December 7, 2007
Mongolian Café
On December 7th 2007, Mongolian students of Waseda in cooperation with the ICC organized an event “Mongolian Café” for the first time. As Mongolians are famous for their hospitality, the supporters of the event – Mongolian students – tried their best to entertain the visitors by offering milk tea, aaruul (dried yoghurt) and buuz (Mongolian national food) and introducing traditional and modern Mongolia to international students. It is worth mentioning here that the number of participants reached about 90.
Giving an importance to the event, Head of the Japanese and Mongolian Association and Waseda University Professor Junichi Yoshida, and the Consul General and Vice Consul D.Chimed-Yunden from the Embassy of Mongolia in Japan visited the event to greet participants.
Also, Japanese sumo wrestler Ryuo Sanchirbold was one of the honorary guests and gave us an opportunity to have a picture taken with him.
Two hours passed very quickly while the visitors were listening to the melody of batookin (horse fiddle) and huumii (throat singing), playing the traditional game “shagai” (ankle bone of sheep), trying on the Mongolian national costume – Deel, looking at souvenirs and made-in-Mongolia products such as salt plate; and having their names written in Mongolian traditional script.
One of the interesting parts of the event was when one Japanese student came to the stage and excited the audience by singing Huumii and beatboxing in harmony very skillfully.
Finally, we would like to express our gratitude to the ICC staff who supported us and all the international students who visited the event.
Reported by Baasankhuu ENKHNARAN (Graduate school of Asia Pacific Studies)
