我孫子市国際交流協会

Date: Sunday, 20 November, 2011 10:00 am to 4:00pm

Venue: Abiko Civic Plaza

Theme: The 20^th Anniversary of AIRA Comes Around

The Abiko International Festival 2011 was held as a memorial event

marking the 20^th anniversary of the AIRA foundation. Visitors enjoyed

displays, music, plays, performances, snacks, and many other programs at

various places.

1. Lobby: In the tea-ceremony section visitors from inside and outside the city, Japanese and foreigners, were seated and enjoying a cup of tea and a Japanese cake served by Urasenke Mistress Sokei Kameyama and her apprentices. Among them was a second-grade girl of a primary school in Abiko city, who repeatedly prepared teas in a perfect manner in front of the guests.

Gorgeous Ikebana flower works arranged by Ms. Shunko Iwai were displayed in the center of the lobby, beside which foreigners beautifully attired in kimonos with the support of kimono dressing teacher Ms. Keiko Taguchi were delightedly taking pictures.

2. Gallery: There were corners run by Chinese, Spanish, English, French and Korean language class members and each corner gave variety of amusements such as tea service, sales of specialty goods, quiz games, etc.

On the wall large panels of “‘Thank You!’ in My Language” and “20 years of AIRA reviewed by photos” were displayed and attracted visitors looking at them with great interest.

Kid’s Corner was always filled with children joyfully making origami and coloring in pictures and at AIRA Shop foods and drinks were sold.

3. Hall: Prior to the 20^th anniversary ceremony, a mandolin ensemble of five women Le Ciel played beautiful numbers, “Plucking Strings” and “Moon River”. The ceremony was held from 1:00 pm to 1:30 pm, then the performance time started. The mandolin quintet Le Ciel played once again fascinating the audience with their soft and exquisite harmony. The numbers were, Italian song “O Sole Mio”, Argentine tango “Libertango”, Japanese pop “Miagete goran yoru no hoshi wo (Look up at the Stars in the Night Sky)” and folk song “Takeda no komoriuta (Lullaby of Takeda)”.

Students of AIRA Japanese language class showed Candle Dance, sang a Japanese song “Hitori no te (One Man’s Hand)” in chorus, and performed Bamboo Dance.

Piano duo by female pianists from Suzuki Music School SoLa was very dynamic and impressive. A soprano singer sang to the piano without a microphone. Her beautiful voice echoed the hall and enchanted the listeners.

Chinese class students sang a Taiwanese song “Alishan de gunian”, and entertained the audience with a slide show and quizzes about China.  

Korean class students sang an anime song popular in Korea and a TV drama song. French class students in chic costumes sang “Mon Amant de St Jean”.

Ms. Umetbaeva Kalyiman, born in Kyrgyz and now graduate student at Tokyo University of the Arts, played two kinds of traditional folk musical instruments. “Komuz” is a three-string instrument played with fingers instead of a pick. “Temir Komuz”, known as mouth harp, is a rare small instrument made of iron, and the player plucks a piece of thin iron to produce sound. After plucking it, she said jokingly, “I have just played ‘ Bo-yo-yoon, bo-yo-yoon.’, meaning I’m an alien from outer space.” The audience burst into laughter because those words sounded like Japanese comical onomatopoetic words. The audience enjoyed the warm and simple sound of the two instruments that impressed them of the simplicity of people and great nature in Kyrgyz. In the finale all the people sang in chorus a Japanese song “Furusato (Hometown)” to Komuz played by Ms. Kalyiman. (Vol.151)

*For photo showing: Click the “Main Menu” on the front page, and “Photo Album.”