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Commemorative Events for Sister and Friendship City Days
－Hanover Day, Montreal Day, Volgograd Day, Chongqing Day, Honolulu Day－
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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.
From 2003, Hiroshima City has consigned the organization of these events to this Foundation.
The Hiroshima Messengers, who were selected through public recruitment, acted as MC and facilitator for each event.
Hanover Day
On May 24, 2015, the Hanover Day commemorative event was held at Hiroshima City International House.
At the event were attractions such as a chance to try Ueda Soko-style tea ceremony, which has deep ties with Hanover, tasting of authentic German sausages and German bread, tasting of baum kuchen cake, and Lutsche Lage (two different types of alcohol are poured into two glasses and then drunk in one gulp).
In the hall, after the opening ceremony, the Hiroshima Messengers Mr. Stephan Ballin and Ms. Junko Miyamae, together with Mr. Santino Narjes from Hanover, gave a talk on Hanover City and events in Hanover such as fireworks and others, using photos in their explanations.
This was followed by the German Music Concert, in which three groups of professional musicians gave a wonderful performance mainly of music pieces with a connection to Germany.
The concert ended with a chorus of "The Wild Rose" with the whole audience joining in.
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There was also a display explaining Germany and Hanover, which included a 7-seater "conference bike" brought over from Hanover, panels explaining the history of exchange activities between Hiroshima City and Hanover City, a section where visitors could try paper craft making Hanover trains, and an explanation and reading of German picture books.
All sections were extremely popular.
There were around 300 visitors to the event.
Through the varied program they deepened their understanding of Hanover and Germany while at the same time enjoying themselves.
Montreal Day
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German Music Concert
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On July 12, 2015, the Montreal Day commemorative event was held at Fukuya department store in front of Hiroshima Station.
First visitors enjoyed welcome drinks of glacial water, maple water and maple cookies from Canada, as they watched a wheelchair dance by the Hiroshima Wheelchair Dance Club, whose members visited Montreal City as part of international friendship exchange activities in 2014.
After the opening ceremony, Hiroshima Messengers Mr. Jean-Bernard Gariepy and Ms. Miho Kawamoto held a quiz for visitors about Montreal City sports, food and history.
For the commemorative performance, Mr. Ricky Galloway, a street performer born in
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Commemorative Performance
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Canada and living in Kansai, Japan, gave an impressive performance.
Ricky's cheerful demeanor, fluent Japanese and thrilling performance excited the entire audience, and the venue was filled with laughter and applause.
The event ended with a prize draw where people could win specialty goods such as maple syrup.
Canadian products were on display and available to buy, and there was also a display of quilts that had been made by Canadian children.
The approximately 450 visitors deepened their understanding of Montreal and Canada as they enjoyed food and art culture at the event.
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Volgograd Day
On September 13, 2015, a commemorative event was held at Hiroshima City International House.
Borsch and piroshki were provided for tasting, thanks to support from Pechika, a Russian restaurant in Hiroshima.
Visitors enjoyed the Russian cuisine together with Georgian wine, and listened to a live piano performance by Ms. Kazuki Tanaka as they ate.
At the ceremony in the hall were firstly speeches by the head of the executive committee of this event and the Deputy Mayor of Hiroshima, followed by a speech from the Mayor of Volgograd that was read out by the Messenger Ms. Irina Takaya.
There was also a speech by Ms. Marina Chernikova, a diplomat at the Russian Federation Consulate-General in Osaka.
Next, the Hiroshima Messengers Mr. Ryosuke Shigemoto and Ms. Irina Takaya gave a presentation on Volgograd's cityscape, tourism, history and more using images and photographs.
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This was followed by a Russian music concert.
Hiroshima Choir led the chorus and visitors joined in the singing of various Russian songs.
When members of the choir started dancing, in particular, everyone in the venue joined in the singing.
The event ended with a fun prize draw for Russian goods, which greatly excited the participants.
At the venue there was also a display section about Russia and Volgograd City, Russian folk crafts, photographs of the scenery and exchange activities in Volgograd City, commemorative goods provided by Volgograd City and more.
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Russian Music Concert
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Approximately 200 people came to the event and helped to further exchange activities between the two sister cities.
Chongqing Day
A commemorative event was held on October 24, 2015 at Hiroshima City International House.
First of all, with support from the Szechwan restaurant Chen, visitors tasted mapo doufu, a Szechwan cuisine dish from China, as well as sesame bean cakes and ulong tea.
Next, Hiroshima Messengers YuChao Wang and Li Jie gave a easy-to-understand presentation using photographs about Chongqing's history, cityscape, and food culture, and this was followed by a mini-lesson on the Chinese language, using some Chongqing dialect.
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Face-changing performed by Kokuryu-Bujyutsu-Dan
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In the commemorative performance, there were martial arts by the children from the NPO Nijihashi-no-kai, as well as a tai chi performance by the members of the Hiroshima Branch of the Japan-China Friendship Association, and the audience also practiced the slow, graceful movements of tai chi together with those on stage.
This was followed by a face-changing performance and southern lion dance, traditional Chinese performing arts, by Kokuryu-bujyutsu-dan, which learned classical Chinese opera in Beijing.
There were cheers from the excited audience and after the performance was a prize draw for commemorative goods provided by Chongqing City.
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At the venue were also sections for exchange activities with international students from China, and other sections where visitors could try Chinese paper cutouts, Japanese paper collages, and Chinese tea.
There were around 220 visitors to the event and they all had a good time as they learned more about Chongqing City and China.
Honolulu Day
A commemorative event was held on November 7, 2015, at the underground event area at the south exit of Hiroshima Station.
First of all visitors were welcomed with a vanilla flavored coffee and fruit juice.
The event opened with the classic Kahiko hula dance.
This was followed with speeches by the head of the executive committee and the Hiroshima Mayor, and a speech by the Honolulu Mayor via video.
Next, Hiroshima Messengers Syuri Ryoyama and Tokiyo Yamamoto used photographs and videos to speak about Honolulu's history and introduce some of the current popular tourist spots.
They also held a quiz on Honolulu, which was popular with the audience.
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This was followed by a performance on stage by a Hawaiian band and a gorgeous hula dance that created a tropical mood, and the venue was filled with the elegant atmosphere of Hawaii.
Finally all the audience participated in a rendition of "Hawai'i Aloha", giving them a chance to experience Hawaii by participating in this event.
At the venue there were also Hawaiian goods on display and for sale, and an opportunity for participants to make their own ribbon lei.
The approximately 600 participants got to know Hawaii while enjoying themselves at the same time.
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Glamorous hula dance
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| (International Relations & Cooperation Division) |
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