Sat., February. 4th 10:30-15:00
About 150 participants

　The Center held the World Festa with the themeof noodles and their spread between Asia and Europe.

　Kinds of noodles in the world, where they were first created and how they spread thoughtout the world were explained by staff who planed this festa in a presentation.
　The first noodles seemed to be created around the beginning of Yellow river in China. Then, it spread through Asia. As they spread, each noodle got its own form and recipe.
　Italian pasta resembles noodles in Asia. But it is a completely differentnt kind of noodle. It was created in its own way.

　Noodles from several counties were exhibited and introduced by guests from each country
　The noodles introduced : Jiao-zi soup and cool noodles (Korea), Noodles made by rice (China), Tomato pasta (Italy), Kaho pung (Laos), Noodles with chicken (Vietnam) and Mie Goreng （Indonesia）
　It was a rare opportunity to eat 7 kinds of noodles at one time. Participants tried them while asking for information about each noodle dish from the guests.

　From the afternoon, the cooking of Japanese buckwheat and Chajang noodles in China was demonstrated and recipes introduced.
　Both processes of making noodles looked the same. From this point of similarity, participants knew how noodles came from the continent to Japan.

　The center hopes participants found that culture always exchanges between countries from participating in this event.

　　Sat., December. 17th 10:30-14:00
About 23 participants

　The center held the annual Christmas Stained Glass Course. This time, Participants made a candle stand framed by glasses of Christmas colors.

　First of all, an instructor, Norio Shimizu, explained about the works, then participants began.

　For stained glass work, pieces of glass are welded together. However, solder cannot be put currently on glass, so the edges of each piece had to be land with brozen tape.

　The next part was framing. Participants taped pieces of glass to hold the shape while they welded. After the finishing of this work, participants saw an almost completed candle stand.

　It was the hardest work yet. Participants welded glass together to fix with solder. It required the skill to use solder and seemed difficult for participants.

　Participants used chemical to get rid of corrosion on the solder. The candle stands were finally completed.

　This course was a first step in making stained glass. We hope participants make use of what they learned this time for their new hobby.

　Sat., December. 10th 13:30-16:00
About 210 participants

　The center held the Christmas Festa.

　Many people participated among the Christmas decorations.

　The Christmas Festa began with participants shouting"Merry Christmas."
Citizens' gospel group"AGUAS" sung enthusiastically charismas songs. Participants also sung christmas songs along with AGUAS.

　Children from our center's English classes showed what they learned in daily class. They sung a song, read a book and acted out a story in English. Children of under six years old had difficulty singing or reading in a loud voice, they seem a bit nervous. Class for elementary students performed"GOLDILOCKS AND THREE BEARS" very well. The audience enjoyed their play.

　During the magic show, 5 magicians showed their variety of magic such as using rings,　boxes and pigeons. Children sat in front of the magicians and looked at their magic earnestly.　They liked the magic.

　At the end of the Festa, participants enjoyed Christmas cakes in an exchange party.

　We hope they enjoyed a little before Christmas here.

　　Sat., November. 26th 13:30-16:00
About 40 participants

　　Indonesia is the biggest archipelagic country in the world. There are 13,667 islands in 5,100Km from east to west. People sometimes refer to this archipelago as a necklace of emerald. The center held the Dream World Indonesia

　There are more than 3,000 tribes and different languages in Indonesia Each tribe has their own culture and lives.
The center hosted two Indonesian guests and Ms. Eni Lestrai( Instructor of Indonesian ) from the Java region, Ms. Rina Srtiwati (Kyoto University ) from the Ache region.
Ms. Lestrai introduced general information, which inclded food, clothes and lifestyles, in Indonesia, while using pictures and maps. The weather in Indonesia is usually hot, however they often eat hot peppers. There are a variety kinds of hot peppers in their markets.
　Ms. Srtiwati was born in Ache in Sumatra. Sumatra had a big earthquake last year. She told how peoples' lives changed after the quake and explaineddifferences between previous and current lifestyles. They were damaged culturally and also psychologically.

　The next guests was Ms. Michi Tomioka, a Jawa dancer . She dressed a model in wedding dress of Quean in the south sea at Indonesia　The design of the dress used patterns of nature and forest.
Then, Ms. Tomioka demonstrated Jawa dance and lectured to the participants. The dance was pretty slow moving. It did not look like a dance. Participants tried the Jawa dance to the music by Indonesian music instruments called "Kemanak". It was really hard to support your own weight while moving so slows

　At the end of this event, participants and guests had an exchange party. They had a talk about Indonesia and also had pictures with the model of Quean.

