The Classroom: Like The Good Old Days

Tronoh, 1st February – Candies of the 90’s lined up on one side with participants dolled up in school uniforms. The Classroom brings out the kid in them as they giggle and enjoy all the silly games most of us played as carefree children back in school.
The emcee began proceedings at The Classroom, held in Seminar Room 7, by commenting on how it was so reminiscent of our past back in school. Committee member and participant Kiruphakaran a/l Nadesen, (CV, Foundation 3rd) supported the statement with an enthusiastic cry from the crowd: “It’s awesome! Very, very nice. Really brings back memories.”

Best Dressed Female – Nurfarhana.

There was also an award for best costume among participants. Hariz Ridzuan, (PE, Foudnation 3rd) grabbed the spotlight as he won the Best Dressed Male award with his smart looking navy uniform. His interest in cosplay had cost him RM 250. Nevertheless, he found the event amusing and worth the money. As for the Best Dressed Female, Nurfarhana Aisya Binti Anuar, (PE, 1st/1st) walked up the hall to claim the prize in her Aikido beauty, the hakama.

Organisers also invited cosplayers from other states to fully showcase this unique and interesting bit of Japanese culture. Among the famous anime characters spotted at Seminar Room 7 that evening were Monkey D. Luffy (One Piece), Giant (Doraemon), Ren Suzugamori (Vanguard), Blacksmith (Ragnarok), Saber (Fate/Stay Night), and the vocaloid family: Meko, Kaito and Rin. They all strutted on the stage as the opening theme of Digimon was played.

Throughout the night participants were flocking to the cosplayers, posing for pictures with their favourite characters. Most guests also lined up to have their portrait drawn in anime style, while some enjoyed the karaoke, the dances, and the beloved eraser game. Perhaps the greatest attraction that day was the food. Organisers prepared a spread of old time favourites for guests, including an assortment of candy most visitors could associate to fond memories of their childhood.

Candies of the yesteryear.

HOT was fortunate enough to interview all three vocaloid characters, Miku (Afiqah from UTM, Melaka), Rin (Zhi Hui from USM, Ipoh) and Kaito (Khairina from KPTM, Cheras). They enjoyed the event, happy that so many enjoyed their little performance. All three of them decided to take on vocaloid characters because they have variation to the costumes and are easy to pose as. They thanked the committee profusely, hoping to be invited again for such events.

All participants and invitees showcased their talents admirably. This was in line with one of the targeted objectives indicated by Project Manager Eleena Aqmal Binti Ab Rahim, (ME), i.e. to organize a cultural where students could express themselves, their talent and passion in a healthy way and to make UTP a more interesting and attractive educational place to learn more about other countries than the typical engineering universities.

“On behalf of Road to Japan GEP members, I would like to thank anyone and everyone who came to support Blossom of Japan, whether a passer-by or a participant in our activities. It means a lot to us to see that UTP students and staff to accept a different concept of event based of the country, Japan.

My personal say in this is that I hope that our events have inspired UTP people to promote cultural differences in the world and also in terms of the fresh ideas that we used in our events, and how to execute them in a short time. I also hope that GEP would encourage more students to visit other countries around the globe and be able to organize an event which promotes that country in UTP. This will definitely give the UTP students and staff more exposure to other countries and to learn more about that specific country itself in hope to have a better understanding of one another, in the future. Insya-Allah,”

Line up of male cosplayers.

The eraser game – memories!

Line up of female cosplayers.

Best Dressed Male – Hariz Ridzuan.

By Adhwa Anuar, ICT.