On May 28 at Ebuno Izumi-no-mori Hall (Izumisano Municipal Cultural Hall), in the multi-space facility, one hundred participants gathered for event, “Inside MongoliaーA World from?a Different Dimension”.

Surenjav Batsuren plays a morin khuur that depicts?Suho’s White Horse.

An Invitation to the Mongolian Grasslands

This event began?with the sound of Batsuren’s morin khuur, a traditional Mongolian stringed instrument. Following this?Ms. Oyungerel recited Suho’s White Horse?and invited us to the?windy Mongolian grasslands. Then we listened to?Mongolian throat singing.?For those?that had heard throat singing for?the first time, it sounded like there was an instrument in Batsuren’s body.?I heard that he had to practice quite a lot.?As Batsuren mentioned, there are some similarities between Japan and Mongolia. Among today’s performances, the?traditional?Mongolian songs resembled Japanese folk songs. When?Itsuki ‘s?Lullaby?was performed with?the morin khuur it felt familiar to?my ears. Izumisano City and the Tov Province of?Mongolia have a joint friendship through the exchange of education, culture and sports. In addition, Mongolia is well known for the success of its sumo wrestlers, but today I wonder if everyone felt closer to Mongolia. (K)

Words from the Audience

• My soul was shaken by the sad sound of the morin khuur.
• The reading of?Suho’s White Horse and?the tune of the?morin khuur, ?when the horse ran away, made an impression on me.
• During the throat singing portion my 7 year old grandson looked around for the source of the mysterious sound.
• I was pleased?to hear the story of how he went to Mongolia to pick up the white horse head morin khuur -an instrument made for this day.

Sunday, March 26 at Sano Public Hall
Midori Yoshida, who lived in Germany for 9 years, had a class on making Easter eggs and lemon cakes, a common tradition of Easter celebrations in Germany this time of year.

How to Make Easter Eggs
From the whiteboard
Sand the edges of egg shell with sandpaper.	?
Make ?a 5-7 mm hole and break the yolk. Then blow air through the hole on top to remove the contents.	?
Let the eggs dry.	?
When you’ve finished painting the Easter egg is complete!	?
Below are German style lemon cakes containing?the egg whites and yolks from the Easter eggs. Participants are putting icing on a freshly baked lemon cake. What a pleasant aroma!

Participants’ Impressions

I have an Easter egg at my house and I wondered about how to make it. It was great to be able to learn how to make one today. (M)

Sanding the eggs was delicate work, but it was fun. (K)

Making holes in the egg took patience and time. It was difficult to remove the contents of the eggs. (O)

I am?interested in Germany, so I’m glad that I could participate today. (M)

I was able to learn about German culture and the differences between Japan and Germany. It was interesting. (I)

 

The ica Girls’ Festival was held at Kansai International Center on March 5th. There were around 90 Japanese and 40 foreigners who participated. It was a spectacular display of pageantry as kimono dressed participants enjoyed drinking tea and playing traditional Japanese games.

• This is the fourth year of children’s songs from childcare groups. The children are quite grown up now. They also worked hard at managing the?cat’s cradle and origami booth.
• For paper sumo wrestling this year, opposing players competed with paper wrestlers that they had painted.
• Hosts?Natalie (Panama) and Han (Vietnam) said “We were happy that we were able to moderate. It turned out to be Japanese practice.”
• Participants took enjoyment in yesteryear’s pastimes with activities such as origami, doll making, Go, Shogi, paper balloons, Beigoma, Mizuhiki, Kendama, and Daruma.

People’s impressions…

Although I was busy getting people dressed, it was fun. It was nice talking with people from different countries. (Fujimoto / Japan)

Beigoma (top spinning) was pretty difficult but I was able to do it well.
(Yuto Amino/ 6 years old / Japan)

Plate spinning was fun. It was my first time but I was happy to be able to spin plates successfully. (Reilon Katsuta / China)

Making paper dolls was fun. (Kachobun / China)

I did origami and watercolor painting. It was fun to wear a kimono. (Salam / Liberia)

It was fun to be able to wear a kimono. It wasn’t as hot as I thought it would be. Japanese wedding kimonos are very heavy. (Tier / Indonesia)

My mother and father taught me how to do origami in my country so I had done origami before. It was my first time making a crane.?It was fun watching sumo wrestling. I enjoyed the plate spinning as well. I was taught how to do it so I got pretty good at it. I also love tea. In addition, I also love matcha and Japanese sweets. Japanese culture is quite interesting. (Lucy / Armenia)

(In cooperation with Soroptimist International Osaka – Rinku, 3rd Place, and Art Mizuhiki Musubi Association)

Sunday, February 5
Peace Bowling, ?Rinku Town Seacle

The International Exchange Bowling Event, held on Sunday, February 5, was a new sports event for ica. There were 69 participants including 36 foreigners. Teams of four, made up of Japanese and foreigners, took to the lanes and vied for first place. There were people who bowled for the first time and those that had back to back?strikes. They cheered each other on each time they stepped into the approach.

 

Words from the participants

I can’t believe our team won! It was great to be able to make friends with fellow Taiwanese.
(Irene / Taiwan)

I enjoyed bowling with a lot of foreigners. I was able to talk with a person I had happened to meet a week ago at ica. I think it’s good that ica has these kinds of events.
(Lee / Korea)

It was my first time bowling. The bowling ball was heavier than I had thought.
(Junnatu / Bangladesh)

There is bowling in Nepal, but I’d had never tried it. This is my second time bowling since being in Japan. Bowling with the same group of people, we were able to have a fun time and get along.
(Dipak / Nepal)

There are two kinds of bowling alleys in Aleppo, Syria. One kind of alley has a big cafe, and it’s a bit expensive. However, friends can have cake?or coffee and bowl. You can go bowling after work or study. For junior high school students, it’s open until 10 pm, but for adults it’s open until around midnight. Everyone can have fun because if you’re too tired you don’t have to bowl. You can simply have a cup of coffee. The alleys without cafes, we use for school events, etc.
(Nagam / Syria)