I went to Sri Lanka Festival!

How do you do? I’m Ueda, a program officer in the head office of JEN. I’m usually working for management of the project for Sri Lanka, but today I’d like to report you about “Sri Lanka Festival 2012” which was held on September 8th and 9th in Yoyogi Park.

【A scene of the event! So many people!】



This is an annual event held by Sri Lankan Embassy. It was my first time to participate in it and I was so surprised at the number of the participants! Especially there were lines around the booths which were selling Sri Lankan tea and food. Spicy aroma spread and it made everyone feel exotic. I was happy to feel so many people had interest in Sri Lanka.

【A scene of the booths】



【The booth of coconuts juice. They broke a coconut dynamically and put a straw just in front of me.】



Various groups of dancers invited from Sri Lanka were performing traditional dances on the stage in the venue. Their costumes looked so vivid. The shapes of the drums were unique. It is so interesting, isn’t it?



A special-feature program of the event was “The Talk Show by Wicky”!
Everyone, do you know Wicky is from Sri Lanka? It has past 50 years since he came to Japan. He spoke his feeling about Japan and his impression of his experience to act in Miyagi prefecture after The Tohoku Earthquake. He sometimes spoke with unique humors.

Just after the earthquake, the Sri Lankan Embassy went to the stricken areas and started to distribute tea and curry rice despite a lot of people involving embassies built in Japan had escaped to their hometowns. Many events held by the embassies had been curtailed or called off because of the earthquake, but Sri Lanka Festival was held in the same scale as the last time. I felt kindness by Sri Lankan people and ties between Sri Lanka and Japan.




Anyway, it was so hot (32 degrees) on the day of the event and many Japanese sweated a lot. On the other hand, Sri Lankan people had cool expressions on their faces although they were cooking and selling foods in their booths. They must be used to the heat.
I filled my stomach with curry rice, tandoori chicken and so on. I felt fun to experience Sri Lankan culture and it was a nice weekend I could feel Sri Lanka closer than before.