The Fountain

By Shiina Adachi During August 2017, security office decided to charge students for laundry, and now students have to pay 100 yen per 30 minutes. Many Spring semester students are outraged about this change. If students decide to wash their clothes every day, the expenses will add up to about 3,000 yen per month. APU students are already living with a lack of money. Spring semester students have been living for half a year without paying for laundry. This sudden change made by the office will highly impact with their daily lives. The security office still hasn't explained why they made this change to the residents of AP House. One victim of this change named Ryo H. stated that “The dryers don't even dry. I have to put 500 yen to dry my clothes yet my clothes are still wet and smelly. This is a scam. I can buy 5 onigiris at coop with 500 yen. This is truly unacceptable.” On the other hand, a Fall semester student, Jeong Tae Hwan mentioned “I thought this...

mashed potatoes     turkey fruit salad stuffing by Ayaka Okamoto(The Fountain staff) Three  American students Lorna Marie Probasco, Isabela Contreras and Ashley Neira had a party for Thanksgiving on Nov.23. They explained that Thanksgiving is American holiday that make dinner for families . This year they don't live with their families, so they held this party to make some foods to people who took care of you like their floor mate of AP house and their friends. They made stuffing, mashed potatoes, fruit salad, egg salad, vegetable salad, popcorn and green beans. They bought turkey and gave their friends all of dishes. Ten people came to AP House 2 and enjoyed eating foods. They got ingredients at A-price and got turkey at restaurant in Beppu. She spent a lot of money because buying food in Japan  . Mashed potatoes are made of potato and topping is green onion. They ...

written by Michel A lot of smartphones in Beppu city were ringed as it was an air-raid warning and a siren was also sounded from eight speakers. "Tsunami disaster day drill day", a practice to evacuate from tsunami when an earthquake occurs, was held on Nov. 5 in Beppu city. Beppu city assumes that if Tsunami as big as Tohoku hit this city, the downtown area would be swallowed easily. The day was constituted as "Tsunami disaster drill day" not to forget the memory when Tohoku district was hit by Tsunami and has been treated as since 2011, so this practice was held on the day. Therefore after 2011, not only Beppu city but also various city have straightened a practice. In downtown, citizens did walk for a mountain to evacuate from a tsunami, and there was an individual way to practice in a hot spring area. Every day a lot of foreigners as tourists come to this area, but they are not used to a natural disaster--how to evacuate, protect themselve...

A Deaf Woman Model Hiroko Fujimori (The Fountain staff)     Universal Fashion in Beppu, an event encouraging people with disabilities to participate in society through fashion was held at B-Con Plaza on September 17. 24 people from children to the elders including people with disabilities participated in this fashion show. Especially, the hall became full of laugh when Beppu mayor, Yasuhiro Nagano (nicknamed "Akko" for the evening) dressed up in woman's clothes and stood under the spotlight. In the show, one of the models said like this “When do you become fashionable without doing now?” This fashion show has been held twice and it was suggested to start by Yoko Fukuyama, one of the model of the show. "I didn't think this event would continue for a long time like this." Fukuyama said. Other model also said, "I want to be lively by fashion and clothes that have the possibility to make us lively like this are wonderful." ...

by Makiko Akita The decoration in front of the founrain Kyoto Week was held on APU campus for five days from Nov. 6-10. It was the first time Kyoto Week since the APU established. The first day of Kyoto Week was a parade.  Participants of parade performed Japanese drum session and Japanese calligraphy in front of the fountain. Also, during the five days students were able to wear kimono in the cafeteria and enjoy traditional Japanese play, and on Wednesday they were able to experience the tea ceremony in a Japanese-style room on the second floor of the cafeteria. On Thursday, performance show called Gion Festival took place on the campus wave stage. The campus was lit up with 2,000 bamboo lanterns, Japanese music and dance were shown.1st-year-APU student, Maya Osakada, performed dancing in kimono. She said that she had participated in Vietnamese week and Indonesian week so far, but this time she wanted to spread Japanese culture by participating in Kyoto "Tayu...