　Sat., November. 5th 10:30-16:30
About 200 participants

　The center held the Sister City Festa with guests form Kameoka's sister cities, who were visited Kameoka to celebrate the 50th anniversary.

　The guests from Knittelfeld in Austria, Jandira in Brazil, Stillwater in the United States and Suzhou in China were greeted by applause, while a citizens' gospel group sung the song "Amen".
　
　After they were introduced, children who learn English at our center greeted everyone in the four languages of the four countries and sung, "Hello to all the children of the world".

In this Sister City Festa: Games in Japan and Sister cities.
　Japan introduced traditional games, which were what children was used to play. Brazil introduced ball games. United State introduced jumping rope and American toys. Austria introduced games in which a hat is used. China introduced a game in which a rubber string is used. All the countries demonstrated their unique characteristics thought the games.

　After the introduction, participants and guests played the games. Every game had many players. Children assembled around balloon art at the Brazilian corner which was the most popullar.. The children looked curiously at the balloons becoming animals.
　Guests and participants taught each game with gestures. There were many small cultural exchanges at each game corner.

　The center also held a farewell party. The guests from the sister cities left Kameoka next day.

　　Sat., October. 22nd 10:30-16:30
About 80 participants

　The center held Bamboo Festa 2005.

　The programs in the morning were display about bamboo and workshops.
　 Clothes, papers, crafts made of bamboo and some kinds of bamboo in Japan and other countries were displayed.
　In a workshop about making a decorations with bamboo charcoal, participants decorated charcoal using their own ideas. Each work had an individual style of its own.

　In another workshop on decorating bamboo baskets, participants embellished the baskets with flowers. The baskets were made at the Bishamon's Bamboo Craft Course the center held before.

　In the lunch time, participants tried bamboo shoots originally from Taiwan. They tasted like sweet corn.

　A Bamboo music concert started the first program in the afternoon.
　Participants enjoyed the sounds of bamboo flutes. Also the player, Mr. Gensui Takahashi, explained the structure of bamboo flutes.
　A group of bamboo musicians played some music with hand made bamboo music instruments.

　After the concert, several people who are engaged in activities about bamboo introduced their projects in the symposium.
　Mr. Masatoshi Watanabe talked about how Japanese people utilized bamboo in the past.
　Mr. Makoto Yabuki introduced his activities in France. He has a bamboo music group in Marseilles. He showed a DVD, which is a concert of the group.

　The Bamboo Festa introduced how to use bamboo in new ways to Kameoka citizens this time. We hope they continue to realize value of bamboo.

　Fri., September. 23rd 9:30-21:00
About 60 participants(Including 14 foreigners)

　The center held a one day trip in Kameoka with The Kyoto Prefectural International Center.

　On a fine autumn day, foreign residents in Kyoto Prefecture came to Kameoka station by train while enjoying scenery of the Hozu river. Host families were waiting for their arrival.

　At the station, both foreigners and host families introduced themselves. That begun the program.
　The participants arrived at a sweet potato field. They made their way into the rows and began digging up the sweet potato. For most of them, this was first time they had ever dug sweet potatoes. Some of them put many sweet potatoes into a bag to take home.
　
　The next program was seeing two temples. FURUSATO KAMEOKA Volunteer Guide Association guided and explained about the temples to participants.

　After the temples, participants came to the center and had a talk. The center had already asked foreign participants to cook a dish from their country at the host family's home. They talked about the coking with host families.
　That afternoon, a variety of meals were cocked at each house.

　Nationalities of foreign participants:United Kingdom, Indonesia, India, Mexico, United States, Uzbekistan, Taiwan, China, Canada, New Zealand and Italy.

1st Sun., July. 16th 10:30-16:00
　　2nd Sat., August. 27th 13:30-16:30
　　　　　3rd Sat., September. 10th 10:30-16:00 　
28　Participants

　Bamboo crafts used to be made as the basic necessities of life in many regions in Japan. Bishamon region in Kameoka was one of them.
　Lately,the people, who can make bamboo crafts are decreasing, because plastic products have become common instead of bamboo crafts.
　This time, the center hosted Mr.Nonomura, Mr.Shuhara and Mr.Hayashi, who have taken over the skill of bamboo crafting in Bishamon region as instructors.

　The first time, participants learned how to make thin strips of bamboo to weave bamboo baskets.
　The second time, they learned basic way of weaving the basket. The third time, participants completed the basket. They wove two basket each.

