Sun, March 18th 13:30-15:00
About 40 participants

　The center held the ”Kameoka Cultural Activity Center party.” for expanding the wave of exchange in cooperation with our center and the Kameoka International Exchange Association, and introduced two countries, Bolivia and Nepal.

　This event started with salsa dance by Mr. Wilson Onishi and Ms. Keiko Nakaomoto. Their dace was flexible and rhythmical. Participants applauded it.
　 Mr. Onishi is a Japanese-Bolivian born in Bolivia. He introduced Bolivia using a map and pictures.
Participants also tried salsa dance. Mr. Onishi said, “Salsa is like a game between men and women. The man leads the dance, and the either submit to the man, or brushes them off then gains the lead.” Participants learned some easy steps and danced salsa in pairs.

　Next, two guests talked about Nepal. Ms.Kaori Sasaki, who went to Stillwater in Oklahoma, U.S.A. with Kameoka citizen’s delegation last year as a tour conductor last year. She talked with an air of nostalgia about with an air of nostalgiaher memories that trekking in Nepal during her school days, and her sherpa’s kindness. There are beautiful mountains in Nepal. A lot of Japanese tourists visit there.

One foreign student from Nepal, Sainjn Shreejana, talked about her country. Ms.Shreejana introduced Nepal while showing postcards of the Himalayan Mountains.
People lives in a culture of mixed Hinduism and Buddhism. Both temples stand side by side in the town. Hindu temples resembles Japanese temples.

　Participants and guests had a tea party, then closed this event.

Sat, February 24th 10:30-15:00
About 150 participants

　The center held the World Festa 2007. The theme of this year was “What you eat when you get sick. Think about the relationship between food and health.”

First, the staff of this Festa made a presentation about the theme.
Usually when people catch a cold, they take medicine.Also, it is important to eat foods that are a good source of vitamins and warm up their body.
There are many diffrent ways of thinking how to prevent or cure sickness by diet.

In Europe, it has been said that taking plenty of olive oil is good for one's health. It is the Mediterranean diet.

China has another idea. They think that medicine and their daily diet are equally important for a healthy body. This idea came over the Korean peninsula and in to Japan.

Other countries also have the same kind of idea. Foreign students who live in Kyoto introduced foods of their country when they get sick.

　Participants ate the food during lunch time. people enojyoed appetizing foods from ten countries.

From the afternoon, there was a lecture and a demonstration. Mr. Lyuboslav Lyubenov from Bulgaria talked about yogurt's advantage for our heath. The history of yogurt is very old. In Bulgaria, people have been eating it for a long time.
In Japan we eat yogurt as a dessert, however in Bulgaria it is eaten as a meal. Mr. Lyubenov cooked a cold soup using yogurt, garlic and cucumber, and Bulgarian toast. Participants tried them.
The next guest was Ms. Yoshiko Yokota. She introduced meals using Chinese traditional medicines, and served Chinese tea to the participants.

In this year’s World Festa, people enjoyed finding differences and likeness between Japan and other countries though health and food.

Sat, January 20th 13:30-15:00
18 participants

　The center held the Color Therapy course instructed by Mrs. Fukimi Shiga.

　First, participants introduced themselves and the reason why they participated in this course. They wanted to know about the effects of colors on their daily life, as well as which colors suit them. The participants seemed to be relaxed by listening to the other participants talk and the course began.

About the mechanism of colors.:
a.　Light’s three primary colors
b.　The spectrum of light
c.　Additional complementary colors

　Mrs. Shiga showed her 80 bottles of colors and asked the participants which colors were rainbow colors. We think we see all rainbow colors but it’s actually very difficult. It consists of Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple and Indigo blue. To see Indigo blue was difficult for them.

　Colors all have an effect. A room colored red seems to give human beings a lift, making the time pass more slowly than usual, and warm up discussions. A room colored blue makes human beings concentrate and make time pass earlier than usual. Green makes human being relax.

Mrs. Shiga introduced two types of color therapy.

a. Choosing color bottles
English style color bottles are 80 colors. Each bottle has two different colors in two layers top and bottom. To chose four bottles from the 80 bottles let us know what we subconsciously want now. The first bottle tells us our substance. The second bottle tells our problem. The third bottle tells to present situation. The last bottle tells us what we want in the future.

b. Colors in five square.
This method to read the meaning from the choice of colors and the order in which they were colored.

