Events

　

　Vetnamese Lunar New Year Festival"Tet"　　　Mar 12, 2023

On sunday, March 12, 2023, a lecture by Ms. Dao Que Han, a Vietnamese at Japanese language class, was held at the conference room of the Kanazawa Public Hall. There were 38 participants.

Part 1 was basic information about Vietnam, and Part 2 was preparations for Lunar New Year (Tet) events, menus, decorations, etc.
Ao dai (traditional costume), non la (woven hat), and banh chung (rice wraps) were also exhibited.

There was a lively question-and-answer session after the lecture. Many participants gave the opinions in the questionaire that they would like other Asian countries to be featured in the next event. We also received good impressions from the participants.

　11th Kanazawa Lounge Festival　　　Feb 12, 2023

On Sunday, February 12, 2023, the 11th Kanazawa Lounge Festival was held at the Kanazawa Public Hall Auditorium and conference room.
It was the first face-to-face meeting in about three years since 2019, and the first to be held in the Public Auditorium Hall. Fortunately, blessed with good weather, the event was attended by about 600 people.

The various events held on the stage that included reading poems and picture books by the Children's Learning Support Group "Kamome Class", Speeches by people from Adult Japanese language classes, demonstration of Kendo practice as an introduction to Japanese culture, performance of traditional Myanmar music, singing and dancing, Yokohama City University's chorus, cheerleading, and Yokohama High School's Japanese drum performance.

　　　　

　Mikan Piching Event　　　Nov 13, 2022

On the afternoon of November 13th, Mikan(Japanese oranges) picking event was held with a walking tour at Shiba Seaside Farm with the cooperation of the Yokohama Kanazawa City Guide Association. This event was well received last year. . There were 51 participants overall, including 41 foreigners and children.

Spilt into 4 groups, we departed. While listening to the explanation of the sea park and fishing port, we climbed a steep slope and arrived at the Shiba Farm. While picking up oranges, we excitedly tasted them first to see which ones were delicious. At the end, we took home a lot of bags filled with oranges.

Finally, the “Rock-Paper-Scissors” game was played along with the university students and the event ended on a happy note. Foreigners who participated from Tsurumi and Konan Ward were delighted, and exclaimed, "Kanazawa Ward is a great place with both the sea and the mountains." During the walk, they were able to interact with people from their own country.

　VIDEO:The 10th Kanazawa Lounge Festival 　　Feb 27, 2022

VIDEO on YouTube: Click below

Opening

Hula Dance

Roundtable Discussion

Fashion show

Ending

February 21, 2021: Kamome Class "Everyone's work exhibition" at the Ward Gallery

Children with various background of culture are now live in here.
Although they are puzzled by differences in habitual practice and language, they will come to Kamome Class in order to overcome invisible hurdles one by one.
They were excellent works of children with various possibilities.

January 19, 2021: Japanese Brush-up Workshop

On January 19 and 22, 2021, a Japanese language brush-up workshop was held at Iki-iki Center Kanazawa with 29 participants. In order to reduce the number of participants at one time, we held the same content twice and made efforts to prevent infection, such as changing the group work to the lecture style.
This time, we invited Professor Yasuko Sakauchi, a professor of Kanagawa Prefectural International Language and Culture Academia, as a lecturer, and under the theme of "communication that connects differences," she made a lecture on the attitude of supporting foreigners, the process of language acquisition, and tips for learning support through actual examples.
Words such as "Everyone is not the same ..." and "People can recognize each other by connecting small differences through communication" left a strong impression on us.

