青涩直播

At 青涩直播 (青涩直播), campus life is viewed as an integral part of liberal arts education, aimed at encouraging learning in everyday life. To facilitate this, 青涩直播 introduced “Themed House.” In these houses, students who share common interests live together in the same student housing for one or two semesters, collaborating to plan and manage events related to their chosen theme.

Out of the eight active houses, this article highlights the Nihongo House and the Book House.

Nihongo House

The Nihongo House brings together degree-seeking and graduate students interested in the Japanese language and its surrounding culture. Members casually enjoy activities such as organizing cultural events conducted in Japanese and hosting monthly conversation tables in the cafeteria.

Babahera Ice Cream Workshop

At the Babahera Ice Cream Workshop, we invited Senior Managing Director Kodama and Ms. Suzuki from Kodama Reika Co., Ltd. to give us a hands-on experience in making Babahera ice cream (*1).

After an icebreaker, Senior Managing Director Kodama presented on the historical background of Babahera ice cream—including the origin of its name and the history of Kodama Reika—explaining how it became one of Akita’s signature specialties.

Following the presentation, all participants got to try their hand at making Babahera ice cream. For this special occasion, Kodama Reika kindly provided not only the classic red and yellow “Strawberry & Banana” flavors, but also the white and blue “Lemon & Soda” flavors. Participants took turns sharing the two combinations, enjoying trial and error in a warm, friendly atmosphere as they shaped their ice cream.

Through this workshop, participants gained insight into the history behind Babahera ice cream, learned how challenging it is to shape the ice cream into a flower, and experienced the joy of communicating in Japanese.

*1 Babahera Ice Cream: A traditional Akita specialty ice cream, named after the older women (“baba”) who use metal spatulas (“hera”) to scoop and shape the ice cream into beautiful rose petals.

Happy Tuesday

“Happy Tuesday” is a monthly conversation table organized by the Nihongo House, where students from diverse linguistic backgrounds gather to talk in Japanese.

For this session, we prepared Japanese card games to help spark conversations. Some participants enjoyed playing games in Japanese, while others engaged in casual discussions on various topics. Many participants shared positive feedback, noting how much they enjoyed conversing in Japanese.

Book House

The Book House is designed for students who want to read more but struggle to find the time. While this initiative started for the members themselves, the house aims to expand its reading culture across the entire university.

Book Talk

At this reading session, participants discussed books they had read using English. Since many attendees had read books written in their native languages, some found it challenging to translate titles into English; nevertheless, it led to highly active discussions. One participant introduced Convenience Store Woman, a novel questioning what defines “normal.” Discussing this theme with international students offered deeply interesting insights. The entire session took place in a relaxed and welcoming setting.

Although speaking about books in English was challenging, taking time to carefully choose words allowed participants to reflect more deeply on the themes and ideas of each work. Many were inspired to read the fascinating books recommended by fellow attendees.

Pick-Book

“Pick-Book” is an event where participants spread out picnic sheets, share snacks, and enjoy reading together. Non-house members are also warmly welcomed.

The event drew a large turnout, filling the picnic sheets to capacity. By sharing recommended titles, the event provided a great opportunity for participants to gain fresh insights from books they might not ordinarily pick up.