Welcome Party for Northern Arizona University (NAU) Students Held

Date and Time: Saturday, June 13, 2015 12:00p.m. －3:30p.m.

Venue: Classroom No.132, Main Building, Chuogakuin University (CGU)

Participants: 64 people in total (18 people from NAU, 17 from host families, 15 from AIRA, 11 CGU students and 6 music players)

 Ms. Mary Elizabeth Adachi, who used to teach at the AIRA English classes and is now Japanese language instructor at the university, is visiting Japan, leading her 15 students from the States. They are here on the study-abroad program to learn Japanese language and culture. During their one-month stay in Japan they are planning to visit many places. Here in Abiko they are going to attend Japanese language classes and experience a variety of Japanese culture such as tea ceremony, calligraphy, kendo, wearing kimono and staying with Japanese families.

 Since Abiko was the first place of their visit, AIRA held a welcome party for them with a great cooperation of CGU.　　　　　　（ＮＯ．15-5）

 Prior to the welcome party, NAU students enjoyed a get-together with CGU students. It was planned and prepared by CGU students who had volunteered to work for it. All the students, American, Japanese, Chinese and Korean, introduced themselves, played pantomime games and competed in arm wrestling. Through those talks and activities they got to know each other and had a pleasant time.

 Thanks to the friendly atmosphere of the students gathering, the following welcome party could be started in a cheerful and relaxed atmosphere.

 The welcome party was emceed in both Japanese and English by Ms. Yamaguchi, who sometimes works for AIRA activities as an English translator. As Ms. Kazuko Sengoku was playing the koto, traditional Japanese harp, the 15 NAU students were warmly welcomed in the room with hand clapping by many people who were already seated there.

 First, Mr. T. Sugano, President of AIRA, made an opening speech in both English and Japanese and welcomed the NAU students, then Ms. Mary Adachi made a heart-felt thank-you speech in Japanese.

 After the host families introduced themselves, NAU students introduced themselves in English and Japanese. The students and the host families all looked very glad to meet each other for the first time. Each student joined his/her host-family’s table and enjoyed talking over lunch. In the meantime an entertainment program started.

Part 1

1. Koto playing by Ms. Sengoku: She is also a host parent. She played two pieces of music. First one was titled “Rokudan no Shirabe”, melody of six columns, which is a typically classical koto music. The second was “Akashi”. She sang in a beautiful voice while playing the koto. “Akashi” deals with one scene from a famous old Japanese story, “Genji Monogatari.” The melody represents the lonesome farewell of the hero who has to leave the place named Akashi and a lady he loved. The audience were fascinated with the profound beauty of the koto music.

2. “Ensemble Tabiji”: Mr. Y. Yoshida, also a host parent, and his band members played the guitar, ukulele and keyboard. Their motto is “Let’s Sing Along!” They had prepared colorfully printed sheets of paper of lyrics with their message, “Welcome to Japan, and we welcome you to Abiko City today.” The lyrics were all typed in Hiragana and Roman letters. They played 7 popular American and Japanese songs and all the people sang together.

3. “Hug Hug”: A group of three ladies. They played the cajon, a Peruvian musical instrument, keyboard harmonica, recorder, birdcall, tambourine and keyboard, and sang happy songs such as “Let It Go”, from the movie “Frozen”, and “Take Me Home, Country Roads”.

Part 2 Performance by NAU students

1. Daniel and Matthew sang a duet of “Let It Be” and “Ho Hey” to the guitar played by Daniel. They sang a duet for the first time but it went very well.

2. Keira danced to the song “Sad Machine”. It was a modern cute dance composed of slow and quick movements like pantomime.

3. Rayne performed break dancing. His powerful movements of rocking, spinning, sliding and jumping amazed the audience.

4. All the NAU students sang in chorus “Don’t Stop Believing”. Ms. Mary Adachi said that they had practiced the song very hard at a Karaoke house the night before. There was also a welcome speech by Mr. H. Sato, President of CGU. He hoped that NAU students would learn about Japanese culture including architecture and food, and above all, about Japanese people.

 The party exceeded the scheduled time and everyone looked happy. Finally Mr. K. Murakoshi, Vice-President of AIRA, led “Sanbon-jime” and the party was brought to a close. The rhythmic hand clapping is a kind of ritual Japanese people do at the end of special events. It was the first time for the people from NAU to do it, but all the party attendants performed “Sanbon-jime” together perfectly and the hand clapping sounded loudly in the room.