Photo by Sarah Wesolowski<\/a><\/p>\nUnder vibrant tents Thursday in the CAPPA Courtyard, local vendors sold Japanese-themed and anime-inspired items such as keychains, posters and phone charms. <\/p>\n
Over the past year, the Japanese Culture Society has held or participated in multiple events, from Tea and Chill to Maverick Con. <\/p>\n
The student organization focuses on educating the local community on Japanese culture and customs through events. <\/p>\n
Abdul Busari, president of the organization and university studies junior, said the club was started in the early 2010s to showcase aspects of Japanese culture outside of anime. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to cater to that group of people of that environment that have really gotten into Japanese things or just the language or the media that comes across it, like the plays or the traditions,\u201d said Jonathan Fischer, vice president of the organization and business major. <\/p>\n
Busari said his vision for the club was to continue expanding their community, despite feeling that social media has reduced in-person engagement in student organizations. <\/p>\n
On the other hand, Fischer said he did not want to sacrifice any of their avenues of culture exploration. <\/p>\n
Their current challenge is finding a middle ground between keeping current members engaged and attracting more students to join the club. <\/p>\n
So, they rely on events and activities for outreach.<\/p>\n
Every year, the organization hosts two of their biggest events: a trip to an Otsukimi festival in the fall and its Daigakusai festival in the spring. <\/p>\n
Otsukimi is a harvest moon festival that marks the start of the fall season, said Lorena Castellon, public relations chair and biological chemistry junior. The event coincides with traditional Japanese folk tales about the moon. <\/p>\n
Daigakusai, meaning college festival, is one of the organization\u2019s largest events in the spring. The club selects vendors and local artists, which vary year to year. <\/p>\n
The club also hosts fundraiser events, field trips and presentations, along with smaller events and activities that appeal to members\u2019 specific interests, Fischer said. <\/p>\n
\u201cEvery link makes the chain stronger,\u201d he said. \u201cThe more people that can get involved with the club, the cooler things that we can do.\u201d <\/p>\n
Castellon said joining the club helped her socialize when she first came to the university. <\/p>\n
When she moved to Arlington from Houston, she said, she didn\u2019t have many friends in the area. <\/p>\n
\u201cI made a lot of my friends through this club,\u201d Castellon said. \u201cI just really enjoy being a part and being an officer. Even if I wasn\u2019t an officer, I just really enjoy a lot of the events.\u201d <\/p>\n
@kh.kennedyharvey<\/p>\n
news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Derek Nguyen, Japanese Culture Society officer, right, sets up a fishing game with Fort Worth resident Joseph Lafountain,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117,76498],"class_list":{"0":"post-254080","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-fort-worth","9":"tag-fort-worth-headlines","10":"tag-fort-worth-news","11":"tag-people_and_interests"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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