　These two ways try to solve mental and physical to know problems.

Personal color:
Choosing the color that suit each person based on the colors of their skin, hair and eyes, by wearing 120 colors of fabric. It seems different from the color we like and the color suits us.
One participant said she usually wears black clothes and wanted to find different colors that suit her.

　We expect participants find something different from daily life.

Sat, December 16th 10:30-14:00
20 participants

The center held the Christmas Stained Glass Course and made a colored glass Christmas tree.

The instructors used our building to hold own stained glass class.

First, participants install bronze tape on the edge of the pieces of glass. It is necessary to weld glass together because glass cannot be put together without bronze tape.
The participants did the work carefully so as not to make air bubbles between the tape and glass.

After that, participants tried to weld the glass. They soldered on the tape around the glass and put the pieces together. Three glass boards shaped like fins are made from five pieces of colored glass. Then, they were fixed on a circular pieces of glass and put a yellow glass shaped star on top. The participants completed their work.

This year’s work was a little bit difficult for beginners who were not to get used to this kinds of work. However the participants seemed to be satisfied with colored the Christmas tree they made.

Sat, December 9th 13:30-15:30
114 participants

The center held the annual Christmas Festa.

A lot of students and their parents from our Kinder and Kids classes came and enjoyed this Christmas event.

The Christmas Festa opened with Christmas songs by Gospel group　”AGUAS”

First, the children of Kinder and Kids classes showed what they learned in daily classes in English. The Kinder and Kids classes are 5 classes altogether and 45 children learning English. Children have fun on the stage seemed a little bit nervous and couldn't speak in a loud voice. But, they sang, read books and showed a game they learned in the class with enjoyment.

After the children's performance, participants tried to make Christmas trees out of paper hands. Ms.Bernard, who is the Coordinator for International Relations in Kameoka city, taught how to make the hands Christmas tree. First, fold green-coloedr paper in four and draw a hand shape on it and cut out the shape make 16 hand shapes with papers. Then, put together15 hand shapes of glue and complete a Christmas tree. Decorate the tree with ornaments made from several colored papers. Children cut out the hands Christmas tree coorperating with their parents.
On completion of the tree, children turned in the remaining hand shape, on which children wrote their name and wish a Christmas present. A big Christmas tree was completed with the hand shapes collected from the children.

At the end of this festa, participants and children had the trees in their hand and sang “Jingle Bells”.

Sat, November 18th 10:00-15:00
29 participants

The center held the Making Bamboo Lights Course, which was planed by a group of citizens called “Bamboo Project”.

Members of the Bamboo Project instructed this course. Participants made the Bamboo light and picked among three kinds of lights, which “Bamboo light”, “Crate light” and “Bamboo shoot light”.

They began to make the lights. These days, we hardly have the chance to make things using bamboo, but participants were good at working and did it well.

“Bamboo light”
Participants took time to fix bamboo with wire to build the frame. They cooperate and work well together with each other.
“Crate light”
Participants weaved bamboo to make the frame of the Crate light by their own design. It was more difficult to paste paper on the frame than they expected.
“Bamboo shoot light”
The cover of the Bamboo shoot light is made of bamboo sheath. Participants fixed the bamboo sheath to the base of light. It was not easy work to model a shape of bamboo shoot with the bamboo sheath.

It took five hours work to finish the lights. After the working, they cleaned up the rooms and had a picture together with their completed bamboo lights.

The center has acted on bamboo through this year with the member of Bamboo Project. Townspeople become instructors and participate in activities. Both instructors and participants have a productive time. We will continue to plan this kind activity.

Sat, October 10th 10:00-12:00
26 participants

　The center held the World Studies, which is for children’s global understanding.

　This time, we invited a Bolivian guest named Mr. Wilson Onishi who is a third generation Japanese-Bolivian.

　Wilson told children while pointing to a map of the South America, “Bolivia is on the opposite side of the earth from Japan. You would reach Bolivia if you start here and dig a hole through the Earth.

