Sister and Friendship City Days Commemorative Events
Hiroshima Citizens Enjoy Foreign Cultures
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Hiroshima City has established Sister and Friendship City Days for each of the six overseas cities with which it has a Sister City or Friendship City relationship.
The aim of the events is to have Hiroshima citizens feel a greater affinity with these cities, and develop a deeper understanding of the importance of having friendly relations.
The Hiroshima Messengers, who were selected through public recruitment, acted as MC and facilitator for each event.
Daegu Day
The Daegu Day commemorative event was held from May 3-5, 2014, at the location of the Hiroshima Flower Festival.
The event was organized by the 2014 Daegu Day Executive Committee.
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A commemorative ceremony was held on May 3.
On the stage, speeches were made by the Chairperson of the Daegu Day Executive Committee, the Mayor of Hiroshima and the Consul-General from the Korean Consulate General in Hiroshima.
The President of the Daegu-Hiroshima Association also read out a message from the Mayor of Daegu Metropolitan City.
In the section on culture and the arts, Ms. Lee Bangul, President of Korean College of the Arts in Ogura, Kita-Kyushu, gave a performance of the Korean koto, known as the gayageum, and a fan dance, and as well as a traditional Korean rural dance and performance known as Samul nori, using traditional instruments,
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President Lee plays the gayageum
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by the Hiroshima branch of the Korean Youth Association in Japan.
The audience was entranced by the performances.
A Daegu Korea Madan (square) was set up with various different sections, including a section with Daegu Metropolitan City tourist information, a place where people could take commemorative photos in traditional Korean dress (chima jeogori), a section where visitors could try writing their own name in Korean (hangeul) and a stall selling traditional Korean home cooking.
Trough three days, many people, mainly families and young women, fully enjoyed Korean culture.
During the event, there were over 9,000 visitors and the event was a great success.
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Hanover Day
The Hanover Day commemorative event was held on May 25, 2014, at Hiroshima City International House.
It was organized by the 2014 Hanover Day Executive Committee.
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Tasting of German cuisine
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The event included a tea ceremony experience in the style of Ueda Soko, who had a strong connection with Hanover, tasting of sausages made using the authentic German method and German bread, tasting of baumkuchen cake, a demonstration of German cake-making, Luettje Lage (a drinking method peculiar to Hanover, where two different alcoholic drinks are poured into two small glasses and then drunk in one gulp), and more.
In the hall after the ceremony, Kai Watanabe, who was born in Germany, provided an introduction of the town of Hanover, and Mr. Koki Inai, President of the Hiroshima-Hanover Friendship Association, gave a report on exchange activities in Hanover.
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This was followed by the German Music Concert, where three groups of professional musicians gave a wonderful performance of mainly music with connections to Germany.
Finally, the event ended with all participants joining in a chorus of "Wild Rose".
In the section introducing Hanover and Germany, a 7-seater bicycle from Hanover, the "conference bike", was on display.
There were also panel displays showing the history of exchange activities between Hiroshima City and Hanover City, a craft class teaching how to make paper models of Hanover trains, and a German picture book reading session.
Each section was busy with many visitors.
There were approximately 320 visitors to the event over all, which helped people deepen their understanding of Hanover and Germany in a fun way through a varied program.
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| (International Relations and Cooperation Division) |
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