Members of our volunteer committee enjoyed a fantastic day promoting the Frankston Susono Friendship Association and Frankston's sister city relationship with Susono at the Box Hill Japan Festival on Sunday! The festival was bigger than ever with massive crowds attending - the entry queue and lines of people in front of the many food stalls seemed to stretch forever! There were big numbers inside the Main Hall all day and similar crowds on all levels and every display room. Despite the rainy weather, I know the organisers were thrilled with this year’s turnout and the wonderful performances and displays.
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| Opening Ceremony with sake barrel |
The FSFA table was again located at the back of the Main Hall in the best possible location - just inside the entrance! We were able to offer our many visitors a FSFA promotional flyer, a range of travel and tourism booklets and pamphlets, and Mount Fuji postcards plus we had maps on display with Susono's location and key sites within Susono City and the surrounding area. The lollies, stickers and stamps were also very popular.
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| Grace, Peter, Ann-Maree and Bev |
Many visitors wanted to know more about our sister city, our relationship and what activities we run during the year. Of course, we were promoting our Japanese Festivals, Japanese speech contest, Hanami Party and Frankston Taiko Drumming group. It was exciting to hear about many people's relationship with Susono - born there, visited there, have previously live within or near the city - were some of the stories we heard. We also spoke to many people who either wanted to travel to Japan, were planning their Japan holiday, or had already booked and were excited about going to Japan.
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| Simon, Grace and Peter |
We were also very excited to watch each of the many taiko groups perform on stage during the day – from the school groups from Huntingdale, Warranwood and Caulfield Primary Schools to the adult groups which included our Frankston Taiko Drumming Group’s teacher Toshi Sakamoto’s Wadaiko Rindo. Each group gave an energetic and wonderfully inspiring performance!
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| Grace and Peter |
It was another great team effort and a huge thanks to Bev, Vic, Ann-Maree, Peter, Grace, Therese, Julie, Nicole, Teja, Anita and Simon for helping to organise and attending the festival throughout the day.
