KS/JAS Joint Dinner

On Saturday, Apr. 14, lively banter and the aroma of garlic and ginger filled the basement of the Phillips Church as members of the Academy's Korean Society and Japanese American Society prepared for their first joint dinner. After days of planning, around thirty students from both clubs gathered to eat a variety of Korean and Japanese cuisines and celebrate Asian solidarity.

The Korean Society and Japanese-American Society clubs both meet on Tuesdays at 6 p.m. in Wetherall dining hall. Although the clubs often interact, they sit at separate tables. “I feel like this dinner was an opportunity for [Korean Society] and [Japanese American Society] to come together and celebrate both cultures,” prep Isa Matsubayashi said.

“Ever since I took on a leadership role in Korean Society, I always dreamed of making the club a more inclusive environment for members and building a close relationship between my club and Japanese-American Society,” senior and co-head Andrew Hong said.

Korea and Japan suffer a long history of cultural conflict. “As a Korean-American student, I wanted to help bridge the gap between Korean and Japanese students on campus stemming from a history of cultural conflict and racial tension,” Hong said. Co-heads of Japanese American Society, Anna Clark and Greg Zhu, were “incredibly responsive” to the idea of a joint dinner between the two clubs.

Lower Mia Kuromaru also spoke to the two nations' shared history. “Japan and South Korea currently struggle through various disputes on controversial topics such as comfort women reparations and territorial claims,” she said. “We have all grown up under the influence of our parents and their tendency to bias or portray other races within Asia.”

According to Kuromaru, while the Japanese-American Society usually sits a table away from the Korean Society, they took advantage of the opportunity to share cultures and show that their friendships are not influenced by current political situations.

Preparation began a couple weeks before the event occurred. The two clubs had a joint meeting one night in Wetherall. “For about an hour, we brainstormed ideas for dishes to serve from both our respective groups,” upper Daniel Kang said. The ingredients were purchased at Asian food market H Mart, and the cost of groceries was covered by the Loewenstein fund.

“Korean Society's club advisor, Ms. Jung Mi Lee, was incredibly generous to us and travelled on the day of our dinner to pick up an array of fresh sushi from a Boston fishmonger,” Hong said.

Kang also mentioned the contribution that Lee and her husband, music Instructor Jon Sakata, gave to the dinner. They aided the students in acquiring many of the ingredients the clubs used in preparation for the dinner. “They both show up to help with almost every dinner, and none of our KS dinners would ever be possible without them," Kang said.

“Dinner prep started at around 3 p.m. that day with me and some [Korean Society] co-heads unpacking the cooking equipment and ingredients we were going to need for the dinner,” Kang continued. After the Japanese American Society co-heads arrived, preparation “was in full swing.”

“I think the process was pretty engaging for everyone,” Hong said. “Between our shopping trip to H Mart and the two days spent preparing the different dishes, I think we all had a lot of fun despite how much time it all took. It was nice to 'reap the benefits' of all our hard work in each other's company."

Kuromaru enjoyed the friendly environment of the meal. “I expected the [Japanese-American Society] members to separate from [Korean Society] members when sitting down to eat, but that was not the case,” Kuromaru said. “We all sat next to people we hadn’t spoken to often before, so I met a lot of new friends. We introduced ourselves and then talked about fashion, classes and joked around with each other.”

Kuromaru also appreciated the intimacy of the setting. “My favorite part of the event has to be how comfortable and familiar the setting felt. I rarely speak Japanese when at Exeter because the Japanese-speaking population is so small, so it was nice to be able to hear and speak it comfortably,” Kuromaru said. “Our communications were filled with three different languages, yet we were all cooking together. I didn’t feel a slightest bit of a barrier between us.”

The event’s preparation and dining processes went smoothly, although Matsubayashi did mention that “the clean-up took longer than expected.” There was also a timing conflict between the dinner and Relay for Life. "Some of us stayed until about an hour after to clean up [but] most people needed to go because of Relay for Life," Matsubayashi said.

Kang mentioned that next year he’d like to see some changes to the menu. “We’ve been cooking up the same menu for two years now, and I’d hope to see some other types of meat or food like bulgogi, rabokki, bokumbap and maybe even jjolmyeon in the spring,” he said, listing various types of Korean cuisine.

Matsubayashi concluded that the best part of the dinner was “just being able to enjoy good Japanese and Korean food for once here at Exeter.”

Kang agreed with Matsubayashi's sentiments. “I’ve attended all the KS dinners in my time here at Exeter, and it’s always great to get together and make food that reminds me of home," Kang said.