Club brings Japan to USU
The USU Japan Club held the Japanese fall festival, Aki Matsuri, at the Lundstrom Center Saturday night.
Throughout the night, there was face painting, origami, goldfish catching, sword dancing and various Japanese foods available, including yaki imo (Japanese sweet potato), chocolate bananas, yakitori (chicken) and takoyaki (octopus balls).
Leona Eli, a USU exchange student majoring in economics and accounting, said the takoyaki was “really true to Japanese culture,” as well as the goldfish catching game, which involves a net made of tissue paper to catch the fish. The goal of the game is to catch as many fish as possible before the tissue paper breaks.
Devin Rowley, president of the Japan Club, said the club is not really formal.
“We just throw on activities that anyone can come to and that bring Japanese culture here,” he said.
For musical entertainment, Jordan Davis, a senior majoring in Asian studies and international business, played the sanshin. Davis said the sanshin is an instrument “made of snake skin and three strings. It’s the smaller version of the samishen, what geisha play.”
Davis recently returned from Okinawa, Japan, where he studied abroad, and he said it was there that he learned to play the sanshin.
The Japan Club also introduced natto (fermented soy beans) to two students in a game called Ninin Baori. The game involved going through a proxy morning in Japan, including eating the cultural breakfast of natto.
Paul Larsen, senior majoring in Spanish and one of the students to try natto, said, “It’s great to be involved in cultural diversity and try great new things.”
Students can get involved in the Japan Club by e-mailing usujapanclub@yahoo.com. Weekly club meetings are held Wednesdays at 3:30 p.m. in the Japanese Tutoring Room, located in the Animal Science Building.
-lindsay.anderson@aggiemail.usu.edu