November 15, 2020: “Zen meditation” --- Japanese Culture Experience for foreign residents ---

We have experienced Zen meditation at Hakuzan Toko Zenji temple on the 15th of November, in a nice weather. There were six people attending this event, including two from Myanmar. Guides from Yokohama Kanazawa City Guide Association, led us to the temple. We strolled about Hakuzan-do street to the temple, listening to some historical explanations related to Kamakura.
We received some explanations about how to sit and breath from the head priest of the temple prior to do zen meditation. Each of us faced his/her own mind, breathing out the air with his/her daily troubles, feeling fresh wind in the main temple. After that, we had a cup of Japanese green tea while listening to his talk and appreciated honzon, a principal object of worship and pictures of the dragon painting on the ceiling.
At last of this event, we took photographs of all the participants in a pose with folding their hands. We made a new discovery in the day, having such a valuable experience in Kanazawa ward.

January 17, 2020: Japanese Volunteer Workshop

On January 17th and 24th, 2020 a workshop was held at the Ikiiki Center Kanazawa.
The theme was “how to support beginners’ Japanese“, and Ms. Mihoko
Tanaka, an instructor at Kanagawa Prefectural Institute of Language
and Cultural Studies was invited as a lecturer.
The first day was a workshop to experience feelings of learners
(who study complete unknown language directly?)
The second day was a group workshop to come up with ideas about how to proceed with teaching materialｓ in order to stimulate learners.
There were ４３　participants for the first day and 44 participants for
the second day respectively and lots of comments such as “there happened
a lot of awareness”, “we could put them into practice now,” we understand
learner’s feeling well” were received.

January 19, 2020: Multicultural Understanding Lecture "Familiar Vietnam"

The lecture was held on Sunday, January 19, 2019 in the multipurpose room of Kanazawa Public Hall with the interest of local residents and with the participation of 46 people.
The lecturer was Mr. Kentaro Tanaka from Kanazawa Ward, with Mr. Nguyen, a Vietnamese assistant.　The first half was on the historical background, and the second half was speeches, music, sightseeing spots, etc., with plenty of video.
We actually tried to speak some Vietnamese words after Mr. Nguyen. Some of the words had a reading style similar to Japanese.
There was a lot of content in the two-hour talk about Vietnam, but the participants enjoyed them listening to Vietnamese music.

December 10, 2019: The 20th Kanagawa Biennale International Children’s Painting
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 Exhibition Kanazawa Ward Traveling Exhibition Cooperation

The Kanazawa International Exchange Lounge asked its members to cooperate with the Kanazawa Ward office for the Biennale Kanazawa Ward Traveling Exhibition.
* Select paintings of 80 to be exhibited at this traveling exhibition
* Cooperation in displaying, organizing and rearrangement etc. for paintings at the hall.
* Receptionist job during the period. Distribution of leaflets and advertisement from mouth to mouth.
It was a great joy that we were impressed to see paintings of the children from the world at the hall.
We were very happy to see that all of children of International Class of Namiki Daiichi Elementary School. visited to appreciate paintings.

November 30, 2019: Report of the 9th Kanazawa Lounge Festival

The customary lounge festival was held at the Kanagawa Community Center’s multipurpose room and meeting room etc. on Saturday, November 30th. This time, the stage presentations as well as the experience corners were arranged and 410 people of participants and visitors attended in total.
In the program (presentation in Japanese), kids in the Seagull class cheerfully read and quizzed. Learners in Japanese Language class made speeches on Japan and his or her home country.
The program (attraction) commenced with traditional Japanese NOGAKU music, followed by dances, musical instrument performances, choruses by local high school and college students together with Arabian dances, Filipino dances and singing and Slovak musical instrument performance.
In the program (experience corners), all of us challenged Japanese NOGAKU music and SHODO(calligraphy) and enjoyed world plays・picture books and Japanese ORIGAMI.
We also practiced greeting of worlds and played Indonesian bamboo instruments and Guinean drums.

November 24, 2019: Talks in various languages

On Sunday, November 24, 2019, the Kanazawa Library sponsored a talk session to read books in Portuguese, Korean, Chinese and Japanese, with the Kanazawa Lounge in cooperation.
In the book on Jeju Island in Korea, we were able to feel the sound of the island and the climate of the island, learn about the sad story of juice in Brazil's old tale "Garana", and in the Japanese book "Konto Aki", which was read by a Chinese, we felt some characteristics of Chinese intonations.
The participants were about 50 including children. Everyone listened eagerly, and after that they enjoyed watching the books of each country arranged in the venue.

