The second day of the program began with the first three sessions of the Cross-Cultural workshop. Ommura-sensei and Yagishta-sensei lead the workshops where international students and Showa students partook in various ice-breaker activities that allowed them to get to know more about each other. They played the Japanese version of rock-paper-scissors that included a special twist where the victor would point either up, down, left, or right while saying “Acchi Muite Hoy!” and the other person would have to look in a different direction. They also arranged themselves according to height, birthdays, and waiting times. For the latter half of the day, students gathered into assigned groups to build a tower out of paper and paper only. At the end, Ommura-sensei awarded the winning group with a box of chocolates. Although the icebreakers had a competitive component, the students nevertheless collaborated with each other to help break down language and cultural barriers, thus filling the Global Lounge with laughter and excitement throughout the day. For the third session of the Cross-Cultural Workshop, as students are beginning to get more comfortable with their group members, Yagishta-sensei introduced the project component of the Cross-Cultural Workshop. This year’s theme is Advertisement. With their groups, students will travel around Tokyo to take photos of advertisements that fit their chosen theme and conduct an analysis for the final project. They will also present their findings to the group at the end of the program. We can’t wait to see what their projects will look like!
