Students ride ‘bullet train’ around Japan

While most students on campus have probably never traveled to Japan, the hundreds who attended Japan Night on Friday got a taste of the customs, cuisine and traditions of the Land of the Rising Sun without even leaving campus.\n“It showed a lot about Japanese culture that many people may have not heard of before,” sophomore Kristen Malick said. “There’s more to Japan than Tokyo, and I think through this event people have become more aware of everything Japan has to offer.”\nPut on by the Japanese Student Association, the event followed a theme of a bullet-train trip around Japan in one night. The bullet train, or “shinkansen,” is a network of high speed train lines that connects Tokyo with most of the main island’s major cities and prefectures.\nDespite the absence of a real train, attendees experienced each different prefecture with dozens of large, colorful photographs, food, activities and informational posters characterizing the locations.\n“I brought my husband here to learn more about Japanese culture,” graduate student Sachiko Grigutis said. “I think it’s good for people who want to learn a little bit about the many different areas of Japan.”\nPerhaps the most popular attraction on the mock tour of Japan was the food served along the way. In addition to cuisine most commonly associated with the country, like sushi and rice, a host of kimono-clad students served “misokatsu,” which is fried pork with Japanese miso paste; “sashimi,” raw, thinly sliced seafood; breaded octopus; and fried banana, to name a few.\n“I don’t take Japanese, but it’s all really interesting,” freshman Maggie Wikoff said. “I came mostly for the food, and I really love the sushi.”\nStudents, faculty, staff and local community members turned out for the event. Many of the students who attended already had some exposure to Japanese culture through their East Asian Language and Culture classes but came to learn more. \n“I’m going abroad to Japan next year, but I don’t know a whole lot about the different places,” sophomore Chad Fritsch said, “so this kind of helps me see what I can expect.”\nAttendees looked on as a man ceremoniously prepared “mochi” – a sticky rice cake pounded into a paste and molded into a shape traditionally served during the Japanese new year. Using heavy wooden mallets, the man pounded the rice and water mixture in the same way mochi has been prepared in Japan for centuries. \nStudents also had the opportunity to do calligraphy of Japanese kanji characters on rice paper or have a symbol painted for them. \n“It’s especially interesting for people like me who have never been outside of the United States,” Fritsch said. “It’s just fun to meet people from other cultures and, for a little while, get to experience how life back in their home country is like.”