　Bolivia is located high above sea level because it is in Andes area. So if Japanese people go to Bolivia, you might be difficultty brething
Bolivians eat potatoes as a staple food. There are 400 kinds of potatoes fit to eat. Also many kinds of bananas are there.
Lamas are kept as livestock. Their wool is used for clothes like ponchos and hats.
The children were surprised at the big differences between Japan and Bolivia.

Wilson owns a Latin bar and teaches Spanish. He is also a salsa dancer.
He danced the salsa with his partner.
Children were delighted at seeing their dance, which has lithe movements.
Wilson taught the steps to the children and they tried to dance salsa. The children seemed to enjoy dancing and liked it.

　After the dancing, the children ate a Bolivian food called “Enpanada” while asking about Bolivia and salsa to Wilson. They seem to become interested in Bolivia.

Sat, September 30th 10:00-21:00
55 participants

　The center and Kyoto Prefectural International Center held the “One Day trip in Kameoka.” Resident foreigners in Kyoto prefecture came to Kameoke and spent a half day with their host families.

　In the morning, foreigners assembled at Saga station and headed for Kameoka by train while enjoying scenery of the Hozu River in the middle of autumn.
They arrived in Kameoka and met their host families, who were waiting for them. Both foreigners and host families introduced each other with big smiles and went to the first program of day, “digging potatoes.”

　At the potato filed, participants wore work gloves and entered the garden filed in a row, then began digging. They dug up the earth and pulling vines, and potatoes of many sizes came out. They gathered the potatoes in bags for taking them home.

　After digging potatoes, the center showed a shrine and temple in Kameoka to the participants to let them know more about Kameoka. FURUSATO KAMEOKA Volunteer Guide Association guided and explained the spots. They listened to the explanation with absorbed interest and enjoyed the spots.

　In this trip, we planned for foreigners to cook dishes of their country at their host family’s home in the afternoon. They and their host families talked over the cooking, while eating lunch at our center.

After the lunch, foreigners went to their host family’s home. We hope many variety kinds of dishes were made and they had a good time at night.
Foreigners left Kameoka around 9 o’clock in the evening and this year’s “One Day Trip in Kameoka” ended. We hope foreigners and their host families had a cultural exchange and understood each other.

Sat, September 16th 10:00-11:30
25 participants

　In the middle of October, the Kameoka citizen delegation will visit our sisiter city, Stillwater. The center held the Dream World U.S.A. This is an opportunity for citizens to ge to know the United States.

Guests were Mr. Alex Cano (Teacher at Kameoka High School) and Ms. Megan Bernard (Coordinator of International relations in Kameoka City Hall).

　Ms. Bernard has just come back from the United States. She talked about the present situation at airports. She said, “You can not take something on the liquid form with you in airplane and you have to obey immigration officers.” It seems there are still strictsecurity check. She also taught some easy English conversation to the audience.

　Both guests talked about differences of American lifestyles compared with Japanese.
Mr. Cano talked the ideas and ways of working Americans have, as well as experiences in since he arrived in Japan this July.
He said, “Americans hardly even do overtime and think of spending their private time with family and friends. I was surprised that Japanese people work from morning till midnight.”

　Ms. Bernard talked about the daily life of young people like high school students. They can have a car license from sixteen years old. They go to school in their cars. Almost all students have part time job after school. They are really free compared with Japanese at the same ages.

　Some of the participants will go to Stillwater as members of the Kameoka official delegation. The Center introduced the climate in Stillwater, OSU and the relationship between Kameoka and Stillwater.

　Participants also enjoyed hand-made American cookies together in a tea party.

1st Sun., July. 15th 10:00-15:00
2nd Sat., August. 19th 10:00-15:00
3rd Sat., September. 16th 13:30〜16:30 　
33　Participants

　The center held the Bishamon’s Bamboo Craft Course for making a frame for a strip of paper this year too and participants learned a traditional bamboo craft in Bisyamon area, Kameoka.

　The center hosted Mr.Nonomura, Mr.Shuhara and Mr.Hayashi, who have taken over the skill of bamboo crafting from the Bishamon region as instructors.

　On the first day of this course, participants learned how to　cut b bamboo and shave thinly to make bamboo strips.

