(2014.12.26)Life and Agriculture in Kingdom of Tonga

Mr. Yoshihara; our Chairman, gave lecture on “Life and Agriculture in Kingdom of Tonga” at　Goi Civic Center, Ichihara City, on 5th December. There were about 80 attendants.

Name of TONGA is known, but people do not know well about Kingdom. Mr. Yoshihara　showed plenty photos which he took, and explained on the Kingdom. Attendants had　been interested in residences, foods and clothes. Mr. Yoshihara expects the relation between Tonga and Japan will become closer, even approximate 8,000km away from here.

He had lived and worked at Ministry of Agriculture, Foods, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFFF), as the adviser on Agricultural policy to the parliamentary vice-minister, from 2010 to 2012. He was a member of JICA Senior Volunteer.

(2014.12.26)Foreign students enjoyed Mochi-tsuki; making rice cake, at Kobayashi-Sengen

Daniel and Chin joined Mochi-tsuki; making rice cake, at Inariya Park; Kobayashi-sengen 1choume on 14th December. This event was organized by Makinohara-Naka neighborhood association, as one of annual event of the association. The association is very kind to invites foreign residents in our city to join, every year.

They have had nice joyful time making rice cake, eating rice cake and Ton-jiru; miso soup with pork and vegetables, some drinks and bingo game.

Daniel is studying theology at Tokyo Christian University. He came from Seattle, Washington, USA, and is living almost 2 years in University Campus in Uchino, Inzai. He had an experience of a volunteer for mind care at Miyagi Prefecture, Aftermath of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami in 2012.

Chin is Junior High school pupil, and studying Japanese language at “Ribbon Nippongo Class” operated by our association. He came from Shenyang, China, together with parents.

We appreciate Makiohara-Naka people’s kindness.

(2014.12.02)“International Friendship Café” held by Inzai City International Friendship Association(IIFA)

IIFA will offer the opportunity twice a month for you to associate with Japanese citizen. Anyone can join it with no charge. We are looking forward to meeting you soon.

Date, Time, Place

・from Jan.10 the second Saturday of every month 16:00 to 18:00

at IIFA’s office K-front bldg. 2F,

3 minutes’ walk from the north exit of JR Kioroshi station

・from Jan.22 the fourth Thursday of every month 10:00 to 12:00

at Chuo-ekimae Chiiki Kouryukan(public hall)

5 minutes’ walk from the south exit of Chiba-new-town Chuo station of Hokuso railway

Inquiry : inzai.ifa@gmail.com to: person in charge of “International Friendship Café”

(2014.11.25)Supported International friendship program of Junior High schools in Inzai City

A group of William Ruthven Secondary College from Melbourne, Victoria State, Australia came to stay Inzai City from 22sd to 28th September. They were students, teachers and parents total 15 members.

The Chairman and two Directors of IIFA attended Welcome party held at Inzai Junior High schools.

A party of Gulstone State School from Brisbane, Queensland, Australia visited Kobayashi Junior High school from 28th September to 1st October. They were 2 teachers and 10 pupils. The Chairman and Director of IIFA attended Welcome party held at Kobayashi Junior High schools. We presented books of Japanese culture to our visitors.

We expected to expand these kinds of Programs more, and students and pupils of those schools will have interest to learn foreign culture and languages.

（2014.11.18）Small Scale Meeting for Chiba Prefecture Inba Meisei High School.

Small Scale Meeting as the title of "My opinion to future figure for 2020 Inba Meisei " was performed on Oct 8th, 2014 at Inba Meisei High School, 4 people from Inzai City International Friendship Association(IIFA) attended.

presented by each group consisted from primary school students, graduated students and parents association e.t.c. IIFA presented three point as 1. To strengthen ability of understanding different culture 2. To grow spirits of challenge to the world 3. To return experience and knowledge to regional society.

The suggestion of cooperation with IIFA was shown by Inba Meisei High School.

（2014.11.18）Accept the home-stay of short-term students from abroad

Thirteen students are staying at the dormitory of Tokyo Christian University from the end of August to the beginning of December. Four IIFA members accepted their home-stay on November 1st and 2nd.

kinds of experiences with the host families and their friends like attending the local festival, enjoying home party and shopping. Those experiences surely gave them pleasant memories.

（2014.08.had a pleasant bus tour

Inzai International Friendship Association held the bus tour on August 29th, 2014. The first destination was Chiba-Hokuso hospital which was used for the TV drama titled “Called Blue”. There, we could ride on the actual helicopter after listening to the inside stories of the drama and explanation for the system of so called doctor-heli. The participants, both of the adults and children, enjoyed the unusual experience with full of smile and sparkling eyes.

The next was Inzai garbage-managing center. Since we haven’t seen the treatment of garbage dumped with no intention, this experience must have gotten us to raise the consciousness for the classification

We took social lunch last. Two Iraqi, a university student and her mother, who joined the tour served us the home-made cookies and told some differences between Japan and their country.

It is sure that through the tour we could experience a lot of things whichever we haven’t known or seen.

（2014.03.Let’s　explore the spring in Inzai with Mr. Kevin

Under the cold weather with small rain, 38 people including 16 children gathered at Hokuso Hanano-oka-kouen(flower park) on March 30,2014. After Mr. Kevin’s explanation about plants and how to observe them, the participants enjoyed the observation with a magnifying glass. In the meantime, the weather with heavy rain forced us to move inside and change the schedule to the experience of handicraft. The experience pleased the participants, especially children, and each of them made their own badges. In spite of the bad weather, it is sure that almost all participants had a wonderful time.

（2014.02.23）Bus Tour　with Foreign Residents

Inzai International Friendship Associatin held the event on Sunday Feb. 23. It was cold the day but the weather was fine. Total twenty-nine people including forein residents coming from Chaina, Korea, Australia and Taiwan participated and headed for Fire Department of Inzai Makinohara and the train inspecting base of Hokuso Railways.

We are accustomed to the fire cars and the trains, however, most of us haven't seen them closely.

At the fire department, we watched the inside of the ambulances and the fire cars and were surprised at the weight of the fire resistant clothes when we tried them on. Then, the explanation of how to respond to the sudden big earthquake was done.

At the next destination, we closely watched the cars and were surprised at how large they were as well. Sitting on the driver's seat, putting the driver's cap on, taking the memorial pictures and sending on the air like the conducters do gave us enjoyable time.