Date & Time: Saturday, March 7, 11:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Location: Yokohama Social Welfare Center, Sakuragicho, Yokohama
Participants: Six international students, including two from India, one each from Malaysia, Botswana, the U.S. and China, and one Japanese student joining as an observer
Attendants: Five KSGG members taking part in the KSGG tutorial program
Languages: English and Japanese
In the KSGG tutorial program, KSGG members provide international students, as tutors and tutees, with help for everyday conversation practice and daily life support.
It was the day when tutors and tutees had a convivial gathering, held in March once a year. There was a lunch party first. It is Hina-matsuri, Dolls’ Festival and Girls’ Day, on March 3 in Japan. Therefore, traditional meal for Hina-matsuri, Chirashizushi*１. was served as the lunch. Rice mixed with cooked vegetables was provided for some vegetarians. Various ingredients were prepared for toppings on chirashizushi rice, including omelet strips, shrimps, and pickles from vegetable. Each could take their favorite toppings. Tutees appreciated this kind of buffet style.
After lunch was Karuta*２-kai, a session of playing Karuta. During lunchtime, some tutors had made a presentation about three kinds of Japanese card game, Hyakunin’issyu-karuta*３, Iroha-karuta*４and Aiueo-karuta*５. Hyakunin’issyu-karuta was going to be played only by tutors for demonstration, but tutees joined it, too. The game among tutors and tutees got heated up unexpectedly. Next, only the tutees played Aiueo-karuta. They played it seriously because the names of some pictures did not match the heading hiragana characters on them. A Malaysian student won the game and a Chinese student was a close second. So, both of them got decoration items of Hina-matsuri as prizes.
Lastly, all talked over tea, having Sakura-mochi*６and Hina-arare*７. It seemed that all the tutees enjoyed the party, practicing Japanese conversation too.
*１: Chirashizushi is a type of sushi served in a box or a large dish, not like ordinary sushi in a bite-sized lump. Rice is topped or mixed with ingredients such as slices of fish, shiitake mushroom, shredded egg, sweetened mashed fish, and green peas. Chirashi literally means “sprinkled”.
*２: Karuta is a traditional card matching game. A reader recites a text on a reading card, and players pick out the matching card among pick-up cards spread out on the tatami-mat floor.
*３: Hyakunin’issyu-karuta uses 100 reading cards with full Japanese classic poems and 100 pick-up cards with only the second half of them. Hyakunin’issyu is an anthology of one hundred poems, one poem for each poet.
*４: Iroha-karuta uses 48 reading cards with proverbs and 48 pick-up cards with pictures matching those proverbs.
*５: Aiueo-karuta is a card matching game to learn Hiragana, Japanese syllabary characters.
*６: Sakura-mochi is a round pale-pink-colored rice cake with adzuki bean paste inside, wrapped in a salted cherry leaf.
*７: Hina-arare is bite-sized sweetened rice crackers for Hina-matsuri