October 18, 2019: Attending to “Welcome party for exchange students in autumn”
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 at Yokohama City university

Welcome party for exchange students in autumn” at Yokohama City university(YCU) was held on the 18th of October on the Hakkei campus of YCU.
Many exchange students from China, Taiwan South Korea and other Asian region and also Italy, France and Spain, Germany and the U.S.A took part in this party. After they introduced themselves, they had an international and cultural exchange with YCU’s students and other participants.
We, Kanazawa International Lounge welcome YCU’s students’ cooperation in our lounge festival held last November. We are also very happy that some exchange students from Chine have been taking part in a class for Chinese leaners as one of our association groups.

October 1, 2019:“Report training for 119(emergency telephone number)” in Japanese
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 language classes

Kanazawa International Lounge organized disaster prevention classes with the cooperation of Kanazawa Fire Station on the 1st and the 2nd of October in two Japanese language classes. We had sixty-seven participants including firemen, learners and volunteers. Foreign residents from eleven countries took part in this drill.
This training includes some ways to protect themselves and evacuation shelters in case of an earthquake.
Trainees also learned how to make a call to “119” and then two Japanese learners made a call to “119”. It seemed that it was hard for the learners to tell their own addresses. In this training, we had some nice impressions from the learners including fire man’s plain explanation with some gesture and a loud voice.

September 11, 2019: Indonesian home cooking class

On Wednesday, September 11, “Indonesian home cooking” was held at the Tomioka Namiki District Center with Sanni Nakazaki as a lecturer. Indonesian goods are displayed in the cooking room, and a teacher wearing Indonesian T-shirts appears in a peaceful atmosphere. We started with making cookies. Share the cookie dough and roll it into the oven. The teacher made the sauce while baking. After that, we were divided into groups and cooked tasting nasi goreng, chicken BBQ and soup using our teacher's sauce. While tasting delicious food, We were able to hear the fun story of the teacher about Indonesia. Participants also asked questions about how to make sauces and where to sell ingredients, and the teachers answered carefully.

July 22, 2019: Komeme summer vacation special class held in July and August

The“ Kamome Summer Vacation Special Class ”was held for one week from July 22 to 27 and one week from August 19 to 24.
Participants were 28 students from first grade elementary school to third grade junior high school. It varied from a child who just came to Japan to a child who was born and raised in Japan.
The contents of study are various such as Japanese study, picture diary, report creation, drill, reading aloud. The supporters also worked hard, all worried about giving advice. In addition to studying, the children and adults had time to enjoy together, such as doing simple work, playing with it, and playing games.
It was a summer class that impressed us both the serious figure of studying and the smile when we relaxed.　

June 15, 2019: Kamome Classes’ “Parents’ Meeting”

One of purposes of Parents’ Meeting is to assist foreign guardians on their worries and various matters they want to know about their child rearing. We invited Mr. Shimamoto Earnest, a teacher of Kanazawa Sogo high school as a lecturer, to talk on “Going on to high school” at Kanakatsu in Aiwa Park building on Saturday, June 5. We had 19 people, including foreign guardians and their children though it was raining. 42 people with Kamome classes’ members participated in total. The speaker, Mr. Shimamoto simply explained an enrollment in Japanese high school so it seemed that participants were very satisfied with his talk.

June 2, 2018: Walking Tour for Foreigners “Let’s go to Shomyoji Temple”

It was held in the afternoon on Sunday, June 2 and organized by Koryu Kikaku Group or Exchange and Planning group in Kanazawa International Lounge. It was cloudy and comfortable after several hot days. We had 43 participants, including 25 foreign residents and 2 people from Kanazawa city office. We had 4 groups with the cooperation of 8 people from Yokohama Kanazawa City Guide Association.
We assembled at Kanazawa-bunko station and took a walk to Shomyoji temple where we walked around Sanmon or temple gate, Nio-mon or a pair of standing Kongo-rikishi (Nio)sculptures, Jodo garden or Jodo-style garden, Syo-ro or temple bell tower, Shaka-do or Shaka-do hall, and Hondo or main temple with clear explanations of the City Guides. We took some commemorative photos and ended this event.

Sep.21, 2019: Chinese Cooking Class; Let’s try different ways of wrapping Baozi buns!

20 local residents participated in a Chinese Cooking Class on Sept. 21, with Ms. Gao as an instructor. She is leading the Chinese language learning group registered with the International Lounge. The participants first watched the instructor make a baozi and were amazed how the master finished the work by cutting the dough with scissors or rolling it into a rose shape.
Then their turn to try, but seeing and doing by themselves are totally different! It just wouldn’t go as they wanted, but they somehow finished making the buns. After trying hard, having fun on the four cooking tables, no one cared irregular shapes and sizes. They enjoyed eating three kinds of delicious baozi of their own making.
The participants seemed to be deft and love to cook, and asked for more opportunities to learn how to cook other Chinese dishes. We hope to plan similar events in the future.

　　　　Origami Art master’s work 　　 Watch closely how it’s rolled 　　　Came out in various shapes

Juｌｙ. 14, 2018: Let’s try to dance in a yukata, an informal cotton kimono

　Kanazawa International Lounge held a Japanese culture experience “Let’s try to dance in a yukata, an informal cotton kimono at Kanazawa-chiku Center and twenty-two foreign residents took part in this event. Six instructors helped participants wear yukata. They took their photos each other wearing yukata. They looked happy. After dressing yukata, they were taught the way you move while wearing kimono and danced in Sakura Sakura song (Cherry blossoms) with Japanese fans. Then they picked up some bleached cotton, masks and a drum with a bell inside. They looked admiringly at a master of Japanese dance. It looked very nice that foreign participants tried to dance voluntarily.

　　Using Japanese fans　　　　　　Swing clothes！ 　　　　　　　　　　　　Everyone wears ”Yukata”

June. 25, 2018:Korabo-Ibento/Collaboration Event with Kanazawa kumin center or
　　　　　　　　　　　 Kanazawa community center (herein after the Center) and Kanazawa
　　　　　　　　　　　 International　Lounge (herein after Lounge)

　　We held the 3rd Korabo-Ibento on June 25th. We introduced the lounge and the Center to a number of community residents and also showed music performances and dancing. In the Lounge session time, some Lounge members talked about their experiences as volunteer members. On the introduction of cross-culture session, Nia, an overseas student in Yokohama City University, performed Indonesian dance in front of community residents. They enjoyed looking at Indonesian gorgeous costume and dancer’s elastic movement. On the “Minna de odoro” or “Let’s dance all together”, they learned dancer’s hand motion and felt exotic atmosphere.
We hope the Lounge will be widely known to community residents.

　　　　　　How your arms move　 　　　　　　　　　　What is Kanazawa International Lounge・・

June. 9, 2018: Parents’ Meeting at Kamome Kyoshitsu ,
　　　　　　　　　　　the Japanese Language Class for Children

　　Date: Saturday, June 9:
　　　- AM: at Training Room, Kanazawa Sport Center
　　　- PM: at Seagull Center, Yokohama City University
10 parents (from the Philippines, Peru, China, El Salvador and Vietnam), 2 former students of the Japanese class who are now high school students (from Peru) and 46 supporters gathered at the meeting. The parents had a chance to be briefed and see a slideshow of how the students spend their time in the class. The former students shared their stories that they had a good time in the class, where they got help in preparing for the high school entrance exams and interviews. Then we asked parents what language they use at home. “We, the parents, talk to our kids in our mother language, but they reply in Japanese, and they speak to each other in Japanese. They speak in Japanese while they play with their friends. So, we are trying hard to study Japanese, too!”
It was a great opportunity to speak freely in a friendly atmosphere and know each other better.



