On Friday Jan. 26, in the senior lounge of the Parkdale cafeteria, Panthers celebrated a day of cultural diversity when the Japanese Honors Society hosted an event known as “Japan Day” to promote their academic course and influence students to join.

This event held its duration throughout the majority of the school day. The event was held in every lunch period, giving all students the full opportunity to explore the unique and fun activities that were held, along with the option of buying authentic Japanese snacks. These activities were all themed around the culture of Japan, and many students found them engaging.

“It’s very fun, like very creative,” said junior Namar Borreli. “I get to experience the culture a little bit.  It’s a new experience.”

The activities that were held came in many different forms in which students could participate. Those activities included: 

• Shuriken Throw, where students took aim at a target and tried aiming for the biggest score. 
• Face Masks, where students colored paper cut outs of popular Japanese-derived characters and would wear them as masks. 
• Origami Crane fishing, where students indulged in fishing out origami cranes out of a pool of other cranes and had the objective of fishing as many as they could. 
• Sumo wrestling, where students choose a cardboard cutout of a sumo wrestler and would hit and tap the platform the sumos were standing on to knock their opponent down. 
• Box game, where the student are given a padded stick and are supposed to strike an enemy made of boxes and essentially hit the boxes bellow the head and get the head all the way to the foundation of the enemy.

“So far I like the Shuriken throw because I like throwing stuff,” said junior Osacr Montufar. “So it’s really fun.” 

What was also presented at the event was real authentic Japanese-imported snacks, which ranged from flavored milk, mochi, rice cakes, and more. Right besides the snacks were also a collection of stickers students could purchase. The stickers themselves were still themed around the culture of japan. 

Ms. Ogata, the teacher leading the event, was asked in an interview  how difficult she found the event. “I don’t think I had any difficulties,” she explained.  “It was really fun!”

She continued, “I was really worried, I guess, because I kinda worry about everything before any event happens [but] it went really well!”

Many students who helped put on the event shared the same sentiments as Ms. Ogata. 

“I consider this event an absolute success!” said senior Habteab Weldeberuk, who has participated in the Japan Day events for three years.

The purpose of the event was quite simple. The Japanese Honor Society hosts this annual celebration during the second half of the school year where they set this event to promote their class to any students interested in learning the language Japanese. While in the process of promoting their class, they also fundraise by selling snacks and other delectables to fund for an annual field trip to those in Japanese to go to the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC).