On Wednesday, October 18, the 22nd Culture Café, with “South Korea” as the theme, was held in the International Exchange Lounge on the second floor of the Center for International Collaboration and had 51 participants: 22 international students, 23 Japanese students and six participants from outside the university.

　Two students from South Korea gave a presentation about Chuseok, the well-known traditional event equivalent to the Bon Festival in Japan, popular tourist sites famous for their beautiful nature, such as Namsan in the suburbs of Seoul, and different aspects of today’s South Korean culture, including drama and plastic surgery.

　Then, the participants tasted sikhye, a traditional amazake-like sweet, thick fermented beverage that is popular in Korea and known for its digestion stimulating effect, tteok-bokki, stir-fried rice cake bars in spicy-sweet pepper sauce, and buchimgae, Korean okonomiyaki-like pancakes.

　The Korean students also introduced the participants to their unique local way of eating Shin Ramyun Noodle Soup, perhaps the best known Korean instant noodles, in which one crushes the dried noodles without boiling them, pours the provided seasoning powder over them, and just eats them as a snack. When the two talked about one of the differences between Korea and Japan, saying that picking up one’s bowl or plate while eating is considered poor table manners in their country, voices of surprise were heard from Japanese students. The Korean students also quizzed the participants on South Korea while inducing laughter as humorous MCs speaking in fluent English. The participants enjoyed the quiz session a lot and cheers and applause rose each time the right answer to a difficult question was finally discovered.

＜Presentation＞	＜Korean food tasting＞
＜Tteok-bokki and buchimgae, popular Korean dishes＞