　　　　　What is Kamome Kyoshitsu?　　　With an interpreter　　　　　Former students speak

Apr. 29, 2018: “Walking tour for foreigners”
　　　　Coordinated　together with Yokohama Kanazawa City Guidel

　　　Thirty four people from ten countries took part in the tour. They were from　South America, South Asia and other regions.　A person from Yokohama Kanazawa City Guide took a lead of the group and guided them while they walked along the historical spots.
　　　They listened to and concentrated on what the guide explained.　Even we Japanese didn’t know some of her explanations and participants said　“That’s interesting. I didn’t know that. “
　　　We kept walking an hour and a half along Hirakata bay, Yuh-syoh bashi bridge and Nojima island. Then we arrived at the observation platform on the top of Nojima, where we could look over Hirakata bay, Hakkei-jima island, and Chiba prefecture and Mt.Fuji in the distance. We enjoyed 360 degree panorama.
　　　Lastly we visited a villa of Mr. Hirobumi Itoh, and then we broke up.　It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed walking very much.

　　　　　　　　Listening to what the guide　　Enjoy lunch under trees.　　　All the participants are friends each otheｒ
　　　　　　　　 explains.　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　after enjoying games.

Mar. 24, 2018: Speech Event by Everyone at Kamome School

　　　As a summary of the past-year activities at Kamome School, 4 classes gathered and gave presentations in Japanese.
　　　The participants were 22 elementary school students and 6 junior high school students, each of whom did a great job, better than what they’d done in rehearsals, in reading aloud, recitation, playing musical instruments, singing and giving self-introductions lively and proudly.

Mar.1～6, 2018: Speech event at Japanese Language Classes

　　　We held a speech event at our four Japanese language classes on March 1, 3, 4 and 6 that is Thursday, Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday respectively. Almost all the learners of the classes participated in the event.
　　　Skill level of Japanese language is different from a learner to another. However, all the speakers think by themselves on the theme they want to say, with some help from their supporters.
　　　They made speeches about their favorite cooking, memories of travels, life in Japan, what they think of hometowns, what they think of getting married, jobs, and snow they saw at the first time.
　　　Lastly they spoke friendly each other having cups of tea.
Number of total participants from four classes was 46 speakers and 46 volunteers..


　　　　　Volunteers backing up speakers　　　Make a speech in turn　　　　　Next turn is me?　

Dec. 3, 2017: 10th anniversary event over

　　We, Kanazawa International Lounge had our 10th anniversary event, getting an attendance of local people, ex-lounge members and staff members from Kanazawa Ward office. We could celebrate this event happily with local people. Thank you very much for your continuous support for ten years.
　　We got congratulations from Mr. Kunihara, the head of Kanazawa Ward, saying that foreign residents could stop by the lounge as one-stop service.
　　Mr. Okada, a vice president of Yokohama City University (YCU), stated his sincere thanks to the lounge, saying that when the lounge was in YCU Kanazawa-Hakkei campus, his students, including ones from abroad could play their part with local people, including the lounge staff and would have continuous exchange with them.
　　Their thankful speeches made us, as community volunteer members, committing ourselves a fresh start.

Dec. 3, 2017: 10th anniversary commemoration lecture: Multicultural coexistence lecture
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　--- Aiming at realization of multicultural society ---

　We welcomed Mr. Bernard Nakajima, a professor of Kanagawa Prefectural Institute of Language and Culture Studies as a lecturer. In this lecture, he considered how he had been seeing Japan as one of foreign residents and what he could do from now on with us. He talked as follows:
　An image of 1950s (Showa 30s) in Japan was quite different from the current one and “foreigners meant English as a language at that time”.
　Since the number of foreign residents in various areas is increasing now, Japanese have to meet halfway with them and learn and teach a lot of things each other in order to live together.

