Past Program Highlights

Field Trip

The group visited "Food Bank TAMA" in Hino City, Tokyo, and learned about food loss and poverty issues in Japan and its solutions through discussions.
At the Hino Volunteer Center, they wrote their wishes on Tanabata paper strips and decorated them!

Workshop - Traditional Confectionary Wagashi Making and Tea Ceremony Experience

Wagashi is a unique Japanese confectionery that goes well with matcha green tea.
This time, participants not only tasted but also experienced making wagashi. The students made hydrangea, a representative of summer flowers, and cherry blossoms (Someiyoshino), Japan's national flower, with their wagashi instructors, and enjoyed a relaxing break with matcha green tea.

Wagashi-Making

Well made!

Tea Ceremony Experience

Workshop - Tanabata Summer Festival

July 7 is Tanabata Festival in Japan.
This year, we held a Tanabata Summer Festival just in time for the program duration!
As is typical of festivals (Matsuri), participants wore yukata (light cotton kimono) and enjoyed shooting game (shateki) and sweets while interacting with exchange student‐SATOMU students and Japanese students.

Final Presentation of Project-Work

For the final presentation, each group was asked to give a presentation on the unique ingredients of onigiri from their society.
They did a very good job of explaining the ingredients that are popular in their countries and their favorite ingredients for onigiri and how they taste, how they are made, and how they are related to food loss!
(Also posted on video)

Thank you all for your hard work!

Farewell Party - Let's Make your own onigiri!

At the last farewell party, Each group made onigiri using ingredients they thought of!

Finally - Students' Voices

• 日本伝統の文化やほかの分野のことをもっと体験したいです。
• I really enjoyed the program. The field trips and other experiences were very fun and greatly improved my understanding of Japanese culture.
• I loved all the workshops we did and learning more about society. The tea ceremony was also very special! Getting to class was very easy.
• It was short but extremely fun and creative. Leaving the language through food was an amazing experience and the lectures were super interesting. All the teachers and students were amazing to work with! Thank you so much.

Video