Japan has a beloved culture that is known for its history, technology, and, of course, anime. Recently all of that wonderwas brought onto campus by the BC Japanese Culture Exchange Club with Japan Week.
All the events and festivities were distributed among buildings, the C-building being the main locale. The largest events including dance and music performances and attendee contests were hosted on the C-stage in the cafeteria, while the C-lobby held small activities like paper folding, calligraphy and various board games. The Carlson theater showed many different martial arts demonstrations, including the well-known kendo.
Other activities, demonstrations and talks were held in various B, C and D rooms, including our school’s planetarium. The shows displayed more traditional elements of Japanese culture, including an Urasenke tea ceremony demo and puppet shows of Japanese folktales.
The first floor of the L-building hosted the flea market, which remained there for the whole event. It had plenty of traditional Japanese garments for both men and women that children seemed to love. Fortunately, the weather was perfect for wearing kimonos and standing in the L courtyard to watch the Taiko Eisaa and Lion Dance performances.
One of the most popular events by far was the cosplay contest, where the three winners chosen were given free passes to Sakura-Con. The winners of this year’s Japan week cosplay contest were Master Hiroshi from Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon in her Princess Serenity outfit, and a mother and son duo as Ashitaka and a forest spirit from Studio Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke.
With so many simultaneous events it was impossible to see everything in one day, so it makes sense that celebrating Japan takes over a week.