SPRING 2025
January 17: Karaoke
Ice breaker for the beginning of the semester, and getting members back into the groove of speaking (or singing in) Japanese.
January 24: Word Games
Fun and interactive games including マジカルバナナ、しりとり、and カタカナ史 to learn Japanese words.
January 31: Bento Box Making
Members will split into pairs and work together to make their own bento box! We'll also learn words for cooking and decorating.
February 7: Setsubun
Pod members will be making their own oni mask. We will vote on the best ones and they will wear their masks while everyone throws soybeans at them.
February 14: Valentine's Day Chocolate Making
We'll be decorating chocolate molds before filing them with chocolate! These will be packaged and exchanged between pod members!
February 21: Otaku slang and Oshi sign craft
Through a short presentation, Members will learn basic slang terms used in online fan communities in Japan.
February 28: Tea Ceremony
Students will learn about the roles of the host and guests at a Japanese tea ceremony and the basic actions taken by each. We'll also learn how to make matcha!
March 7: Kendama Contest & other Traditional Games
We will be having a kendama, Mahjong, hyakunin isshu, and karuta competitions between pod members!
March 22: Semester Event - 夏祭り！
Come join us at our summer festival! We will have various stalls that have Japanese food (e.g. Yakisoba, candied apples, mochi, shaved ice) and a lot of fun games as well! OPEN TO ENTIRE CHARLOTTESVILLE COMMUNITY!
March 28: Board Games
We will be playing Guess who, heads up, etc. but all in Japanese so come prepared!
April 4: Undoukai (Part 2)
Members will be divided into red and white groups to compete in Radio Taiso, Tug of war, relay race, donut eating contests!
April 11: Among Us
Members will download the free game Among Us for their smartphones and change the text language to Japanese.
April 18: Reading Rainbow
Bring your favorite Japanese book to wind down with! We'll also have other books to read as well!
April 11: Drawing Japanese Limono/Washi patterns
We will be learning about the various patterns observed in kimono’s, washi paper, pottery, etc. Using the patterns as a guide, students will draw/sketch!
FALL 2024
September 1: Fruits Basket and other Ice breakers in classroom
Get to know each other, saying basic sentences in Japanese for fruits basket
September 6: 動物の折り紙・飾り作り (Animal Origami and Hall Decoration)
Learning animal names and bonding with floor mates through decorating tour doors. We folded cranes, swans, roses, and Draculas.
September 13: ボードゲーム
Heads up and Monopoly; but with a fun twist that incorporates Japanese. We played with Japanese and UVA monopoly boards, learning key economic terms and regions in Japan. Congrats to the winners!
September 20: お月見と餅付き
Making mochi while learning about the story of the Rabbit and the Moon. We had a fun time kneading, rolling, and eating the mochi! Had both sweet and savory options that included soy sauce, seaweed, kinako, and red bean. Learned about key cooking terminologies.
September 27: Japanese dialects (Okinawa, Hokkaido, Osaka)
Short presentations on each dialect. Followed by a skit with the words and phrases learned. Learned about Uchinaguchi and Kansai dialects and some key phrases spoken in each. Created different scenarios using the words learned and acted them out!
October 4: Create Your Own Kanji/Yojijukugo
Learning about common yojijyukugo as well as kanji's radicals (their meanings and sounds). Created kanji by combining different Japanese characters and radicals. We also create yojijyukugo (四字熟語) based on personal messages and idioms that we use in daily life.
October 11: 習字（漢字、四字熟語の練習）
Calligraphy session with the kanji and yojijyukugo learned in the previous week! We learned about names of the different tools/equiptment used and key ways of writing a stroke.
October 18: かるた
Fun game night of karuta. Played karuta with a mix of ことわざ (idioms), 百人一首 (Famous Japanese poems), and うちなぐち karuta.
October 25: シェア祭とおにぎりアクション
People from across the university joined us for the Shea House Onigiri Action! We learned how to make onigiri (rice balls), ate curry rice and matcha lattes, and learned origami and kendama. Posting #onigiriaction, led to rice being donated to children in need. Stay tuned for next semesters event!
November 1: 日本史
Learning about different time periods and events in Japanese history. Following a short presentation on the different Japanese eras, each member did research into an object, historical figure, or architecture learning about its significance within its context and area. We went to groups to discuss what we learned!
November 8: 運動会
Sporting competition with games including tug of war, relays, and ラジオ体操 etc. We were split up into 紅組 and 白組, to compete in all the games with the final game being ドーナツ食い競争 with mochi donuts! Congratulations to the winners: 白組!
