The Fountain

By Yuna Shimizu (The Fountain staff) January 22,2018 2019 has started, Ayako Yajima finished two years in Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU). “I learned many things from many people, and take a look at myself again and again. Thought APU life, I was negative about myself when I came to APU, but little bit change my mind to positive” Ayako said She has done BIL whichis Basketball club, Teacher Assistant (TA) of Peer Leader (PA), Language Immersion Program. Now, she belongs with Junior Assistant Advisers of Career (JAC) and International and Japanese Students Community (IJC). The reason why she applied many things in many fields is she wants to be open-minded. To do many activities with different people make her more open. Ayako was not active in her community before she went abroad in high school for one year. After coming back to Japan, she realized that she wants to be active, and meet many people and felt and experienced a lot. The reason why Ayako applied to ...

by Takuma Nagatome (The Fountain staff) Nov 20, 2018 "Koto is originally used on stage close to the audience", one young koto performer said. A koto concert was held in Kiyo-sen on Nov. 11. Koto is a traditional Japanese instrument. Two koto performer played some old Japanese music in a small room and there were only 15 chairs. Koto is originally used on a small stage close to the audience. "Nowadays, koto a performances use the big hall and many people come in. However, koto can't make good sounds with many kotos, so we often hold concerts in a small room with only two kotos", one young performer explained why the concert was held on Kiyo-sen. In the concert, two koto performer played some songs. They often changed the sound of koto when they finish playing each song which has a lower part and higher part, so performer has to change. During change sounds, one young performer explained each song. It was very quiet without koto's ...

By MYAT Min Khant (The Fountain Stuff) December 21, 2018 September 2018, APU Entrance Ceremony “When I arrived AP house, I realized that I could not charge my devices and no food was available. It was a pretty tough day.” Australian girl, who’s doing RA (Residence Assistant) in AP house, Jesse said. Not only new international students but also domestic students might have the same problems after they arrived APU. For examples, Adaptation to the current environment, communication with strangers, exploration of Beppu, and etc. These problems do not seem like a big deal, but those will be serious issues for daily survival. #1 Adaptation to the current environment “Everything will be different here if you are not from Oita.” 1st-year student Towa Aonuma said. Firstly, different food will be the problem of most students. The best solution is to adapt to Japanese food in Beppu and APU. The other way is bringing foods from hometown....

By MYAT Min Khant ( The Fountain Staff) November 20, 2018 The show opening SSS, one of the APU’s dancing clubs, did its biggest dancing show with the purpose of introducing students to the club. The show was held at Millennium Hall on Nov. 13, from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m., with about 40 dancers while half of them are 1st-year students. Before starting the show, SSS’s members were inviting students at the outside of the Millennium Hall by announcing the show’s informations, especially one thing that the students don’t need tickets to watch. The show began with the freshman group’s performance and continued group by group of sophomore, junior and senior. The show took a break in the middle about 10 minutes. Most of the performers came out from the stage’s back to meet their friends and take pictures. After 10 minutes break, the show restarted with better performances, better atmosphere because dancers got used to with audiences. Performing by 1st-year students Most of the audien...

By MYAT Min Khant (The Fountain staff) November 14,2018 The audience and the show Korean Week final show, which is called The Wave Show, was held on Nov. 2, at The Wave by K-muse dancing club. This Wave Show was held instead of the grand show because the leader of the week quit before Korean Week started. People started gathering around 6:00 p.m. although the show started at 7:30 p.m. It was so crowded that many people ended up watching while standing at the back. Once the show started, many K-POP fans cheered with their favorite band’s light sticks and took pictures and videos. The opening performance was Korean martial art’s display of Taekwondo to the accompaniment of K-POP music. That was followed by a sequence of K-Pop songs’ performances. Most performances were from girl groups, but boy groups got the most attention from the audience. All dancers were performing in such a high degree of synchronization. A girl group, performing K-Pop dance “They must be very cold wit...

