JAIST organizes Japanese Cultural Excursions for international students to deepen their understanding of Japanese and local culture, while also deepening their exchanges with Japanese students.

Excursion1: Japanese Garden Stroll and Tea Ceremony

On August 29, the first Japanese Cultural Experience of FY2023 was held. The four participating students visited Gyokusen-en in Kanazawa City, strolled through the undulating garden with rich history, and enjoyed maccha, as guests in the oldest tea house in Kanazawa City. They also tried making their own tea. They learned about the history of Kanazawa's tea ceremony, utensils, its manners, and the spirit of tea, and had a peaceful time talking the tea culture of their home countries.

Excursion2: Gold Leaf Experience

The 2nd Japanese Cultural Excursion in this year was taken place on November 21 2023.
7 International students and a trainee official from Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology visited Yunokuni No Mori, Komatsu, for gold leaf pasting experience.
Handling gold leaf as thin as 1/10,000th of a millimeter, they created their own works of art by applying gold leaf to the surface of plates and trays using die cutting and scratch art. It was a very detailed process, but the participants worked to paste their detailed designs.
Strolling in the beautiful Japanese garden, they enjoyed Japanese traditional houses and traditional craft.
The Participants from China, Thailand, and Indonesia deepened their exchange during the excursion, it turned into a meaningful time for them to develop their understandings of Japanese culture.

Excursion3: Overglaze Painting of Kutani Pottery

The third Japanese Cultural Experience of this fiscal year was taken place on January 18, 2024.
This cultural experience of “Overglaze Painting of Kutani Ware” was held on campus.
We invited Mr. Shinobu Sakuma and Mr. Daiki Yamazaki, from Kutani Porcelain art museum in Nomi City, as instructors. They taught the students how to paint a pottery using the five colors (red, yellow, ultramarine, green and purple). The participants brought their own designs for the plates and enjoyed painting them with their ingenuity, imagining how the colors would change after firing.
The participants were from China, India, Thailand, and Japan, and it was a meaningful opportunity for students to have fun interacting with each other and deepening their understanding of the traditional crafts of Ishikawa.