　Dec. 3, 2017: 10th anniversary commemoration festival
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　--- Theme: Cheerfully and gorgeously ---

　We had two Japanese presentations from Japanese class, Kamome class and six performances for two hours in total.
　Children from Kamome class and students from Japanese classe presented their results of daily learning. Their presentations were great.
　Three musical instruments performance, two dancing and a chorus were performed. We enjoyed their performances a lot in a happy mood.

　Nov. 11, 2017: “Parents’ gathering” held by Kamome School is over, resulted a good connection to the local community.

We held the same gathering twice last year. We had the gatherings also this year, 2017, at Kanazawa Sport Center for Namiki area and Exchange Room at YCU for Hakkei area.
The first gathering was held on May 20, 2017 at Kanazawa Sport Center. At the beginning, we, meeting owner, explained about current status of Kamome school to folks attended the meeting. Then we exchanged opinions together with participants. Participants were 34 persons in total: 8 guardians, 2 people from Tokotoko group, 19 from Kamome supporters/ward office, and 5 children.
The second one was held on November 11, 2017 at Exchange Room at YCU. We asked speakers to present on “What is PTA?”, speakers were deputy principals of elementary schools, Namiki and Hakkei.
The number of participants was 52 in total: 13 guardians, 2 deputy principals, 3 people from Tokotoko, 20 from Kamome supports/related people, and 14 children.
Number of participants is increasing and we feel the relation between the community and our lounge is getting stronger.

　Nov. 11, 2017: Garbage separation: disposal or recyclable?
Report from the meeting: learning how to separate garbage into groups.

We had meetings about how we should separate garbage into predefined groups on September 24, 26, 28 and 30 at our Japanese language classes. The stuff of Kanazawa Ward Office explained the rule of separation, and then they demonstrated how to apply the rule using real garbage samples. We shared 30 minutes with people at Japanese classes.

Number of participants from Japanese classes was 45 in total: 16 from Kanazawa Ward Office and 55 from the lounge. Participants concentrated on what speakers said and made some questions because it is their daily concerns. Garbage is separated into several categories: Burnable Garbage, Plastic Containers/Packaging, Cans/Bottles / PET Bottles, and Paper.
They also learned that an umbrella is broken into a shaft and the others, a shaft is treated as same as Cans/Bottles/PET Bottles, and the others are burnable; a toy made of plastic is grouped into burnable garbage.

Comments from the stuff of Kanazawa Ward Office

We are happy to have a chance to explain foreigners on garbage separation with support by Japanese language classes.
We have recognized through the session what they have learned and have not, which is very useful for us. We also have recognized that participants are very concerned on garbage separation. We would like to have the session next year. In Yokohama, Japanese and also foreigners have to keep the rule in the same way.
Let’s cooperate on this theme with foreigners and Japanese together, so that Yokohama is getting cleaner and ecologically friend city.

　Sept. 23, 2017　Cooking class for foreign people: a challenge to Japanese rolled sushi.

We held a cooking class for foreign people, as we did last year, on September 23, 2017. The venue used was Tomioka-Namiki Regional Center.
28 people took part in this class. They wore aprons, bandannas, then separeted into 3 groups.
They cooked some Japanese food with support by an instructor: kenchin soup, tamagoyaki, a kind of Japanese omelet, and thick sushi roll.
They coocked not perfect well, for example, tamagoyaki was burnned a bit over, shape of thick sushi roll was not so good, but managed to cook them.
They enjoed the class, eating food they cooked and talking each other.

　　　

July and August, 2017 Kamome Class during summer vacation

We opened Kamome Summer School, as we did last year, 5 days at Kanakatsu in July and 6 days at Namiki in August.
113 pupils participated in the Kanakatu class and 70 pupils in the Namiki class. Many of them worked on their homework from their schools.
The media had reported that homeworks given from schools are too much for pupils, it might be applicable to Yokohama.
They shouted “I have done” , with smiles when they had finshed their work. We volunteers felt happy seeing them.