On the second day of this course, participants tried to weave the strips in a criss-cross fasion. It is hard work to cross the bamboo trips diagonally.

　On the third day of this course, participants finished. They fixed a work last time they weaved, with other Bamboo strips (such as picture frame) and cut extra trips. Then, it finished.

　Each work was difficult for people who tried bamboo crafts for the first time. Participants had a tough time at the beginning of this course. However, participants cooperated with each other and the instructors led earnestly. Then, they finally completed their works.

Thr, August. 26th 1000-15:00
About 100 participants

　The center held a Craft course inthe summer of 2006 for children.

　A lot of children attended this course and made bamboo crafts, sign boards, dyed cloth with plants, musical instruments and so on for one day.

　In the bamboo craft course, children chose from among bamboo insects, candles, spoons, vases, hand bloom sticks, flutes and so on and tried to make them.

Cutting, trimming and bending was hard for the children. Citizen’ volunteer helped them earnestly.

　Around the end of this course, children completed their works and seemed satisfied with them.

Thr, August. 10th 19:00-20:30
64 participants

　The center held the Dream World Cameroon in an evening of summer.

Mr. Makoto Yabuki (Marseille, France ) shouted “Bami, Bami”. Mr. Bami appeared from darkness while beating an African drum “Jembe”. Mr. Bami was born in Cameroon and lives in France. He is also the head of the Bamilke tribe in Cameroon.

　He said “domo, domo”, a way of syaing of hello in Japanese. The audience welcomed him with crapping hands and the concert started. Sounds of Bami’s Jembe and Japanese flutes and drums made by Japanese player blared at the garden of kameokea Cultural Activity Center.

　The concert progressed enjoyably with Mr.Bami’s talking about himself.
The audience took bamboo music instruments and played music with Mr.Bami.? Children and adults played African music while swinging their shoulders.

　African and Japanese sounds collaborated here this night.

Sat, August. 5th 10:30-16:00
60 participants

　The center held the Global Understanding Festa. This was an opportunity to find out who does international exchange activities around us and how people find chances of participating this kind activity.

　In the morning, participating parties exhibited and explained their activities.

Participating parties list.

“What we learned from a study of life” by Shotoku-Junior High school
“About Tokkabi children's group” by Tokkabi children group
“Korean language” by On Mi Ryon
“Korean traditional dance” by Suh Hee Young
“An experience of teaching music in Syria” by Chiaki Kunikawa
“Activity in Syria and the Middle east” by JICA
“If the world were a village of 100 people” by Ikushin Junior High school
“To have a relationship with foreign guests ” by Kameoka elementary School
“Indonesian traditional culture ” ?by Eni
“Color therapy” by Fukimi Chiga

　Each party introduced what they did and found in their activity. Foreign participants introduced their county and culture. They also exchanged their opinions and ideas.

　From the afternoon, participants talked about Japanese food culture. We asked foreign participants whatJapanese foods they like in. Sushi was a popular answer. Also we asked what they eat when they are sick. Then, participants discussed the answer to the question.

Ms. Megan Bernard (Kameoka CIR) taught steps of American line dance to participants　at the end of this festa. They danced with happy smiles.

San, July. 16th 13:30-15:30
34 participants

　The center held the Dream World Israel & Palestine, before Kameoka city was going to host students from both countries.

　Kameoka city explained the Middle East peace program. In August, students from Israel and Palestine were going to come to Kameoka to exchange culture with students here, then they would think about the world peace in August.

　Project leader Hiromi Yano explained present situation of both countries. Ms. Elizabeth Barnett explained history from three thousands ago. Now both countries’ relationship is extremely complicated. However, Arab and Israeli lived together on the same land and had peace in older times.

　Ms. Chiaki Kunikawa, who has an experience of teaching music class at schools in Syria. (There are refugee camps of Palestinian people in Syria) , She had thought a lot of things while teaching music to children. Almost all Palestinian music has lyrics like “beat enemy and fight”. It was difficult to teach that kind of music to children for her. The children have a hope that they would go their homeland someday.

　Participantsknew that both countries have a complicated relationship from the news, but they didn’t know the detail of the history. This was a good occasion to refrom their opinions about the sountries for the people.

