Club activities memory in TIUA

I went to TIUA as study abroad in 2010.

First, I was very shy to make friends, but my days would be better when I joined club activities in Willamette University. If there are no club activities, I can join volunteer works but it supposed to be different life.

In WU, there are a lot of club activities like sports, religions, orchestras, sciences and more. When I was in there, I joined 2 clubs of knitting club and taiko drumming club.

In spring semester, I joined knitting club. I wanted someone teach me knitting, so I was lucky to joined the club. Anna was a very nice person. She taught me knitting and she is really good at knitting! I often get confused and asked help to her again and again, but each time, Anna helped me gently. We sometimes talked, and sometimes did knitting silently. I joined the Knitting club activity few times because I was getting busy of assignments, but now I miss the knitting club in WU. I hope Anna still remembers me.



After dinner, we practiced a lot at TIUA auditrium 2 times in a week.

In fall semester, I wanted to try something new, so I joined taiko club. My TIUA friend Yurie invited me because she already joined it from spring. Yurie and few TIUA students are members of taiko club in TIU. I think WU students are 10~12 people in the club. Most of them are interested in Japanese culture and some of them joined JSP program in TIU. So, TIU taiko club and WU taiko club had a wonderful tie of friendship in 2010. I was pleased to join them. I was beginner of taiko drumming, but TIU taiko friends and WU taiko friends taught me every time.





Jornathan often taught me taiko drumming.

 

I think it’s an amazing thing that some of WU students who were JSP students learned taiko in Japan after they taught me taiko in U.S.!

 WU taiko club joined many performance events in many places. Sometimes we cheered football game by taiko drumming. When TIUA staff gave us the opportunity in the nursing home, we performed in the church inside the building.  

Also our taiko teacher Kaoru-san held the performance at downtown in Salem 2 or 3 times.



downtown in Salem



Nick, Cat and I performed together.



Especially, we worked hard for A La Carte festival in November 2010. A la carte was held by TIUA students for sharing cultures, to make strong friendship, as a festival in WU. It was really busy to prepare the performance, but now I realized, it gave me precious memory.



my favorite picture in A La Carte!

 Now, I’m in TIU taiko club(the official name is TIUA太鼓).

We are really nice friends and we do club activity once a week.

I’m exciting to meet new JSP students and work together in this fall.