The Miyagi Museum of Art

 In Japan, autumn is expressed with various words: Autumn is the season for good appetite, harvest, reading and so on. Another word that cannot be missed is art. As most students know, the Miyagi Museum of Art (宮城県立美術館) is just in front of Tohoku University's Kawauchi campus. It is one of the largest and most prominent museums in Miyagi prefecture.

 The exhibitions there range from large-scale ones to works by famous artists from the local area. Recently, there was a two-month special exhibition of Marc Chagall, a French artist who used all kinds of means, such as painting, tapestries, ceramic, stage sets, and stained glass, to express himself. One of his amazing works is a painting on the ceiling of the Opera Garnier in Paris. This work was reproduced on the ceiling of a wide room in the museum using an advanced camera.

 The upcoming exhibition is a collection by Toru Sunouchi (洲之内 徹), an art dealer who was active from the 1960s through the 80s. He was also a popular art critic, and there were many fans who appreciated reading his essays in various media. Even though he was a dealer, he did not relinquish works that he felt attached to. There are anecdotes that he sometimes had trouble with customers because of not selling his favorite paintings. The displayed collection at the museum includes the ones he retained this way, so you can enjoy seeing some Japanese modern art.

 Just next to the main building sits “The Sato Churyo Gallery (佐藤忠良記念館).” The sculptor Churyo Sato was born in Miyagi prefecture in 1912. He has been highly acclaimed both inside and outside of Japan. Most of his sculptures are male figures, and some can be found in the museum garden too.
 Since the museum is just across the street, we recommend you stop by for a change of pace!

Report on the Japan Education Fair in India!

 As though reflecting the social situation, which is filled with feverish energy, the Japan Education Fair in New Delhi and Bengaluru, India, ended on a high note. About 100 people came to Tohoku University’s booth in each city, asking questions about courses, application procedures, and student life in Sendai.

The First Ikebana Experience

Ikebana (Japanese flower arrangement) is one of the essential and authentic Japanese traditions. On a rainy morning, 23 foreign students, visiting Tohoku University for a short program called TUJP, experienced Ikebana for the first time in their lives.

The teacher on that day was Prof. Ying Chen of the Graduate School of Engineering. In the past, Prof. Chen studied Sogetsuryu Ikebana, which is one school of ikebana, in Tokyo. She chose flowers such as lilies and balloon flowers, and branches with small leaves.

The most enjoyable part of Ikebana is to cut some of the branches and arrange the flowers according to your own sense of beauty. The students worked in pairs, and actively discussed how to complete their arrangements. Their cooperation bore fruit.

In the end, the room was decorated with twelve gorgeous flower pots. At the end of the lesson, everyone looked very satisfied and some became kind of sad at not being able to take the flowers back to where they are staying now.

100-year Aniversary of the first women students

Tohoku University is one of seven former imperial universities (other six are Hokkaido, Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka, and Kyushu), and is proudly famous for being the first Japanese national university to accept female students. This happened in 1913, exactly 100 years ago, so there have been many events on campus to celebrate the hundred-year anniversary. It was truly an unconventional incident at that time. Thereafter, other universities such as the University of Tokyo started to welcome female students within a few years.

The university accepted three students: Ms. Chika Kuroda, Raku Makita and Ume Tange, and their distinguished careers flourished later. Ms. Kuroda became a professor at Ochanomizu University as a physicist. Ms. Tange had a long career contributing to research on vitamins as a Doctor of Agriculture. Ms. Makita became a mathematician, and taught at a teacher’s school for women for a while.

At "book＋cafe BOOOK” on Aobayama Campus, a book fair, from July 8 to August 9, is taking place to commemorate the anniversary. On the corner, various books that are recommended by Tohoku University’s female researchers are displayed. Prof. Mami Tanaka at the School of Engineering chose comic books such as “Space Brothers (宇宙兄弟 in Japanese),” which was adapted as a film during the last year.

Eight out of 22 FGL 1^st year students are female. Whether they will stay in Japan or go back to their home country, we look forward to their future careers. 

Student interview: Chairul Akmal, Applied Marine Biology

The first year student Chairul Akmal came from Indonesia, which he calls “a marine country like Japan.”  So it was very natural for him to decide on studying marine biology in Japan.  He is now very busy with the Liberal Education classes, which all first year students have to go through.  He, however, has a vision of obtaining deep insights into the ocean, and is already absorbing knowledge from his professors.

“Gleadall Sensei is one of the best teachers whom I’ve met in my life,” Akmal says.  Professor Gleadall mainly teaches him marine biology as well as physiology.  Akmal especially enjoys his lectures about the future of the ocean and environmental issues.

Akmal mentions the wide range and availability of food both on campus and in Sendai City itself. At the cafeterias on campus, halal food is prepared, and grocery stores as well as restaurants for non-pork eaters are in walking distance to those living at the students’ dormitory. 

