By Julia Mace
3rd Year ALT
In 2006 seven Towns on the west side of Kagawa Prefecture combined to make “Mitoyo City.” It took several years, but an International Exchange Association was born out of that merger and since that time, the Mitoyo City International Exchange Association has worked tirelessly to create a wide variety of events and activities to promote International Exchange in rural western Kagawa. The thing that I find unique about our little exchange association is how diverse we strive to make our events. It’s not just about Japanese people interacting with Canadians and Americans; it’s about Italians chatting with Koreans, Chinese teaching Indonesians how to make gyoza, Dutch sharing art with Bangladeshi, and Spaniards hiking up mountains with Brazilians.
Every year we have a wide variety of events: children’s parties, cooking classes, language exchanges and picnics. But one of our most popular events is the Mitoyo City International Christmas Party. In 2009, we held our first Christmas Party along-side about 80 guests from seven or eight countries. But this past Holiday Season we partied next to 150 guests from over ten countries!
Our Program is designed to be diverse and entertaining for people of all ages and nationalities. We start off with an international food buffet and speed greetings where you have to meet someone from at least three different countries than your own (name tags bearing everyone’s country of origin make this a pretty fun and easy activity).
Next, we teach about “the reason for the season” with a home-made video of the Nativity Story featuring the staff from the International Exchange Office and resident ALT’s. Aside from being an embarrassing blight on my Facebook page, this video is as informational as it is funny and now features subtitles in our local dialect of Japanese, Sanuki-ben. Next, we really get the party started with a live band and dancing. This is followed by a presentation of Japanese culture. This year we featured a Yosokoi dance troupe who taught us to dance like Salmon (I can still hear the leader shouting, ue shita ue shita shita ue shita ue ue shita!). There’s a more mellow music set as we cool down, followed by the much anticipated raffle for the presents under the Christmas tree. When all the presents have been handed out, we make groups and have the “International Christmas Quiz.” This is always everyone’s favorite part of the Party. It’s a quiz of 15 questions about how Christmas is celebrated by different cultures around the world. Every team has members from different countries, so together they try to figure out whether or not banana trees are used as Christmas trees in parts of Africa, or if Santa’s coat is really blue instead of red in Russia. To top off the party, we do a sing-along of Jingle Bells. The catch is that we sing it in four different languages, and the last go-around has everyone singing it in their own language no matter what it may be! A group photo wraps up the Party and by the end of the night, everyone’s mouths are tired from singing and smiling and mothers carry their already-sleeping children out over their shoulders.
It never ceases to amaze me how such a small collection of rural villages gests so excited about International experiences. The shy Japanese exterior quickly washes away to reveal genuine interest and curiosity in new customs and new ways of thinking. The result: a great time had by all!
I fully expect the event to reach 200 people next year and our international attendance to become even more diverse. Everyone is welcome, of course, so perhaps you’ll consider joining us next year, too!