　After this event, Kameoka city called off the Middle East peace program on August 3rd. Students who was due to come to Kameoka could’t leave their countries because of the situation in the Middle East.

Fri., June. 23th 12:00-13:00
50 participants

　The center held a music concert by Kanagawa Alpe Horn club presided Dr. Shigetoshi Nakagawa (Kyoto Gakuen Univ)

The group played with ten hand made horns made of thinned woods at the garden of kameoka Cultural Activity Center.
The audience enjoyed the sound of a horn that they have rarely seen.
Kindergarten children of tried to play the horn and liked it.

Sat., June. 24th 10:30-12:00
40 participants

　The center held the World Studies in Toubu children's house.

The center invited a Brazilian guest named Vania Araldi. Her job is a school counselor in the kansai area for children who are born in Latin America and live in Japan.

　Brazil was one of the teams Japan just facced a game in the World Cup in Germany. Vania and children tried to anticipate which team would win the World Cup.

　In the introducing of Brazil, Vania showed pictures of people who had many differens kinds of skin colors. Then, she asked children which countries they live. The people in pictures with diffrent skin colors were all Brazilian. The children didn't think that people have diffrent skin colors live in the same country. They seemed to accept it naturally.

　Brazilian people love soccer and they also love samba. Vania taught how dance Samba. the children tried Samba, while seeing the steps Vania made. They were really enjoyed dancing.

June 3rd(Sat), 10th(Sat) and 17th(sat)
22 participants

　The center held a course for making bamboo charcoal.

　The first day of this course, participants entered a bamboo grove at Asahi-cho in Kameoka,which we had gave to the year before.
In the morning, an expert lectured on a way of fixing up bamboo grove. Then participants entered the bamboo grove and cut bamboos for making charcoal and cleaning it up. From the afternoon, participants cut bamboos short to put in a kiln for making bamboo charcoal. The bamboo grove was cleaned up well by the work. People who lived near the grove were glad for that.

　The second time on July 10th, participants filled the kiln with bamboo pieces and fired them. It takes one full day to make bamboo charcoal.

　The third time on July 17th, participants opened the kiln and took out the bamboo charcoal. Participants felt sure of the outcome. They brought it home and it for used their own idea.

Sat., May. 13th 12:00-17:00
37 participants(Included OSU students)

　The center held the "One day trip for finding histories with foreign travelers". OSU students went to temples in Kyoto to learn Japanese gardens as part of their program. Kameoka citizens joined the program for exchanging cultures and making relationship with each other.

This time, they went to Kinkaku and Ryouan temple. Professional guides explained in English to the participants.
Unfortunately, it was a rainy day and they needed to hold umbrellas to see. Also, a lot of tourists were there because both temples are very popular. They couldn't enjoy the gardens to the fullest. However, both OSU students and citizens listened to the explanations by the guides earnestly, then they exchanged their opinions about the gardens.
OSU students sketched gardens. Their sketches were very detailed plants..
Plants in the gardens wetted by the rain were more beautiful than usual and it made time fly.

The center believes participants found Japanese cultures they haden't known when they went to temples with foreigners.

This was also good opportunity for OSU students to meet Kameoka citizens.

May.12th-26th
1 professor and 11 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 Osaka, Tokyo and Kyoto to see Japanese style gardens. They also participated in the One day trip for finding histories with foreign travelers . They also had a home stay experience with families in Kameoka.

Sat., April. 22nd 10:30-12:00
20 participants

　The center held the Host Family Demonstration for people who are interested in becoming host families.

Megan Bernard, who is the CIR in Kameoka City, told us her experience of staying in Japan as a university student before. The host family at that time was waiting up for her until she returned home even though it was late night. "I felt sorry and it was a little bit too much for me. I was getting uncomfortable. I recommend that not to care too much and accept them as a member of your family, not as a guest."

Of families who had experienced hosting, one said they had a foreign student who lived in Kameoka for one night. "After that, we went to each house. Also her parents came to our house. We were asked to visit her country. We still have a good relationship."
Other family also said it was a good experience to be a host family.

Many foreigners will visit to Kameoka this year, too. Please try to be their host families