This year’s Gakuen-sai happened on the 22nd of February, and it has been a new experience for me. Before the Gakuen-sai took place, we had the chance to interview some Japanese students and they explained to us their previous experiences with Gakuen-sai. I will say the bigger difference I have noticed with their examples of how they have experienced it back in Japan, is the fact that everyone was a little more humble when it came to attracting customers. In our Gakuen-sai experience, we were a little more humble when it came to advising our stalls. There were all sorts of stalls that day, it was amazing to see all the creative stalls my classmates created.
I really liked all of the ones I got a chance to participate with, as I had to attend my group stall as well I ran out of time to visit them all. My personal favourites were the bakery sale, my classmates cooked studio Ghibli-inspired muffins, and the stall selling handmade lucky charms. The charms were so pretty and the muffins so delicious I wished I could have taken them all home with me!
Our stall was called お茶と書道カフェ, which translates to tea and calligraphy cafe. We prepared a little competition as well, we offered different kinds of prizes from mochi to manga when people guessed right one or more tea flavours. I haven´t had so much fun with a school activity in a very long time! (Almu)
今年の学園祭は2月22日に行われましたが、私にとっては新たな経験となりました。 学園祭が開催される前に、私たちは何人かの日本人学生にインタビューする機会があり、彼らは学園祭でのこれまでの経験について説明してくれました。 彼らの日本での経験を聞いた時、私が気づいた大きな違いは、私たちの学園祭では？日本では誰も大声で話したり、声で顧客を引き付けようとしていなかったということです。 私たちの学園祭の経験では、お店を勧める時はもう少し控えめでした。 学園祭当日は様々なお店が出店していて、クラスメートが作った創造的なお店を見てとても驚きました。(アルム)
私は自分のグループの出店にも参加しなければならなかったので、すべてを訪問する時間がなくなってしまいましたが、参加したすべてのお店が非常に気に入りました。 私の個人的なお気に入りは、スタジオジブリにインスピレーションを得たマフィンを作ったベーカリーと、手作りのお守りを販売する屋台でした。 お守りもとてもかわいかったし、マフィンもとても美味しかったので、全部持って帰りたいくらいでした！(アルム)
In order to prepare for our Gakuensai, we had to first research the history behind these culture festivals, as well as interview Japanese students at our university. It was interesting interviewing Japanese students, as we were able to learn more about the Gakuensai, and why they are significant for Japanese universities. I like the fact that they provide the opportunity to interact with others and learn more about other universities. Our own Gakuensai was a great experience, as I had never participated in one before. I was able to learn a lot about Japanese culture and traditions through this event. When researching what kind of stalls are most common during the event, Japanese students said that food is usually one of the more popular ideas, so it was nice to have so many stalls at our Gakuensai offering many different types of food, such as cupcakes, cookies, milk bread, etc. It was all very delicious! As tea ceremonies are also a very important part of Japanese culture, I enjoyed incorporating that aspect of it into our own Gakuensai stall, with the tea tasting and competition. The whole experience was very fun. My favorite part of the Gakuensai were the kanji activities. The Gakuensai was overall a great experience, and I enjoyed being a part of an event so integral to Japanese culture and tradition. (Alexia)
学園祭の用意するために、この文化祭のれきしの研究をしたり、日本人の大学生とインタビューをしたりしなければいけませんでした。学園祭と行事のじゅうようせいについてまなんだので、インタビューはおもしろかったです。人々と話せて、ほかの大学についてまなぶのが好きです。学園祭に行ったことがないので、私たちの学園祭は楽しかったです。この行事で日本の文化とでんとうをまなびました。一番共通出店を調べながら、日本人の大学生は食べ物がさかんだと言っていました。だから、カップケーキやクッキーやミルクパンのような食べ物があるのが好きでした。とてもおいしかったです！茶道は日本文化において大切なので、出店に茶があるのが好きでした。楽しい経験でした。私の一番好きなかつどうはかんじのかつどうでした。学園祭はすばらしい経験でした。行事にさんかするのが好きでした。（アレクシア）
In the interview, the Japanese students mostly talked about food, so we decided to make a tea tasting stall. We also did calligraphy. At the gakuen-sai event, I really enjoyed the Japanese students’ calligraphy stall. I also liked the games stall and the stall selling good luck charms. I thought that their posters were beautiful. (Eleanor)
インタビューで日本人学生たいてい食べ物についてはなしたので、お茶の出店をつくりました。書道もありました。学園祭で、日本人学生の書道の出店をたのしみました。私もゲームとおまもりがすきです。ポスターはきれいだと思いました。（エレノア）
During the Gakuensai, I was in charge of making tea, so I had to go to lots of different shops to find the right kinds. In the end, I had to use some of my own tea as well since it was so hard to find. The tea guessing game was fun, lots of people were very confident in being wrong! The most skilled person at guessing was definitely Fumiko-sensei. I also tried the calligraphy, and found that drawing with a calligraphy brush is much more difficult than I thought it would be. Out of the other groups’ stalls, my favourite was Group 5’s origami stall, since origami is one of my hobbies. (Lucy)
学園祭では、お茶を入れるのこと担当しましたので、いろいろなお店に行ってお茶を探しました。結局、お茶を探すのは大変でしたので、自分のお茶も使わせてもらいました。お茶のゲームは楽しかった、たくさんの人がたくさんのひとが間違ってるのにとても強気でした！お茶を見分けるの一番上手な人は断然ふみこ先生でした。書道もやってみましたが、筆で描くのは思ったより難しいでした。折り紙は趣味ですから、他のグループの出店からグループ５の折り紙の出店が一番好きでした。（ルーシー）
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