On December 13th, an online exchange event was held between Okayama University of Science (OUS) and partner institution, Thai-Nichi Institute of Technology (TNIT) in Thailand. The event was organized and executed by members of "GLOBOLA," a community dedicated to spreading the joy of international exchange. TNIT students studying Japanese participated in the exchange event, and the theme "Recommending Dishes."
After completing self-introductions, participants played a word association game as an icebreaker. The game consisted of two rounds. In the first round, the topic word was “winter,” and participants came up with words such as "snowman" and "kotatsu." In the second round, the topic word was "food." TNIT students mentioned many Japanese dishes like gyudon (beef bowl) and sukiyaki, while GLOBOLA members came up with Thai dishes like gapao rice, a stir-fried chicken with basil rice and khao mun gai, a traditional street food dish of steamed chicken, garlic rice, and sauce. GLOBOLA members learned that TNIT students can enjoy Japanese cuisine at the university cafeteria.
For the main activity, GLOBOLA members introduced OUS cafeterias Tampopo and Zero-Ichi Shokudo, and explained regional variations in ozoni, a traditional Japanese New Year's rice cake soup. Japanese participants introduced ozoni from their hometowns, showing Thai students the diversity of this dish. TNIT students shared some lesser-known Thai dishes such as a soup made with pork blood and rice vermicelli, and a dessert consisting of mango on top of sticky rice cooked in coconut milk.
Students who attended the event promised to exchange New Year's cards and were delighted to establish connections that would extend beyond the event, fostering ongoing friendships.