Students get hands-on demo of Japanese ‘taiko’ drums

CONTACT: Mike Williams
PHONE: 713-348-6728; cell 617-281-6854
E-MAIL: mew2@rice.edu

Students get hands-on demo of Japanese ‘taiko’ drums
Rice hosts students who were to have studied in quake-ravaged Japan

WHO: Twenty Japanese college students and 14 U.S. undergraduates are spending the summer at Rice University in Houston. The group was to have spent the summer in Japan as part of the annual NanoJapan study-abroad program, but Rice University agreed to host the students after a March 11 earthquake and tsunami damaged host sites in Japan.

WHAT: The students will learn about and use traditional Japanese “taiko” drums during one of program’s cultural training sessions.

WHEN: 9:30-10:30 a.m. and 10:30-11:30 a.m. June 14

WHERE: Baker College, Rice University campus, 6100 Main St.

PARKING: Because of road construction on campus, please use Entrance 3 on Main Street, across from Cambridge Street. Lovett Lot is on your right just inside the entrance. Buzz the parking office at the gate and give them your credentials for entry. Call Rice Media Relations (Mike Williams, 617-281-6854) for an escort to the class. Campus map: http://www.rice.edu/maps/maps.html.

WHY IT’S NEWSWORTHY: University laboratories across Japan are still rebuilding and dealing with rolling blackouts that resulted from a deadly earthquake and tsunami March 11. The award-winning undergraduate internship program NanoJapan has sent 16 U.S. students to study and work in Japanese nanotechnology laboratories each summer since 2005. Rather than cancel the program, organizers are running it in reverse this summer; 20 Japanese students are living and working with U.S. program participants at Rice University. The students are living in Rice housing and working together in Rice laboratories. The program also incorporates a number of intercultural activities and intense language training.