Japan House Shares

Japan House Shares

Japan House has always been committed to providing wellness in the form of quality and inspiring engagement for its supporters, students, and the community. While the closures that took place this past year due to the pandemic made engagement a little more challenging, Japan House staff rose to the occasion with various alternative and virtual offerings. Japan House Shares is a series of ongoing educational and entertaining videos released bi-monthly that premiered in August 2020. “We decided that we wanted to share a lot of different aspects of Japan House that we were never really able to share with the public before,” said Michael Darin, Japan House Education and Engagement Coordinator who led the development and production of the Japan House Shares series. Each video explores a different theme that provides opportunities for viewers to engage on various levels with demonstrations, craft projects, featured guests, artist collaborations, and more. Videos were made available via YouTube at 4pm every other Sunday. Topics ranged from Japanese arts and culture to food and drink. Japan House Shares also featured live tea ceremonies and engaging demonstrations. In addition to Japan House Shares, students and staff released a series of short articles this past year that explored cultural and artistic aspects of Japan. Kokoro Insights challenge readers to increase their understanding of Japanese art and culture by featuring topics such as Japanese holidays, Japanese traditional crafts, culinary explorations, Japanese etiquette, and travel. Japan House Shares and Kokoro Insights are both available at japanhouse.illinois.edu.