Students recreate family crests in teams, adding their own colors and personal touches at the Pegasus Ballroom during the Japanese Heritage Student Association’s first “Atsumari: Meeting the Neighborhood” event on Sept. 21 .
Christie St. Vil
The Japanese Heritage Student Association hosted its first “Atsumari: Meeting the Neighborhood” event on Sunday, bringing students together through games inspired by traditional Japanese culture with a rural twist.
JHSA, founded in fall 2023, collaborated with the University of Florida’s J-Club and Japanese Student Association, as well as UCF’s Multicultural Student Center, to host the event. The word “Atsumari” translates to “gathering.”
Ryn Powell, a founding member of JHSA and a senior health sciences major, said the event was designed to highlight a different side of Japanese culture.
“We are focusing specifically on rural Japan, so we are talking about the modern culture of how Japanese people in a neighborhood interact,” Powell said.
Powell said many people associate modern Japanese culture with anime, fashion or music, but the organization wanted to show less well-known traditions.
“The most interesting part about us is that we focus on things that are unique to the Japanese-American story,” Powell said about JHSA. “I think this club tries to steer away from parts of Japanese culture that are already known in America. And we really try to go to those really unique experiences.”
Attendees were divided into seven “families,” each representing a different region of Japan. Throughout the afternoon, groups competed in four games designed to reflect cultural traditions.
The first was a drawing telephone game with family crests.
“I feel like a lot of people don’t know that Japanese families and last names usually have a crest associated with it,” Powell said.
The second game focused on delivering produce, reflecting the culture of gifting fruits and vegetables to neighbors.
“It is a common thing in Japanese neighborhoods to give your neighbors produce that you make in your backyard,” Powell said. “I think it’s a very unique Japanese thing.”
The third game involved folding origami, which Powell said is “a common activity families do together.”
The final event was Bon Odori, a traditional summer festival dance honoring the dead.
“This touches upon a festival that happens in the summer,” Powell said. “It celebrates the dead, and we do a dance called Bon Odori.”
Students who participated said the event gave them a new perspective.
Raudy Brito, a senior computer science major at UCF, said he enjoyed being part of the experience.
“I’m looking forward to Bon Odori, and I would 100% recommend people to come back to this event, to meet people and learn about Japanese culture. It’s a lot of fun,” Brito said.
Kalley Waldrop, a senior international studies major from UF, said she was nervous attending at first but was glad she came.
“I was definitely nervous because I only know four people from UF that came, but I loved that they mixed everybody around,” Waldrop said. “You get to know different people and all the games are interactive.”
Waldrop said that the setup gave her ideas for UF’s future events.
“We have a spring festival and stuff like that, but we don’t usually mix people around and make people interact,” Waldrop said. “So this is a great learning experience for us and gives us some ideas.”
AloJapan.com