, you would receive a discount voucher for Sakura House and Plum Garden!)

People were very excited to learn something new :)
Photo credit: Starlit

Another way to collect a stamp was to take the Anime identification quiz at the Anime table. If you could accurately identify 3 out of the 12 characters presented, then you would receive a second stamp! Thank you to the Anime Interest Floor for helping us out with this!

Next, they would be able to satisfy their taste buds with California Rolls and Vegetable Rolls prepared for us by UR Dining Services! These rolls went fast! (Thank you so much to Trissha for making this happen!)

Hi Aranea and Ebullience :)
Photo credit: Starlit

After eating a little bit, participants could wander to the Tea Tasting table, where they would be able to partake in an abbreviated version of a tea ceremony and learn more about matcha green tea.

Photo credit: Forte

The Study Abroad Office also came by and presented some information. Rochester’s Japanese Association (RJA) was a great help as well. Not only did they bring many items to showcase, and helped us to administer a brief trivia quiz (if you got 7 out of 10 questions correctly, you would receive a third stamp!), they also brought in many, many costumes and traditional cultural attire for us to use in our photobooth! We have to thank CSA for allowing us to borrow their backdrop for a beautiful photobooth, and our very own Moxi Zhou for taking pictures throughout the night! (More photos can be viewed at Sigma Psi Zeta – Iota Chapter’s Facebook page)

Overall, this event was a huge success. The AHM committee worked really hard to pull this together, and our cultural chair, Yichen Qiu, did an amazing job with all the planning! We also have to say thank you to the brothers of Pi Delta Psi for helping us out and cosponsoring this event with us.

We’ll be sure to do something of the sort, or even bigger and better, in the future! J

P.S. We have to say a special thank you to Annabelle “Cadenza” Estera for spearheading the first ever Asian Heritage Month a few years ago in 2010! And she visited this weekend too!

<3 Misaki.