Japanese Cultural Club holds a festival to raise money for the club

Laughter and music filled the air in the E quad of the Liberal Arts Campus as the Japanese Cultural Club hosted a Japanese Culture Festival fundraiser on May 12. 

One booth sold Japanese onigiri and Ramune, a lemon-lime flavored soda.

The onigiri was sold at $2 or $3 if salmon was added at the center and the Ramune was sold at $3.

Another booth had a table full of prizes and a wheel to spin after playing a game.

Students could pick between Rock Paper Scissors or Tora Tora, a game very similar to Rock Paper Scissors.

Two players stand on opposite sides of a screen or paper wall while singing a song and when the screen is removed, they must pose as a tiger, an old woman, or as a samurai.

The tiger beats the old women, the old woman beats the samurai, and the samurai beats the tiger.

Each student participates in a best-of-three series and gets to win a prize regardless of winning or losing by spinning the wheel after.

Prizes ranged from little charms and anime themed trinkets to small figurines.

Students paid $5 to participate in the games.

The photo and calligraphy booths were both free to participate in.

_{ASB president Priince Bass spins the wheel to determine the prize he will receive after winning in a game of “Janken”. During the Japanese festival hosted by the Japan Foundation and the Japanese Culture Club. Located at LBCC LAC Campus on May 12, 2026. (Alex Pina).}

Students could take photos with Japanese hand fans and umbrellas at the photo booth and make origami and calligraphy at the origami booth. 

Club president Omar Quezada was happy with the turnout of students.

“It makes me very happy. I’ve been with the club for, I want to say three years now, and every year it just grows and grows more and hopefully we get more people into our club and more people get to experience more Japanese culture at LBCC,” Quezada said.

Quezada looks to promote and grow the club through the festival and future events.

“Definitely do more events like this. We could always do fundraisers, bring Japanese speakers to do certain customs and traditions. Just activities in general,” Quezada said.

_{Japanese culture club members are creating a salmon onigiri with rice and salmon. The salmon onigiri was sold during the Japanese festival for three dollars. Located in the A-quad at LBCC LAC Campus on May 12. 2026. (Alex Pina)}

ASB president Priince Bass was also in attendance and even got a prize.

“I’m a huge fan of Japanese culture. The entertainment, the people, the food. I love it, you know, Japan’s awesome,” Bass said.

Bass also said he feels it is important to support the club. 

“I feel like it’s very important for me to be out here and support, but also it makes me so excited that our clubs are just so active and creative and are willing to step outside the box and be themselves,” Bass said. 

_{A menu is being displayed to show the different prices of food and drinks, such as tempura batter style onigiri, ramune, and salmon onigiri. During the Japanese Festival hosted by the Japan Foundation and the Japanese Culture Club. Located in the A-quad at LBCC LAC Campus on May 12, 2026. (Alex Pina)}

Matthew Tejada, a recent club member, hopes students learned something new while participating at the festival.

“I hope they take away that Japanese culture has a lot of different aspects to it. You know, some people when they think of Japanese culture, they might think of whatever they are familiar with, like anime or something. Here we try to show other things like traditional games like Tora Tora and clothing and the food and just everything. We try to show them there’s a lot of Japanese culture and I think they can see that here at this festival,” Tejeda said.

The Japanese Culture Club holds weekly club meetings on Thursday at 2 p.m. in room M-330 and is open to anyone who appreciates or is interested in Japanese culture.