November 15: 読書のレインボー
Reading corner with a variety of Japanese books to choose from and discuss
November 22: ジブリ映画
Relaxing movie night with one of the classics
November 29: 年賀状とハンコ作り
Reflexting on this past year and preparing for the New Year. We will be making nengajyou to give to frineds and family
December 2: 新年のパーティー
Celebrating the end of the year together!
SPRING 2024
1/19/24 - Welcome Back Karaoke: We sang and listened to a few popular Japanese songs and at the end, we listened to a few Japanese folk/lullaby songs.
1/26/24 - We made oshiruko and zenzai (they are both very similar dessert dishes commonly ate around new years). We learned the differences between them and had a great time cooking in Japanese.
2/9/24 - We made mizuhiki (a form of knot tying) and made door decorations! We had a lot of fun trying to do different forms of knot tying while learning about its history.
2/16/24 - We learned about the differences and similarities of Valentine's Day in Japan vs. America. We then made tomo choco and learned about the different types of chocolate given out on Valentine's Day in Japan.
2/23/24 - We started planning out our semester event: Shea Hinamatsuri! It is a Japanese Girl's Day, so we plan on having traditional Hinamatsuri food and decorations! We even made a flier.
3/1/24 - We made another video letter responding to Japanese middle school students. Stay tuned for the final video!
3/15/24 - We had a game night with a variety of Japanese games. But we particularly had a lot of fun playing charades in Japanese, reviewing different words and finding new ways to express them.
3/23/24-We had our spring semester event: Shea Hinamatsuri. Hinamatsuri is girl's day in Japan and it is a day to celebrate with friends and family.
3/29/24-We learned about Japanese riddles and word puns. I hid clues around Shea House and people went around solving riddles in Japanese.
4/5/24-We learned about two different Japanese holidays this week: Kodomo no hi and Tanabata. We went into depth about the history being Children's Day (Kodomo no hi) and the origins of how this holiday came to be. At the end we made tanzaku (wrote wishes on paper) as finals as close by and we all prayed to get A's on our exam.
4/12/24-We learned the trash disposal system in Japan through Jeopardy! We learned about how there are many different ways to dispose of trash (different categories) and we played jeopardy to see if groups would know how each trash would be disposed of in the categories of recyclables, burnables, non burnables, and large objects.
4/19/24- We learned about how the traditional Japanese meal: 1 soup 3 dishes (with rice). We also learned about triangle eating where there is a certain method/order in which you eat the dishes so that it forms a triangle of sorts. We also decided on what foods we wanted to make for our last language corner!
4/26/24-For our last language corner we will be making a traditional Japanese dinner and eating with Japanese table mannerisms.
FALL 2023
9/1/23 - We made charaben (character bentos) for dinner, based on characters we liked. We had a lot of fun!
9/8/23 - We made a video letter replying to Japanese middle schoolers
9/15/23 - We learned about Yuru chara which are mascot characters usually created to promote an area or a region. With the remaining time, we started designing our own Japanese floor sweatshirts!
9/22/23 - We played Jinrou (人狼), a Japanese version of mafia while speaking in Japanese!
9/29/23 - Today was Otsukimi (a moon viewing festival) and we made tsukimi dango. We also went outside and watched the full moon!
10/21/23 - We had our fall semester event: Shea Matsuri! We made origami, ate onigiri and even drew some calligraphy!
10/27/23 - We made another video responding to Japanese middle schoolers. This time we had a discussion about the differences in American and Japanese education!
11/3/23 - We played a kahoot to learn about the difference between 和食 and 洋食!
11/10/23 - We made two different desserts to learn about how the cooking styles are different between a 和食 dessert (ichigo daifuku) and a 洋食 dessert (purin).
11/17/23 - We played a jeopardy like game in Japanese about all of the language corners and events that happened at Shea this fall semester!
2022 - 2023
8/28 - Our first Language Corner! Aside from doing introductions, we all played a Japanese sushi stacking minigame. It was tons of fun!
9/4 - Our second Language Corner. We made a lot or Origami and Kirigami creations together!
9/11 - Our third Language Corner. We all made and ate tsukimi-dango.
9/18 - On this Language Corner, we did Shiritori games (both regular and e-shiritori) as a group
9/25 - On this Language Corner We all tried Japanese Calligraphy
2/19- On this Language Corner We all made Yakisoba