Even so, one of Japanese dishes he has been enjoying the most lately is Sushi.

Having lived in Sendai for four months, Akmal finds a major difference between Indonesian and Japanese culture—the reticence of the Japanese.  But he respects it, and regards it as a matter of custom.  His humbleness does and will let him enrich himself through new cultures anywhere he goes.

Warm porridge at Bee ARENA Cafe

The year 2013 has started, and Sendai is getting colder and colder with a stiff breeze blowing.  In Japan one of the ways to warm up under such conditions is to eat warm porridge.

On Kawauchi Campus, there are three types of cafeteria meeting the multiple needs of students from domestic to international: one of them is called “Bee ARENA Cafe” which resembles a café seen on the street instead of a traditional cafeteria on a university campus.

Imonikai: A Tohoku Tradition

Today, I would like to talk about a specialty of Sendai: imoni. This literally means “cooked potato.”  That is, imoni actually means to enjoy cooking somewhere outdoors, such as along a river, to promote friendship among a group of people.  The main dish in Miyagi is a bowl of stewed pork, taros, scallions and konjak, which are cooked on a stove.  People help themselves to it, and relax and chat with friends, family members, neighbors and so on.

This custom is widely seen in the Tohoku region, the northern part of the main island of Japan, and it is often considered to be one of the two most anticipated events: Hanami (cherry blossom viewing) in spring and Imonikai in autumn, every year. 

 The reason why it is carried out in autumn is that taros are perennially harvested in October, and the newly harvested taros are always the main ingredient for the dish. 

 On October 20^th, students of engineering department voluntarily planned an imoni party alongside the Hirose River, and many international students participated in the event.  In addition to imoni, various barbecue items—sausages, pork chops, vegetables and many others—were prepared there, and the participants truly felt full from the delicious feast.

Tohoku University's Aikido Circle

One of Tohoku University’s circles that has a long history is the “Gakuyukai Aikido” circle—the Student Union’s circle dedicated to the art of weaponless self-defense.

On the Air with Lily Noriko

Last month, I was invited for a radio talk by a very charming lady. Lily Noriko runs a weekly program for FM76.2 where she invites students from various parts of the world to come and speak about their countries. The radio show gave very interesting insight as to how radio show operations work here in Sendai, where people love Western Music although English is scarcely spoken. Students who would like to appear for the radio show can get in touch with her. She will be most happy to find out more about you. 


LILY Noriko is a resident of Sendai city Japan. After having graduated from university, she worked as a high school English teacher for six years, and then decided to change her job. Her aim was to become a professional Japanese/English interpreter. 


She gained experience as a freelance interpreter through working as secretariat of The EXPO 2005 in Aichi, international conference management, English office work, trade office work and in-house interpreting and translation. Finally, she has started her own enterprise from the year 2010 by the name “Lily’s TranSupport”. 


Most of her interpreting fields are related to administration of justice and computer. In addition to these, press related, lecture meeting of educational and linguistics course, business meetings. Besides, she works as a radio personality (FM76.2) and a part-time teacher of university. 


More information about  Lily-san can be found here:
http://www.lilys-transupport.jp/


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text by
Samantha Marbaniang

Beauty and Talent Festa in the middle of February!

On February 12, Tohoku University Ko-Haku 2012 Winter Festival was the hottest event of the winter. The most talented and creative students of the University performed on the stage, singing, dancing, acting, and posing to celebrate the New Year, to heat up Sendai winter, dedicating their performances to everyone, who had gone through the tough year after the Great East Japan Earthquake, and, shouting out to the world, that we, in Tohoku, are here, living, studying, and having fun!

This is the second year of the Festival and the name of the event "Ko-Haku" is similar to one of the most popular New Year's TV Shows in Japan, a concert-battle between the brightest stars of Japanese show industry with the ladies performing in the Red Team (KO) and men performing in the White team (Haku). The Tohoku University Ko-Haku Festival was more than a singers battle, although it was also judged by the professional judges – the University professors (how much more professional could it get J ). It was a complete Talent Show, reflecting what the students of one of the top Universities in Japan can do besides studying. The show was spiced up by the traditional Japanese, Indonesian, Malay dances, street dance , musical shows, A-capella concert, crazy Vocaloid family cosplay, and finalized by the international fashion show, representing 15 countries and five continents.

The event was organized by the Tohoku University Graduate School of Economics and Management, Division of International Education and Exchange  (DIEE) and the Center for International Exchange, Global 30 office.

The pictures from the event are available at:

https://picasaweb.google.com/108223979894431885504/February122012?authkey=Gv1sRgCN3OutuSo-2c_QE#


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Text and Photos by Aysenem
FGL FB/Blog Team