In celebration of our diversity, ISAK hosted its annual International Day Festival on November 19. The festival was a chance to celebrate and share the many cultures of ISAK with the greater Karuizawa community and was entirely planned by students. With 39 countries home countries represented on campus this year, it was bigger than ever!
The festival was held in the ISAK gymnasium, which was festively decorated with international flags, artwork, and international greetings. Students created booths to showcase different cultures and countries, and many wore traditional clothing from their countries. Visitors browsed through the booths, interacting with students, and learned about the clothing, customs, food, and geographic locations of countries around the globe.
ISAK’s cooking club, now in it’s third year, spent Friday night and Saturday morning prepping and cooking a global feast for guests to sample including Nepali momos, Taiwan pancakes, French crepes, Vietnamese spring rolls, Indian samosas, Japanese takoyaki, Thai bread, and more.
The guests enjoyed numerous student performances, dances from Tajikistan, Africa, Chile, Japan, a trick from the Magic Club, acoustic music from BASS, and opera, just to name a few.
In the weeks leading up to the festival, G-10 students in Design Innovation class created fabric artifacts from different cloths they brought from their home countries. Their finished products were put on display at the festival.
One of the highlights for guests was the lively International Fashion Show. Students showed off various styles of dress, including outfits from Tajikistan, Myanmar, China, Japan, Australia, France, Cambodia, India, Bhutan, and Nepal.
A huge congratulations to all of the ISAK students who made this event a huge success and thank you to the Karuizawa community for attending!