The section of  the tree witch stood at Watatsumi shrine Hiroko Fujimori (The Fountain staff) An art event for telling the present and future of Fukushima was held in November for 16 days. Hama Naka Aizu Culture Cooperation Project operated by Fukushima prefectural museum and other organizations such as NPO sponsored this event.  In Beppu, many art projects have been held for a long time taking hold the region. This art event has a purpose to learn what art can tell and what meaning art can leave to people from Beppu and to make this event the opportunity that people talk together about the future of Fukushima and Japan through art. This event has four venues near Beppu station and one of them is platform 05 where four artists exhibited. Many works were there like picture, image, and frottage. Some of them were made by Masao Okabe. Masao Okabe is an artist using frottage. By using this technique, Okabe copies various things directly on them. He copied th...

 Entrance of event place By Kinya Uchida Shokuno-daiennkai, the food festival, was held at 4th and 5th November in Beppu-park and a lot of local people gathered in. This event focused on "local food" of Kyushu area, so people could enjoy many traditional food, such as Ramen in Hakata and Toriten In Oita. The booth divided Kyushu and Oita. At Oita booth, Pudding shop "You", which provided their pudding to CO-OP shop during Beppu week, opened their booth, and Puru Nima, which is indian restaurant, and used as party place by APU student, also opened  food booth. Although We could enjoy this event without any care, this event was built up by certain people, Planning Oita. the people line up  Planning Oita is one of an advertising agency in Oita prefecture. Takayuki Toshimitsu, the vice director of the business department, came to this event. “We could have gathered about 30000 people at only first day. So, I was relieved since th...

Photos with explanations                                by Ayaka Okamoto(The Fountain staff) One APU student organization, piece×peace and some volunteers held a photo exhibition of refugees on Oct.16 in A building on campus. Students who came to the exhibition could learn about different refugee group. The exhibition showed refugees living conditions as well as Japanese system for receiving them. One of the piece×peace member Asano Nagisa, APU second year student organized this event for APU. Asano said “ I want people to know real situation of refugees and have their own opinions through the media. I hope that thanks to this event, student will have positive idea about reception of refugees. ” The word, refugee is going to disappear some day is one of volunteer hopes. T hey exhibit abo...

By Kawori Nakano Last summer Makiko went to Taiwan with her closest high school friend, Yuimi. They had the same planners which contain a lot of worldview pages, and their most favorite scene page was about Jiufen in Taiwan. Therefore, they came to want to go there someday. That is why they made the plan in high school, it was rough one though. And, finally, they carried it out this summer vacation. It takes 2 hours by airplane from Fukuoka to Taipei. They have traveled there for four days. They went to Jiufun which is famous for the model of one of the Ghibli movies, Spirited Away. The scene was admirable. They also enjoyed eating various Taiwanese foods such as eastern Chinese steamed bun called xiaolongbao , bubble tea, mango shaved ice. taro sweet and traditional noodle. She bought Jasmine tea which is famous in Taiwan, a small lantern which has traditional Taiwanese design and can go on and off. and picture postcards. It is humid in Taiwan, so sometimes it is annoying, but t...

view from the entrance of Beppu park  by Ayaka Okamoto(The Fountain staff) Beppu Greenery Association and  some volunteers held Sentomyo  festival in Beppu park on Nov.4-5. Visitors could make their own votive  lights for free and see 24000 votive  lights( which is made of paper and  candle.)  Each light had different designs.  Also, a lot of light was along the street. This festival was for Beppu residents. Some of them including kindergarten  students cooperated to prepare this  festival with BGA. Each kindergarten  students made a votive light and donate  it, so their family came to see their  children’s works. Some volunteers decorated the park  and guided visitors.  Also, high school  students took part in this festival as a  volunteer. They helped visitors to make  their own votive lights. One of the students  said, ” I enjoy this volunteer bec...

by Makiko Akita                                       Kawori Nakano joined the study abroad program Stay Ahead held in Cebu, Philippines, for six weeks last summer. Last semester, her Rsident Assistant (RA) who went to Philippines last year introduced the program to her. Originally, she was going to visit the U.S. or other countries, but after she knew the Stay Ahead, she decided to go study abroad because she had never been to Philippines. The main purpose of Stay Ahead is improving English skills such as reading and listening, particularly speaking. In addition, she said that she learned about Philippines culture as well. She said a lot of people in Cebu are friendly to strangers, and they always smiling. Moreover, she was attracted to Philippines food and nature. There are many delicious and cheap food, and beautiful landscapes. She ate popular food Balot and...