Japan has now come to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley campus. Two officers of different Japanese-based clubs use their meetings to commemorate the “nerd-world” of the northeast Asian country as more people show interest to the culture.
Michelle Sustaita, president of the Japanese Language and Culture club, hosts meetings twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Tuesdays, members get together to discuss the Japanese culture, such as the history, art, and etiquette.
“The club is really just to spread knowledge of Japanese culture. The culture is really pretty. It’s beautiful. For example, its Shinto religion believes spirits are in any kind of nature. Just a rock itself can have a spirit,” Sustaita said in an interview with her last semester. “The culture itself between the people: they’re really modest with each other but at the same time they hold this great pride in their culture.”
Sustaita had taught members Japanese myths and legends last semester. She also went over the Shinto religion and the proper way of entering a Japanese shrine.
“If you ever go visit one, you wash your hands, and when you go up to the bell, you ring it twice. You would then bow twice, clap twice, make your prayer, and bow once. It’s showing respect to whatever deity you’re asking your favor for.”
On Thursdays, the club focuses on learning the basics of the Japanese language.
“We focus on the language, just to learn and try and be able to read a children’s book,” she said.
The club’s main goal is to get prepared for the Japanese language proficiency test, a test to see how much one knows the language. The exam is held twice a year in certain cities worldwide. In Texas, the exam is held at the Rice University in Houston during the first Sunday of December and July.
“I know a lot of the members look forward to it and hopefully we’re able to meet our funds to be able to go,” Sustaita said.
Sustaita recommends more people in the Valley to learn outside cultures besides their own Hispanic culture.
“Just expanding your views on more than what’s here in the Valley is a good reason enough to join the club,” she said. “It’s really interesting just to learn and see what’s the difference between where you live and where others live and know that this isn’t everything.”
Besides the educational language and culture club, are the entertaining anime meetings, which is another Japanese-based club.
Armando Sanchez has been the vice president of the anime club for a year, having been a member for another year prior. As the vice president, Sanchez takes a key role in keeping the club on track.
“My role is to help out the president with whatever situation he’s caught up in that’s within the club. I’m also in charge of having the officers stay in line,” Sanchez said. “Whenever there’s an officer who isn’t doing their job or they start slacking, it’s up to me to go report them if I have to or just confront them.”
The anime club consists of 30 members in total, with approximately 10 to 15 showing up regularly.
“Most of the time we just exchange hobbies within terms of anime. We’ll come up with various activities that are anime-related,” he said. “Other times it’s a lot of communication.”
Sanchez was around 9 years old when he first got into anime, stumbling upon series such as “Evangelion” and “Cowboy Bebop”.
“All the dialogue was just too big for me. All the imagery, I had no idea what it was and I was a little uncomfortable by it but I was also interested in it,” he said. “I wanted to know why sometimes they’ll speak English and other times they ‘ll speak gibberish.”
He then found out about the Japanese culture behind the animated cartoons.
“It’s a weird culture,” Sanchez said. “I’ve loved anime for 14 years now and I still am weirded out by the culture sometimes.”
The club isn’t just a gathering of people with similar interests that meet twice a week. Sanchez has formed friendships with most members since first joining.
“Ever since then, these people have become very good friends of mine. I actually hang out with them after the club,” he said. “Really interesting people, and really engaging conversations.”
The anime based in Japan has brought a new wave of followers into the Valley, an already-existing group that has been socially tied with the label “nerd”, but that has now gotten into watching anime, according to Sanchez.
“Anime wasn’t very prominent in the Valley. Recently it’s been starting to be popularized and I think that is with this influx of nerd culture. Five, ten years ago nobody knew what anime was,” he said. “With that nerd culture obviously comes the interest in anime, because it is a part of the nerd culture. It’s growing in popularity.”
Sanchez recalls the time when anime was still considered new and strange.
“Back in middle school, you were considered a weirdo for liking “Naruto” and “Bleach”, and now you see people around quoting “One Punch Man” or going crazy about “Dragon Ball Super”,’ he said. “It’s getting to a point where it’s weird not liking it because it’s so common.”
Sustaita and Sanchez try to make the meetings not just to focus on the Japanese way of life, but to have social interactions with people who have similar interests. Communication is part of the process of getting to know a foreign aspect of the world.
“Anime is what makes us open up to other people because it’s when you find someone with the same hobby, you start getting comfortable with them. And then it becomes a little bit more, and it becomes ‘what other hobbies do you have? What’s your major? Did you do anything over the weekend?’,” Sanchez said. “You start interacting with them more and more because you become more comfortable talking to them. Then a bond starts to form, and we then become good friends.”