Presentation in Kamome Classes by all students: Finished

Presentations were performed on March 25th at the auditorium of Kanazawa Ward office. Twenty-nine elementary and junior high school students gave various kinds of presentations, such as poems, reading of classics, some quizzes, reading in two languages, and compositions in front of their families and visitors. It was a great opportunity for them to concentrate and experience a great sense of achievement. After their presentations, the students, their guardians, and some adults enjoyed some games like Fruit Basket Turnover and other activities to deepen their friendships.

Lounge Festival 2016: Finished

We had Kanazawa International Lounge Festival at YCU Square of Yokohama City University on November 23rd. This festival was held as a pre-event of the Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank. Some organization related to Asia took part in the event. We also enjoyed some folk costumes.

At the stage, Japanese speeches were performed by Japanese learners from Japanese classes and Kamome classes (Japanese classes for children) of our lounge. Kamome class’s students made their presentation with confidence.

We had two kinds of folk dancing from Indonesia and China, and some musical performances from the Philippines, Mongolia, Vietnam, Guinea, We felt and enjoyed cross-culture from Peruvian children’s folk dancing, YCU student’s performance, and a dance by local high school students. It was a great four hours.

---

Kanazawa Lounge Festival in 2014.12.21

　 We held the 4th Kanazawa Lounge Festival at Mutsuura Chiku Center on Sunday, December 21, 2014: Let's feel "Multi-cultural Exchange in Kanazawa area"

　 335 people, including foreigners and Japanese living in the area took part in and enjoyed this event.

　 Parents and children from Japanese language classes were wearing their countries' traditional clothes and their families were also taking place in the auditorium.

   We enjoyed various kinds of foods, including Nepalese, Korean and Filipino.

   We had an experience zone where participants learned Japanese traditional plays and foreigner instructors taught the origin of words: Chinese, Thai, Russian and Filipino.

   We are very pleased that the students from Kanto Gakuin University and Yokohama City University were involved with planning, the MC, performances, preparation and cleanup after this festival.

   We hope that this festival gave people living in Kanazawa-ku a good opportunity to understand various cultures and communicate with a lot of people. We expect Kanazawa-ku become an area: "People live close together with various cultures"

---

¶ Panel Discussion held on Sunday, November 16, 2014

We had two guest speakers, a Father from India and the El Salvador ambassador. They talked about their own cultures at Icho-no-Yakata, Yokohama City University on Sunday, November 16, 2014.

After the session, we talked about our own countries, over drinking a cup of Salvadoran coffee and snacks.

We had a great time to have crosscultural communication.

　　　　The introduction of India　　　The introduction of El Salvador
　　　Fr., Arun Prakash D'souza from India　Ms. Martha L. Zelayandia from Embassy of El Salvador

Take a closer look inside Japan, visiting NHK Studio Part and Kabuki-za Gallery in Tokyo on September 28

　　33 participants took a closer look inside Japan, visiting NHK Studio Park and Kabuki-za Gallery in Tokyo by our bus on the 28th 0f September.

This event was aim to have an exchange among the citizens, including foreigners live in Kanazawa-ku.

Participants got to know each other by introducing themselves. They experienced the latest image technologies at NHK Studio Park. They also took a close look the history of performance overseas, some gadgets used during the Kabu,ki performances. They enjoyed Japanese traditional cultures a lot.

Kanazawa Lounge Festival in 2014.03.16

We, Kanazawa International Lounge, held an event called “Lounge Festival” at Tomioka-Namiki Area Center, a public facility located in Namiki, Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama, on this March 16.

We would like to appreciate everyone for coming and participating in our event. We held a festival on March 16, 2014.

