[Date and Time] Sunday, July 10, at 10:30~14:30
[Spots] Street stands, Star Mall with bamboo decorations, and Japanese Culture Salon hosted by Hiratsuka International Exchange Salon Association (IES)
[Visitors] 54 AOTS (YKC) practice caregivers from Indonesia (43 women, 11 men) and 7 JICA participants with 2 from El Salvador and 1 each from Georgia, Cambodia, Colombia, Uruguay, and Chad
[Attendants] 32 KSGG members, 1 observer, 1 JICA staff, and 2 YKC staff
[Languages] English and Japanese
The 61st Hiratsuka Star Festival was held for wishing Japan’s recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake. This year the festival was scaled down and the big events were canceled. Colorful decorations on bamboos were filled with the phrases such as “Reconstruction of the Tohoku region” and “Hang in there, Japan!”
Our guests were AOTS(YKC) practice caregivers from Indonesia, who had come to Japan only some days before and were supposed to study Japanese for the coming 6 months, and JICA participants. We were amazed at the gorgeous decorations and also enjoyed the performance of Hiratsuka-Daiko (traditional Japanese drumming) for a short time. We finally came to IES, where our guests could experience Japanese culture with a help of volunteers in Hiratsuka City one-on-one.
We could not do anything special for our guests, but they seemed to enjoy our hearty guiding even on a hot day. We hope they will remember this experience. We wish the participants will study hard and pass the national examination.
I’d like to say thank-you to many people who held IES this time. As there were not special events in this festival, the experience of Japanese culture at IES must have been the most pleasant for our guests.
Guiding JICA Participants
I started to guide the participants, thinking about how we should have our guests enjoy themselves, and also hoping to hear various things about their countries from them.
We had to push through the crowd on the street because it was so crowded. As I found it difficult to explain to all the participants in a group, I decided that we should see around freely. I asked a Chadian along to go with me and walked around the Star Mall, explaining about goldfish scooping game, Tanabata decorations, and the wishes written on strips of paper. Time passed as they took pictures and I answered their questions. Then we had lunch at a hamburger shop.
After all of us got together at the meeting place, we went to IES Salon, where the participants tried paper folding, cup and ball, and calligraphy. They had difficulty writing Chinese Kanji, but every one of them could finally write his unique Kanji characters. Also, the participants could make a paper crane and a paper samurai warrior helmet though they are difficult to make.
The participants said they felt happy with their experience of Japanese culture.