Homecoming Week 2009

This week, KSU Japanese Dance Club participated in Kansas State’s Homecoming Week. This is a time when the Greek Houses, residence Halls, and Students Organization come together in the spirit of the college through a myriad of fun events.

This year we participated in the 5k Run, Sidewalk Chalk, Spirit Banner, Paint the ‘Ville, Kid’s Carnival, and the Parade. The team came together this week in these events and excelled in all events we participated in. For Sidewalk Chalk, Historian Ching Her created and led the design of Wille the Wildcat riding Colorado University’s Buffalo “Ralphie” like a bronco. Sectrarty Greta Kliewver organizted the Spirit Banner and Kid’s Carnival. Paint the ‘Ville was organized by our Publicity Chair Jordan Mizell. Special tanks to all the captains who worked on the parade and dances for the Homecoming week.

 The parade, being the highlight, started at the Manhattan Mall and ended in Aggieville. The dancers did a fabulous job and everyone was full of genki! We were a small group this year, but all the viewers were happy to see us once again.

Here is this year’s rankings:

Sidewalk Chalk: 1st Place

Spirit Banner: 1st Place

Paint the ‘Ville: 1st Place

Parade: 2nd Place

Overall: 2nd Place

Greater Kansas City Japan Festival

Saturday Sept. 19, 2009

This year’s performance at the Greater Japan Festival was incredible! The festival celebrated its 12th annual festival with Taiko, Bonsai, Eisa, and Yosakoi. This is one of our groups favorite festival to perform at because the audience always has high energy and wants to learn more about culture. We did reunite with other performing groups and with former alumni of our group.

 We started the festival off with our Dancing workshop were we taught Yocchore. The group of eager dancers were great and had quite a bit of energy. After that, we had our first afternoon performance in Yardley Hall, where we performed Soran-Bushi and Yochchore. The audience was excited and the dances were great. Then we had our evening performance also in Yardley Hall, were we finished off with Samurai and Net De Yosakoi. Both were a solid finish to a great day of performances.

To finish off the day, we went to the new Japanese restaurant “Edoko” at 87th and Pflumm. Food was great and we ate huge platters of  sushi. This has been from our experience of the busiest festivals in recent memory. It proved to be a blast and all members loved the festivals and all the dances.