我孫子市国際交流協会

Date: October 25 (Wednesday) 2:00pm-4:00pm
Place: Abista (study room-2)
Participants: About 35 people
Main guests: Members of the Western Bay of Plenty Club, North Island, New
Zealand and members of Japan Chapter, both of Friendship Force
Hosted by: Abiko International Relations Association (AIRA)

The guests and local participants belong to an organization named Friendship Force, established in 1977 by Rosalyn Carter, the wife of then U.S. President Jimmy Carter, aiming at realizing an international understanding and acknowledging differences and similarities of each culture. It achieves the target through sharing daily life by means of home stay.

Sixteen people from New Zealand came to Japan this year, 10 of whom visited Abiko City. AIRA held a tiny tea-party welcoming New Zealanders jointly with Japanese members of Friendship Force.
After hearing speeches by both of the parties, Ms. Kazuko Sengoku and her pupil Miss Lisa Ward, Australian, performed a Koto duet and a concerto for Koto and Shakuhachi flute.
Answering to an audience's question on how she could produce all of the tones in one octave on a 5-hole shakuhachi, she explained that the technique was to pad the ventage halfway with fingers and adjust blowing angle and strength.
Then, male guests presented songs and dances of Maori, the native New Zealanders. The highlight was the War Cry, a dance of intrepidity as played by the well-known NZ rugby team, All Blacks prior to a match, in which they sing, pat their knees, wave and jump.

The song began with the lyrics "Ka Mate ! Ka Mate!", one of Maori words. Since it sounded like "Ganbatte! Ganbatte!" (Go for it!) to the Japanese, this song has become very popular in Japan. No doubt, the writer has often seen it on TV, but a live version was far more powerful and impressive.

Lastly, all attended sang "Do-Re-Mi" both in Japanese and English wishing to deepen mutual understanding and friendship.

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