Local Summer Festival_Moegi-en of Japan (August 09 2008)

IUJ students with local Japanese people at Moegi-en, Japan

Japanese kids’s drump performance

It was my great opportunity to be invited by the UMEX (UONUMA Association for Multicultural EXchange) to join the Summer Festival organized by Moegi-en, the nursing and personal care institution for the old aged people. As an international student from Cambodia, I found the Summer Festival was very unique and supportive for the old. The festival setting consisting of dancing and singing performance provided a rich culture and spirit of Japanese people in respecting the old and showed the talent of young Japanese performers. I was so impressed to see how local community could organize such a beneficial gathering?where the smiling faces of the young and the old appeared. In this regard, I could learn how local initiative contributes to social integration and harmony and it should be a good lesson-learnt for Cambodia and other countries. The more we can share and understand one another historical, social, cultural perspective, the more we are able to bridge the gap of misunderstanding and build a better and more tolerant global society, not just from an Asian perspective, but from all global perspective.

IUJ students and UMEX staff