The Fountain

The Japanese Student Association and Japanese Club are offering a chance to experience Japanese culture today during X-period in the Student Center Ballroom.

It’s the third annual UCA Sakura Festival. Sakura is Japanese for cherry blossom. The cherry blossom has a special place in Japanese culture. You can read more about that here.

The festival will include contemporary bands, dancing, brush and ink calligraphy, martial arts demonstrations, origami, tea ceremony demonstrations, games and a chance to wear traditional Japanese clothing.

Japanese cherry blossoms

Nana Goto, vice president of the Japanese Student Association, said this year’s festival will focus on modern Japan. Previous festivals had emphasized ancient traditions and customs.

“The band and dance show modern Japanese culture and we created the huge map explaining the geography and some areal differences,” Goto said. “But, we’ll also show the traditional things, like tea demonstrations and clothes try-on booth.”