In the early season of October, the very beginning of the autumn semester, a Rakugo storyteller, TATEKAWA Shinoharu appeared on a Rakugo event for exchange students online.

On the day, we had heavy rain in the evening at Tokyo, but from the participants’ screens, we saw the beautiful morning sun, and the event made us realize that the world is connected over the ocean.

The online Rakugo event for exchange students by TATEKAWA started in the autumn semester, 2020, and this was the third time. Every time, he delivers Japanese laughers to exchange students all over the world in English.

In the first story, “Tenshiki(転失気),” everyone laughed out loud in each country’s style. Even though culture differs, it seems that the point of laughter like “Tenshiki” is world common. During each session, he nicely explained one of the most important Japanese phrases, “Sumimasen,” with good tempoand participants could not help but laugh.

In the second story “Tokisoba(時そば),” Japanese unique culture, “slurping the noodles” appeared, and TATEKAWA nicely explained it as well. Exchange students encountered new aspects of Japanese culture through this Rakugo event.

A lot of exchange students could not come to Japan, and they had difficulty in attending online classes with time differences, but they seemed to be refreshed, forgetting the daily fatigue on this fun Rakugo event.