by Mai Yamashita (The Fountain staff) January 22, 2019 Sweet potato, gnocchi and pumpkin pudding... they are all vegetable contained! An APU’s fourth-year student, Satsuki Dote who majors in APS conducted a cooking show where she teaches participants how to make vegan food last year as a member of Eco Week at APU. She taught participants how to make sweet potato, gnocchi and pumpkin pudding for the first time. Dote became a vegan and started following a vegan diet. The reason why she started it is because of her curious personality, and being educated about the positive aspect of veganism. Actually, she watched a lot of documentaries such as Cowspiracy(2014), Forks Over Knives(2011), What the Health(2017), and Eating(2017). All of these movie’s main topic is veganism. However, they talk about veganism from very different perspectives such as how health, environmental, animal, cruelty, and political aspects are affecting ourselves and the earth. A number of people ar...

By Taiki Kawasaki (The Fountain staff) November 4, 2018 The spirit of Princess Hannya taken on board a ship arrived at Usuki City illuminated with traditional bamboo lights in Nov. 3 and 4. However, her spirit will not come there truly. In fact, BambooNight is an annual festival which has been held for 22 years in Usuki City to imitate her parade with her followers. Variety of volunteers who come from schools, homes for elderly people, companies, and so on make bamboo lamps to light up Usuki. In addition, this event allows people to enjoy music concerts, food stands, and dance performance. Focusing on the story about Princess Hannya, this legend dates back over 1500 years. Princess Hannya was known for her beauty, and Prince who saw picture of her fell in love, and he married with her by being a cowherd in Usuki. However, royal family made him return to their city soon, and Hannya went after him by the boat, then sudden storm eventually killed her. Her parents and Usuk...

Seishiro Kabata (The Fountain staff) December 11, 2018 Taishi Sigieyama was worried and looked forward to entering the university where there are many international people like APU 3 years ago. However, he has a great life now in APU. Taishi Sigeyama is APU fourth year student from Osaka Prefecture. When he was seventeen years old,he was informed about APU from his mother has a friend related to Ritsumeikan University. Taishi had been interested in international school since he was a high school student. He tried to take examinations for entrance to other Japanese colleges and failed, but he was glad to be in APU student. When Taishi moved into the AP House, there were a variety of residents. “ It was hard to talk with them in English but very stimulating,” he said. “I had a great time because I was able to make various friends.” “When I lived in AP House, I saw a lot of stars with my floormates,” he said. “It was the most impressive memory in my APU life.” H...

By Emika Maeyama (The Fountain Staff) January 21, 2019 “ I am so glad if our customers love ethnic food and we always would like to make the customers comfortable with our dishes and atmosphere of this restaurant”, one of the workers, Takumi said. E-Dining is an ethnic restaurant located near Takegawara hot spring in Beppu city. They serve about 20 kinds of Asian food from Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia. And customers enjoy not only Asian dishes but also Asian alcohol there. The clerk at this restaurant are 2 students, Tsutomu Morisaki, a third year marketing student at APU, came to school last autumn, and Takumi Shibato, a third year marketing student as well as Tsutomu. They have known each other since they were elementary school students. “Because we have studied about marketing, we actually wanted to run restaurant with our knowledge of marketing and financial”, Tsutomu said. For the reason why they decided to open the ethnic restaurant, “there are ...

By BoRo Dolgorjav (The Fountain staff) January 25, 2018 “Lots of students in APU afraid of the failure,” Kenta Minagi said. “But there are lots of chances to support your idea in APU” In Apr 2018 APU students have started Minagi project which aims to provide the Eco Filter which can reduce the water pollution of Guatemala, a country located in Central America. The project has launched by Kenta Minagi who is mixed with Japanese and Guatemalan, consists of 4 members of different countries Japan, Malaysia, Bulgaria, Nepal, who want to reach out to people with problems. When Kenta was a child, his mother used to take him to a rural area where there was a serious problem of water, how he knows the difficulties of water pollution. In Guatemala, one of the big problems is poor water quality that causes many serious diseases and food shortages. The main purpose of this project is learning how to make Eco filter as the members of the Minagi project and to educate the com...

