我孫子市国際交流協会

Date: Saturday and Sunday, November 7th and 8th, 2009
Venue: Water Park on the shore of Teganuma Lake
Host organization: The JBF Implementation Committee

This JBF is the 9th since its inauguration in 2001. This year JBF occupied Water Park as its main site though until last year Water Park and Teganuma Park were utilized.
Favored by good weather, every spot of the site was crowded with visitors from all over Japan and some foreign countries, many carrying binoculars for bird watching.

The AIRA volunteers invited people for testing their knowledge on bird with quizzes, of which answers could be found in the panels showing various birds including albatross. Kids and accompanying adults enjoyed comparing notes, with shs and ohs.
AIRA's specially made Manjus (steamed sweet bun) marked with albatross figure for promotion of the breeding site relacation project, were all sold out sooner than expected on both days, despite the manjus were somewhat expensive compared with the sweets or wares sold at neighboring booths. The profit from the manju sale is to be donated to the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology.

On the evening of Sunday, 7th., a reception was held for the participating groups from various regions of the nation and some from overseas. Mr. Satoshi Yamagishi, Director General of the Institute and Chairman of the JBF Implementation Committee noted in his speech that ornithology alone is not enough for full understanding of bird and that's why people flock to this festival in order to look at bird, treating it as a part of culture, from divers view points such as painting, music, sculpture and literature. He also emphasized that JBF is unique domestically and internationally, encompassing natural science and various arts.

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