　These works, made by are splitting, scraping and weaving by knife and special tools, were not easy for beginners. Participants often said it was very difficult. But they worked very hard for the three days.

　Also, the three instructors advised and taught the crafts to participants with enthusiasm.

　On the last day, participants finished off two bamboo baskets each.

　The center held the First Time Learning Korean Language I & II..
　 Participants studied eagerly for a long time on both the first and second day. After the classes, we sent out questionnaires to them and found that participants want to have more chances for learning chance.
　
　This course started from learning easy greetings and grammar. Participants introduced themselves in Korean and they become closer to other participants.
What's your name? My name is... What's your job? It is... Thank you. When you learn these kind of sentences, your travel to Korea will become more exciting.

　Participants' motivations varied from person to person. Some wanted to watch Korean drama without Japanese subtitles. Some had a traveling plans. Some wanted to learn Korean history.
　 Of course they know that they can't master Korean in only one day. They asked us for information about other chances to learn.

　The center held the International Understanding Festa.
　 In the morning, groups set up exhibition booths and presented their unique international activities.
The groups included Kameoka Elementary School, Ikushin Junior high School, Nantan High School, JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency), The PASS, Epros, Speech class, Kameoka International Exchange Association and writers of stories for children in Kameoka.

　In the afternoon, participants had a workshop about fair trade. Our guest, Mr. Ichirou Mukai (JICA), talked about fair trade, while using the trading of coffee in the world as an example.

Impressions of Ikucshin Junior High School students:

Ms. Morita:
　Before I participated in this event, I thought the only best way junior high students can relate to the world is through fund raisers. But I knew we can do more for the world.

Ms. Tsuruga:
　 I have never compared with my daily life to that of other countries. I was able to familiarise myself with the current conditions of other countrised.

Ms. Takamukai:
　I enjoyed having a relationship with foreigners. They were really friendly to me. Through this event, I become more interested in international things.

Mr. Yoshitani:
　Many more participants than I expected watched our presentation and they gave us many compliments. I enjoyed this event.

Sat., July. 30th 10:30-14:30
40 participants

　The center held the bamboo craft course for summer vacation. A lot of children participated in this course both this year and last.

　After the explanation of work was given, 32 children and their families started to choose what they would make from 6 kinds of crafts, which were Taketonbo, bamboo spoons, bamboo bows, birds, wind bells of bamboo charcoal and bamboo musical instruments. Then, they started making crafts.

　Each corner was instructed by citizen's group, who are interested in bamboo. Children made crafts Eagerly from morning to afternoon after lunch. Some children liked to stay in one corner and made the same crafts, and another children went around to many corners and made several crafts. After finishing up the crafts, children diddled around with the crafts. particulary, children who made bamboo bows tried to shoot targets and thought of how to handle them.

　It was a nice opportunity for understanding how can use bamboo around our house in Kameoka as crafts. After summer vacation, children will bring the crafts to their school as summer vacation home work.

Sat., July. 23nd 1:30-16:00
32 participants

　The center held the 61st Dream World series for introducing Lao People's Democratic Republic. Laos is a country in Indochina in peace, and it is surrounded by 5 countries, including China and Vietnam.

　The first guest was Mr. Soulaphone Inthavong. He came with his wife and son.
　Mr. Inthavong's introduction of Laos began with a word, 'Hello' in Lao. In the introduction, he told us about social system, culture, how to get to Laos from Japan, sightseeing spots, price and popular foods. In market places, many tasty French breads are sold. This is a trace of France's colonial days.

　The next guest was Ms. Miki Mukai, who is doing research on Laotian cloth. She has just visited Laos a few days prior. Ms. Mukai introduced her research while showing the Laotian clothes she brought.
　Laotian cloth is one of traditional industry, which is taught from mother to daughter. It takes 1 or 2 months to loom one cloth, because iti is done on a loom. Geometrical designs are used offen for it. It looks like Nishijin cloth in Kyoto, but the beautiful Laotian cloth is difficult to distribute outside of Laos, because Laos is heavily wooded and has no sea. Therefore, the cloth is often bought cheap by brokers of neighboring countries. Ms. Mukai meks sure thatr Laotian cloth is sold at a fair price in Japan.
　
　At the end, participants and guests had a little tea party. They tried Laotian sweets and a dessert, which Mr. Inthavong's wife cooked. The dessert was delicious and it was very popular with everyone. Also, the participants were able to see the Laotian cloth. Some participants bought the clothes after bargaining with Ms. Mukai.

