Upcoming Events:
Welcome back Patriots! Stay tuned for the JSA's planned 2018 Spring Events. Make sure to like us on Facebook to get the most up to date information.
Onigiri Night
Come out and make onigiri with the whole JSA gang! Everybody loves food, so this is sure to be a fun, tasty event for everyone to enjoy.
Past Events
Movie Night
For this JSA event, we watched Castle in the Sky, the first animated Studio Ghibli film.
Ikebana
Today, we had a true flower arranging expert coming in to help us out with our Ikebana event! Ikebana is an ancient Japanese art involving placing flowers in a bowl in an aesthetically pleasing way. Unlike other Japanese artforms, there is a lot more room for expression and freedom in Ikebana, making it a fun and creative way to spend the day!
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Board Games Night
For this event, we had traditional Japanese games, such as Go and Tsuro, as well as an assortment of other fun American games for everyone to play and enjoy!
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Origami
Origami is an ancient Japanese art that has been practiced and appreciated for centuries. At this event, we ate snacks and folded cranes with the help of a skilled origami folding artist.
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Karuta
Karuta is a fast-paced, fun game that anyone can learn and enjoy! For this event, we had Washington D.C.'s main Karuta club come out and show us the ropes of Karuta. Since this game is quite difficult, we had various tables set up with easier versions, and various prizes for everyone.
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Candy in Japan
Japan has a variety of different candy, most notably pocky. For this event, we brought various Japanese sweets for the students to taste and enjoy. Unsurprisingly, this tends to be our most popular event!
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Pumpkin Carving
Although pumpkin carving is not particularly Japanese, it is a staple of the JSA. Pumpkin carving has been an annual event for years, and is frequently one of the JSA's most fun and highly attended events!
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JSA Movie Night: 呪怨 (The Grudge)
The Grudge is a Japanese supernatural horror movie from 2002. Similarly to The Ring, another Japanese horror film from the turn of the millenium, it revolves around the spirit of a girl killing people. It even has various scenes with the girl, in this case named Kayako, calling people and making sp00ky noises. Overall, this is a great movie to watch if you've been scared of The Grudge since you were a kid, like myself.
Calligraphy
Calligraphy is a traditional Japanese art that involves writing kanji (漢字) with very particular, elegant brushstrokes. Despite its ancient roots, it is still a longstanding tradition in Japan, and is often taught at Japanese highschools.
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Watermelon Smashing
Watermelon Smashing is a traditional Japanese game that involves hitting a watermelon with a stick while blindfolded. It is played in the summertime, and is most often seen at beaches, although it also occurs at festivals, picnics, and other summer events.
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雛祭り Girl's Day
雛祭り:"Hinamatsuri", or "Girls' Day", is a Japanese holiday celebrated on March 3rd to wish good fortune, health, and future happiness for young girls. It is also known as "Doll's Day" because of the elaborate doll displays depicting a traditional Heian period court, ranging from the Emperor and Empress to attendants and musicians, that are set up on this day. To learn about this holiday in a fun way, we invited members to make an origami "doll family" of their own to take home while they enjoyed cookies, pocky, and other snacks.
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Music Listening Party
Whether it's a guilty pleasure or you listen loud and proud, we know you all love a bit of Japanese music! We invited the JSA community to get together and de-stress with some games and share their favorite tunes before exams.
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ホワイトデー White Day
Did you know Japan has two "Valentine's" Days? On Valentine's Day, girls make and present chocolate to boys, and on "White Day" one month later, the boys reciprocate the gesture by presenting chocolate of their own. To share this unique holiday with the Mason community, we held our own "White Day" party filled with chocolate and good times centered around making "Valentine's" themed origami.
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JSA Movie Night: Akira Kurosawa's "The Hidden Fortress"
We held our first ever JSA movie night by showing Akira Kurosawa's "The Hidden Fortress", with commentary by GMU Japanese cinema professor and former film distributor, Michael Jeck! Though a little known fact, "The Hidden Fortress" is the movie that inspired George Lucas to pen the original "Star Wars" in 1977. As "The Force Awakens" was about to be released in theatres, we felt it the perfect film to kick off our first JSA movie night with. After the film, Professor Jeck shared some personal commentary and anecdotes regarding his experiences with the film's director and actors, as well its initial release and distribution in the United States.
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Pumpkin Carving
To get in the fall spirit, the JSA rolled out the tarps and carving tools to carve everything from spooky messages in Japanese to Japanese pop-culture icons.
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