The Hiroshima University International Center encourages exchange between international and Japanese students through various cultural exchange activities and nature programs. Since 2011, “Regional World Cooking” classes have been conducted by International students from various countries as “one-day cooking teachers” and the participants - international and Japanese students, cook and eat together traditional local specialties of the teacher's home country.



The eighth session of “Regional World Cooking” was held on January 24, (Sat) 2015 in the free space area of the first floor of the Student Plaza. This time’s topic was “Japanese festival meals” and the students cooked ozoni (soup with rice cakes) and ehomaki (sushi roll eaten during setsubun). There were 5 Japanese students and 13 international students, a collective participation of 18 people who enjoyed the cooking. While listening to the teacher's instructions, they separated into several groups and helped each other to prepare the dishes. Ozoni was cooked in two different ways, Hiroshima-style and Osaka-style, so that the students could experience the regional differences. After preparation, everybody ate his/her ehomaki without speaking, looking toward west-southwest, the lucky direction of this year. Then, the participants split into small groups and enjoyed the taste of Hiroshima-style and Osaka-style ozoni, talking about manners and customs in Japan, Vietnam, China, Indonesia, India and other countries.



The participants said: “It was fun to make Japanese New Year meals together with friends from other countries” and “The dishes were delicious and I think I can cook them easily by myself at home.” This time, the menu was Japanese cuisine, and the Japanese students had the opportunity to introduce their home country’s culture to international students. The students could not only deepen their own understanding of other country’s culture by experiencing food, but also enjoyed international exchange by cooking together.



In this session, the students also experienced “calligraphy”. First, they learned the three basic techniques of calligraphy: “Tome (stop)”, “hane (upward brushstroke)”, “harai (sweeping)” and imitated the teacher's writing. Then they enjoyed a “calligraphy relay”: each team member performs one stroke until the group completed a certain kanji character. Furthermore, the students also freely painted a character of their own choice with watercolors. For almost all of the participants, it was the first time to try calligraphy and some of them remarked that it was difficult, but many were happy that they could experience Japanese traditional culture. Even students from countries that do not use kanji characters in their writing were deeply impressed.



We hope that this event helps to understand other cultures, and that international exchange on campus will continue to become more and more active.

Preparing ehomaki	Looking toward the lucky direction and biting into the ehomaki
The participants carefully watching the teacher's instructions	Group photo with each student's favorite characters

【Inquiries】

International Exchange Group,

Education and International Office,

Hiroshima University

TEL：082-424-4541

E-mail: kokusai-ryugaku(AT)office.hiroshima-u.ac.jp

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