SMU Japan Club member Allison Gab writes out a student’s name in Japanese. (Christina Parrish)

The Japan Club held its third annual Spring Festival on Wednesday in the Hughes-Trigg Commons.

Multicolored origami paper cranes were assembled into chains and draped across the Hughes-Trigg ceiling.

At various stations, students could have members write their names in Japanese, watch Japanese films, have pictures taken with their face on a samurai or geisha’s body, and look at cultural trinkets, origami and brochures.

The club has been preparing all semester for this event. The members look at the festival as a way to display what Japanese culture is like and to clear up misconceptions.

“We want to exhibit different aspects of the culture, not just what the cartoons show on the Cartoon Network,” senior Elizabeth Barrett said. “We want to show other aspects like history, pop culture and music.”

Japan Club president Ted Koen said they will try to get sumo suits for next year’s celebration.

The festival is the Japan Club’s springtime event. It honors Japan’s cherry blossom festival, which welcomes spring.

The club consists of about 20 to 30 members. They hope the festival will get people interested in the club and possibly take a Japanese class.

Members do not have to be Japanse, be able to speak Japanese or write the language’s characters, however. The club’s concentration is placed on Japanese culture.

“All you need to have is an open mind,” sophomore Allison Gab said. “It’s not a club for experts. We’re just gathering a group of people together with a common interest.”

The Japan Club meets every other Thursday at 5:30 p.m. in room 134 of Clements Hall. At the meetings, members discuss future events and have occasional presentations on aspects of Japanese culture.

In addition, members make the origami paper cranes featured at their Spring Festival. For this year’s event, it took nearly two semesters to make enough cranes for the chains.

The cranes have symbolic value.

“The whole idea is we will send the cranes to Japan in honor of the end of World War II,” Barrett said. “They’re for all the victims of the bombings.”

“We do this to promote world peace,” Gab said.

Though Gab said yesterday’s festival had a good turnout, the Japanese Film Festival put on in the fall had a bigger crowd.

The film festival took place over two weekends, and about 300 people attended. Sponsored by the Japan American Society of Dallas-Forth Worth, the SMU Japanese program and the Consulate General of Japan at Houston, four Japanese films were showcased.

The Japan Club has gatherings for movie nights and cooking nights about once a month in addition to their meetings.

Last month they cooked a meal at the SMU Service House.

All of their events are to generate awareness, not profit.

“The club is a nice mix,” Koen said. “It’s a good way to meet people and learn something new about culture.”