Our objective to hold this event was to improve communication with foreigners living in this area through sharing cultural events which we had prepared for months for this purpose.

More than 300 people participated in our event because it was Sunday and the weather was beautiful.

The program in the morning consisted of speeches by young boys/ girls learning at our Kamome classes, and by people learning at our Japanese classes for adults, they made speeches on what they thought about their mother countries and feelings about Japan living now.

In the afternoon, we enjoyed entertainments and music performed by school boys/ girls from this area and students from YCU, Yokohama City University.

We also enjoyed several kinds of excellent Asian food at lunch time.

We held this event at a local public center located in Namoki at the first time this year, and want to hold this event also next year.

We would like to express many thanks to people who participated in the event.

Multicultural Exchange through Homemade Cooking

　
　 ¶¶¶ We had hands-on seminar of cooking Mexican foods and Malaysian foods ¶¶

     We had a cooking seminar at Nokendai-chiku Center on Monday, January 20. The instructors of cooking were Ms. Goto from Mexico and Ms. Chiam from Malaysia.

    We cooked a Mexican food, Albondigas, like dumpling, and Bacalao on a slice of bread. We also cooked handmade noodles and sweet potato soup as deserts.

    We got instructions about recipes from a Mexican and a Malaysian, and we enjoyed cooking in cooperation with students or attendees. We enjoyed the foods, talking on the tastes of them, and enjoyed talking a lot each other. Some od attendees from overseas introduced us their own country7s foods.

”Had the cross-cultural meeting on December 8 at Icho-no-yakata, Yokohama City University

　We had two guest speakers, Mr. Kiss Gergely from Hungarian embassy and Mr. Besar Dida of Albanian ambassador's son. They talked about their own cultures, world heritages, cuisins and educations for thirty minutes each at Icho-no-yakata, Yokohama City University on December 8.

They got a lot of questions from attendees about their cultures, languages and others after their presentations.

We also had Albanian ambassador and his wife unexpectedly.

After the first session, we talked about our own countries, proudly over eating some rice crackers, mikan or mandarin oranges and soft drink.

We had an international exchange enough for three hours. (50 attendees, 2 guest speakers included)

Mr. Kiss from Hungarian embassy　　　　　　　　　　　　　Mr. Besar Dida of Albanian ambassador's son



Attendees (center, Albanian ambassador and his wife)


Two guest speakers got a lot of questions from attendees.

Barbecue Party at Nojima Park

Under the beautiful blue autumn sky on September 29 (Sunday), we had a barbecue party at Nojima Park. 129 people joined the party from various places of Yokohama City. The foods were divided into 5 fireplaces and the participants talked each other until the foods were cooked, and they enjoyed the foods together. The children were friendly playing.


In the recreation in the afternoon, the Philippines's singer, Geraldine sang some American pop songs, the participants formed a circle, sang and danced.


The foreigners included Americans, Peruvians, Ecuadorians, Salvadorians, Australians, Chinese, Korean, Bangladeshis, Filipinos, Vietnamese, and Indonesians. They talked with the local residents and listened to their homelands topics.

We had a wonderful autumn day with making cultural exchanges.

We held a special school for children at Namiki area this summer.

　    The school was held for five days from August 19 to 23 at the Kanazawa sport center located at Namiki.

      Around 20 people/students joined to our program and studied 2hours, 16:30 thru 18:30, every day, studying school homework or training for the high school entrance examination. We had 100 people in total during these days.

      Volunteer teachers also provided lectures which the children were interested in such as science experiments, Japanese traditional card games or magic of diagrams.

      At the end of the course, they sang Japanese songs such as "Yuyake-Koyake", Fuji-no-Yama" and others. They enjoyed singing songs very much these days.

Enjoying science experiments.	Studied for the high school entrance examination.
Around 20 people attended to our summer school every day.	People enjoying Japanese card games.
Making "Take-Tombo" using milk packs.	A high school student who joined as a volunteer teacher.

    

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