Date & Time: Friday, February 15, 3:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Spot: Japanese-style Room in JICA*1 Yokohama Building
Visitors: 5 JICA*1 Trainees (2 Men from Togo and Indonesia, 3 Women from Sri Lanka and Cambodia)
Attendants: 6 KSGG members
Languages: English and JapaneseJICA*1 Yokohama trainees experienced wearing Kimonos. Although it was cold and snowed a little that day., six KSGG members got together at the Japanese-style Room in JICA*1 Yokohama building. We got prepared three sets of Kimono and its accessories each for women and men. Then three female and two male trainees came in and we started helping them put on Kimonos. Even though we got them to dress Kimono without difficulty, it was hard for us to help the male participants put on Hakama trousers as 3 of us had never dressed them. We finally finished dressing the men and went to the room for the women. They were so beautiful in Kimono that the room looked so gorgeous just like spring had come around. On the other hand, the men took a lot of pictures of them in various poses with Japanese swords they bought in Akihabara. The men in their thirties, wearing Kimonos and holding Japanese swords, acted like Samurai heroes in anime like little boys. Their children should enjoy playing sword fight with the Japanese swords given as souvenirs. I was glad to help introduce Japanese culture.
JICA*1: Japan International Cooperation Agency