By Seishiro Kabata (The Fountain staff) November 19, 2018 ”I believe that Beppu can be the best tourist spot like Kumahachi Aburaya believed,” Yoshihiro Hirano said. Mr. Hirano, a representative of the Beppu Onsen Advertisement Association, organized Aburaya Kumahachi Museum which was held from Nov.17 to 18 in the Beppu BlueBird Theater. Mr. Hirano usually works for tourism and community building for the development of Beppu city, and that event was one of his works. Aburaya Kumahachi Museum introduced people about Kumahachi Aburaya through various programs such as musical, movie.   Kumahachi Aburaya is a businessman who was called “pioneer of Oita tourism”, and he made Beppu be famous around the world. There is a bronze statue of him in front of Beppu station. Regularly, Mr.Hirano supports organizations which respect Kumahachi Aburaya, and participation of this event were that he demanded. He greeted as an organizer firstly, then he performed to dance i...

By Taiki Kawasaki (The Fountain staff) November 20, 2018 Ronnie making a field in Toki no Kakera Ronnie who is an APU student from Netherlands said “Toki no Kakera was one of the opportunities to enter APU for me.” Toki no Kakera is a hotel established in 2008 for foreign tourists in Yufuin City of Oita, and Kaz Naito, the owner is a graduate of APU. He always employs volunteer staff from foreign countries as working holiday tourists, and Ronnie is part of the staff there. In Toki no Kakera, Naito has employed over 300 parts of staff from more than 20 countries since he started his business. In other words, this hotel is also the place that people who come from various nations know and share their cultures with each other. Employees there have a lot of opportunities to communicate with Japanese people who live around there. For example, they meet residents when they take goats for a walk. Toki no Kakera owns a variety of animals such as chickens and goats, and staf...

by Takuma Nagatome(The fountain stuff) January 25, 2019 In Beppu, there are many kinds of restaurant. Korean, Chinese, Thai and of course Japanese restaurants are there because of APU. Many graduated APU students have own restaurant in Beppu. However, many people are unable to make a decision which restaurant people should go. So an international student Xu Weilin, third-year student from China, recommends three Chinese restaurants. First, she recommends Panda’s in Mochigahama. The restaurant is famous for APU student because it can be found easily. It located along the main street there. Panda’s sells Chinese food and bubble teas. Especially, bubble tea is popular food in Panda’s. There are many types of bubble teas. There are counter and table. In addition, take away is available, so many people take away bubble teas. The second one is Gahou near the Tokiwa Beppu. She was recommended by her friend at the first time. “Store looks old, but the inside is very delici...

by Takuma Nagatome (The Fountain staff) December 23, 2018 "We sometimes give some visitors some souvenirs", member of Nepali week ,Shashi Bhushan, said. " For example, bracelet, coin case, and flag of Nepal. Nepal has traditional accessories, so we give visitors who come Nepali booth to show Nepali culture". At the APU, many multicultural weeks are held there every week, and the weeks sell some products or food at cafeteria, coop, or a food stand. It is very helpful way to collect money for events. However, Nepali week didn't sell anything. "We hold Nepali week now. It is to show Nepali culture, not for selling product." Selling some products needs a lot of help and time. They already busy to host events, so they didn't sell anythings. They didn't sell anythings, but they prepared some souvenirs because it is a good way to show the Nepali traditional culture. Especially, coin case was interesting. The coin case is colored with r...

by Takuma Nagatome (The Fountain staff) November 2, 2018 Tenku Tea Ceremony at the APU c afeteria had around 80 visitors in Tenku sai on Oct. 27 and 28 . Most visitors had knowledge of the Japanese tea c eremony, and they enjoyed the event with Japanese sweets and matcha (Japanese tea powder). Every year APU Tea Ceremony Club holds  the tea ceremony at the same place in Tenku sai, but they always use different utensils. It is a way for people who come every year to enjoy and be interested. All tea bowls have different pictures of flower s or insects, so many visitors look ed carefully at the utensils and asked who made them or what is the meaning was. "We make fire closer to visitors when we held tea ceremony end of O ctober", said ko-ken , the person who explain s tea ceremony in the event . When there is getting cold, they do it for making warmer. "We always change tea ceremony style depends on season", teacher of APU tea ceremony Cl...