The University of South Florida’s Japanese Club is hosting their 2nd annual event named A Night in Tokyo. I went to the event last year and it was simply amazing. I spoke with Bob Cal, the public relations coordinator for the USF Japanese Club to get the insider’s scoop on what is in store for this year’s event.
This year, A Night in Tokyo will be on November 19th, 2011 in the Marshall Student Center Ballroom from 6:30 to 10 pm. The theme is Japanese Street Style, but attendees will be asked to be dressed in semi-formal attire. Cal spoke about the many performances and acts that will pay homage to this world famous Japanese subculture. They are incorporating more performances with a focus on modern Japan. The Japanese Club is planning to have over 400 guests in attendance from the USF and the Japanese community. Some of the attendees from the Japanese community will include the Okinawan Society, Tokyo Mokyo, JET Alumni, the association of Florida teachers of Japanese and the University of Florida Japanese Club.
Guests will be entertained throughout the evening with Okinawan Drumming, demonstrations from the USF Shotokan Karate Club, USF Judo Club, and USF Aikido Club. “(Okinawan Drumming) is attention grabbing and full of cultural appeal. That is why we decided to have them start the show,” said Cal. There will also be a Japanese Street Style Fashion Show, Japanese pop singer Chii Sakurabi, various dance routines from Japanese, Chinese and Korean Pop Music. Gosia Eberle is the stylist for the Fashion show portion and will be in attendance. She has styled for Tampa Bay Fashion Week, ABC’s Extreme Makeover and other fashion weeks across Europe. The last performance will be a Koto player, Mayumi Hopkins. A Koto is a harp like instrument that plays beautiful melodies and with the experience of Hopkins, I am sure it will be amazing.
“I’m mostly looking forward to the Japanese Street Style Fashion Show. According to our professional stylist, a large scale Japanese Street Style Fashion show has never been seen in Tampa. It will be exciting to be the first event to do it,” said Cal.
All guests will be treated to various Japanese food including miso soup, ginger salad, fried rice, noodles and sushi from Japanese and Asian restaurants around Tampa Bay. Some of these vendors are Soho Sushi, lee House, Kobe Steakhouse, Chopstix, Ho Ho Choy and Tokyo Sushi. Last year, all the food came out in sections like a two course meal. Based on my observations from last year, the food will not only be presentable but also delicious.
USF Korean American Student Association, the University of Florida Japanese Club, Tokyo Mokyo and the Association of Florida Japanese Teachers are all the organizations that are helping out with this event to make this event better than last year.
Last year, A Night in Tokyo started off as an effort to establish the great cultural clubs at the University of South Florida. The event got many great reviews and was placed on USF’s list of signature events.. This year they plan to bring pride and unity for the Japanese community around Florida as well as an education to those who have not learned much about the culture.
The Japanese Club was founded in 2009 by Carlos Hernandez and has over 450 registered members. The club has the largest Facebook page of any of the multicultural organizations at USF with over 1,300 friends. They host many events throughout the year and hosts language labs to help teach people the Japanese language.
This young organization has proven to be diverse and determined to reach new heights. I definitely recommend all Her Campus Readers to check out their biggest event of the year.