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Again, it is Thursday at the Cosmopolitan Club. Since 4:00 p.m., a dozen Japanese students have captured our house, in particular the first floor. The smell of Asian food rises through the stairs and sweeps beneath my door into my room. This reminds me that it is our weekly Coffee Hour, this time hosted by Japan. At 7:30 p.m. it takes only a couple of minutes to fill the seemingly empty rooms on the first floor with masses of students. Wildlife enters our house; everybody is welcome. After ten minutes the rooms are packed and the line for food starts right in the front door. Anybody who is late today will not be able to enjoy all the different kinds of foods. Australian, Brazilian, Chinese, Danish, Ecuadorian, French–the list of nationalities could be continued for a long time. But today the majority of students are Asian. Sayuri and her friends advertised the Japanese Coffee Hour heavily, especially in the Asian student clubs and among their friends. An hour later, a high female voice sounds over the mixture of international conversations. It takes time until the South Korean house manager, Young Jae, gets people’s attention and reduces the noise to a sustainable level. A tiny area around her becomes free. Two short female Japanese students in traditional clothes step into the circle and start slowly to present their country. “Where is Japan?” is the first question. Together, the students take up to 250 guests on a journey to Japan. We learn about traditional festivals and different alphabets as well as about automobile and mobile phone producers. But we do not hear the most important thing, we experience it. Both presenters are full of the joy of life and are relaxed. This unique spirit is something that I have not seen at any other presentation before. By now all guests have arrived in Japan. During this time, the other Japanese students are working together, apparently without communication, and still serving fresh food. Even though the kitchen is very busy, you can find a couple of st udents having conversations in there. But the house is at this point less packed than before. Gradually groups of students leave the Club. Even though most of them will not see each other for a week, all of them have something in common: A two-hour journey to Japan.
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