Night Market for Asian Hertiage Month's Last Event

Melody Kaohu '16 and Koji Muto '15
participating in the Night Market Fasion Show

On April 25th, JSA took part in the AHM Night Market as the final culmination event for Asian Heritage Month at the Haven’s Lounge in Wilson Commons. All the clubs and groups on the Asian Heritage Month Committee either set up a booth or prepared a performance to allow U of R students to experience the diverse cultures from Asia. Participating organizations were ADITI, Delta Phi Omega, Sigma Psi Zeta, Pi Delta Psi, Filipino American Students’ Association, Chinese Students’ Association, Korean American Students’ Association, Taiwanese American Students’ Association, Korean Percussion Group Hon, and the Japanese Students’ Association. JSA prepared an origami booth, where attendees were allowed to create crafts from origami, and lucky stars from paper strips. Additionally, we had snack sales with various Japanese snacks, including Pocky, and Rice Crackers, which are hard to come by for university students. Other clubs had booths featuring activities such as calligraphy, drumming demonstrations, traditional games, or bubble tea sales. Groups such as CSA had a fan dance performance and FASA has a tinikling performance. The highlight of the night was the AHM fashion show, where each of the participating groups showcased traditional clothing from each country. JSA members wore a jinbei as our traditional clothing.
George Iwaoka, Class of 2016

JSA Partakes in the 2nd Annual Japanese Expo

Fukumi Orikasa '15 helping out at
the Japanese Expo

This second annual Japanese Expo was hosted by Sigma Psi Zeta and Pi Delta Psi and spanned May Room, Bridge Lounge, and Haven's Lounge. Since planning started before JSA was officially formed, we could only help as co-sponsors but joined the planning committee to help where we could. We had around 300 attendees this year and several booths/events for them to enjoy. In the May Room we had traditional Matsuri games such as kendama, daruma otoshi, balloons, fukuwarai, and a water balloons to hook out of a small pool. We also had a traditional tea ceremony, calligraphy, study abroad information, sushi sampling, photobooth, cultural display, and a snack bar. In addition, we had performances by UR Kendo and Karate and a cosplay contest that consisted mostly of the RIT cosplay troupe. In the Bridge Lounge we had registration and arts & crafts and in the Haven’s Lounge we had a full sumo wrestling ring. The whole event was free to the public.
​Co-sponsored by Japanese Students' Association, Rochester Japanese Association, RIT Cosplay Troupe, Anime Interest Floor, Shotokan Karate, UR Kendo, Study Abroad, Filipino American Students' Association, Chinese Student's Association, Korean Percussion Group HON, Delta Phi Omega, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Theta Chi, Sigma Lambda Upsilon, Phi Kappa Tau, Jackson Court Hall Council, Hillcourt Hall Council, Hoeing/Crosby Hall Council, Southside Hall Council, Gilbert Hall Council, and Tiernan Hall Council.​
Koji Muto, Class of 2015