　The next Dream World will introduce Partai Komunis Indonesia on November.

July2nd-3nd
60 participants (Including 18 foreign students)

　On a rainy day, Kameoka citizens and foreign students met at Kameoka station, and began this tour. (Foreign student's number and countries : China 5 people, U.S.A 3 people, Hong Kong 1 person, Korea 1 person, Vietnam 1 person, Philippines 1 person)

　First of all, they attended a lecture the historical significance of Kameoka's location. Kameoka is very close to Kyoto city, however, it was the best place to observe Kyoto city. So it didn't need to exert its original culture because everyone assumed it was just like Kyoto.Kyoto city was the political center, and many rebels appeared in history.
　
　After the lecture, they went sight-seeing in Kameoka by bus. They saw Samurai's old house, Izumo shrine and so on. It was a beautiful to see a rainy plain field, which stretches east to west on Kameoka basin from scenery seen from the bus window.

　After the lunch at our center, participants tried painting on their faces with face paint . The center hosted Yoshimi Kanai, who used to amuse children in Universal Studio Japan as a face painter for today.
　 15 children, who learn English at our center joined this tour from this program.
　At first, they only painteda lttle like a small flower on their arm. Then, after they discoverd how fun it was, they become more adventurous. One foreign student was painted as a skeleton on his face by Ms. Kanai. Children, who found the skeleton got excited and tried more.
　Face painted Participants were divided into three groups and performed to Korean pops, samba and Disney music. They really enjoyed that.
　
After the performance, host families came and met the foreign students. The students stayed at their host family's house that night.

　Cchildren's help much got better having open minded relationship with foreigners . Also, it was a good program for children to communicate in a fun atmosphere.

Sat., May. 21st 13:30-16:00
25 participants

　The center held the Green Festa and hosted Students of the Landscape Architecture Program of Oklahoma State University.

　In the Festa, an art flower design course was held. OSU students and other participants tried designing an artificial flower and discussed differences between Japanese design and American design. The instructor was Mr. Masafumi Tsurubayashi, who is a graduate student and active in Tokyo as an art flower designer.
Mr. Tsurubayashi explained his three concepts for this course: 1.Passion, Action, Satisfaction. 2.East meets West 3.As you wish. He then explained in both English and Japanese how to create an individual design.

　Real flowers were not used for the work. The materials used were a base of steel, some wire, some charcoal and some red and black-colored nuts. The purpose of the artwork is to create a new life by artificial materials.
　
　Participants concentrated on their art work. It took about an hour and half to complete the work.
　After finishing their work, they looked around at the other participants' artworks. They were surprised by each other's different designs.
　
　OSU students presented their work to their host families after the Festa.

May.17th-28th
1 professor and 12 students

　Students of the Landscape Architecture Program of Oklahoma State University in the United States arrived in Kameoka to learn Japan's culture and her gardens. They stayed in Kameoka and went to Kyoto and Osaka to see Japanese style gardens. They also participated in a garden workshop and in the Green Festa held here at the Center. They also had a homestay experience with families in Kameoka.

Sat., May. 15th 13:30-15:00
6 participants

The Center decided hold the Relax Yoga Course once again this year. Unfortunately, participant turnout was lower than last year. But everyone listened attentively to advice from the instructor and enjoyed the various yoga poses.

Sat., April. 23rd 13:30-15:30
20 participants

　The center held in the Host Family Demonstration for families, who are interested in accepting foreign guests.
　
　At first, participants listened to stories from families who had host family experiences.

　One of the families brought a memo pad along with them in order to better talk about their experiences. She told some funny experiences. It made the atmosphere relaxing.

　 Other families said "children make friends with foreigner easier than adults." One of the host families said that they had welcomed a Korean guest who played the guitar and sang famous Korean songs for them. Their children later listened to the songs they recorded and eventually memorized them."

　Almost family still keeps in contact with their foreign guests. They all seem to have enjoyed their experiences.

　After that, inexperienced families asked experienced families their questions. One family asked, "Our children are still young and I don't drive a car. It that okay? "Another asked, ""I don't cook any special dishes; is that okay? " The inexperienced families asked many questions.

　Experienced families advised those families who had never participated in a homestay before that they should not get too tired.

　After attending this demonstration, some families who had never participated in a homestay project before made the decision to give it a try.

　Participants also listened to stories from a Cambodian guest who has home stayed in Kameoka before. He spoke in fluent Japanese about about his experiences.

　The center had an idea from this demonstration. The center would like to think ways that families and guests wear well as a family, not one day family.