Working on a topic in a completely new cultural context in a short space of time – a typical situation for journalists, but also for artists and cultural experts. As preparation for professional life, this was also the task for the students in the seventh semester of the still young ‘New Media & Intercultural Communication’ degree programme at Landshut University of Applied Sciences.

Before travelling to China and Japan, a preliminary meeting in Düsseldorf, the city with the largest Japanese population in Germany, was on the agenda. They visited the Eko House, a combination of exhibition, temple and garden, the Museum of East Asian Art in the neighbouring metropolis of Cologne, and Immermannstraße, also known as ‘Little Tokyo’.

One month later, the programme for the eight students included ‘Big Tokyo’, with new impressions and interesting topics, from the cultural history of the Japanese lucky cats Maneki Neko to the mixture of traditional and modern architecture and the kitsch aesthetic of Kawaii, which in Japan is not only found in toy shops, but also on signs and regulations, for example. Of course, the students also wandered through countless torii gates, climbed up and down countless flights of stairs and practised their photography skills. The latter will be presented in an exhibition at the university next year.

Participants: Alice Majewski, Anna Walpetinger, Anna Schönhofer, Başar Erdönmez, Karina Zabunin, Isabell Spät, Lisa-Marie Braun, Phu Nguyen

Academic and artistic direction: Prof Dr Maja Jerrentrup