The 6th book reading and culture event was held in cooperation with the north branch of the Ikoma Library on September 28th at the north community center ISTA Habataki introducing Sri Lanka and its culture. This event is a continuation of the collaboration with the Ikoma Library based on the cooperative agreement with Ikoma City to increase interaction between the community and NAIST international students. From NAIST, Ashmari Pramodya, an international student from Sri Lankan, and Robert King (UEA, CISS), who acted as MC and translator, participated in the event along with 10 Ikoma families (23 children and their guardians) that were ready to learn about Sri Lankan culture.

 After the library staff opened the event with greetings and announcements from the library, Robert then greeted the participants and led everyone in doing Head, Shoulders Knees and Toes to get warmed up. Following this he had participants sing and perform at any speed they wanted. 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?' by Eric Carle was chosen to be read, with a librarian reading the book in Japanese followed by Ashmari reading it in English. Possibly one of the most famous children`s books in Japan, children followed along and sometimes mentioned the upcoming foods first in English.

 Following the book reading is the culture part of the event, and Ashmari had prepared a slide presentation about Sri Lanka. She explained some of the history and culture of Sri Lanka, while also showing different videos of the sights and sounds of her country. Looking at all the colors, animals and historic sights, parents and children both said they would like to visit Sri Lanka.

 After gaining insight into Sri Lanka, Ashmari had prepared two games for the children to play, marking the elephant's eye and Kopara Kopara Pipinya. The elephant's eye game is similar to pin the tail on the donkey, played in North America, but instead of holding a tail, the child is blind-folded with a pen. After being spun around a few times, children work their way towards a elephant written on a whiteboard and try to correctly draw an eye. The children enjoyed trying their best and making interesting elephants. After this, Ashmari explained Kopara Kopara Pipinya, a game similar to Duck, Duck, Goose, but harder in the fact that both the person chasing and the person being chased can change directions. Children got out of breath running back and forth, but tried the game a few times to understand how difficult it is.

 The event closed with Head, Shoulders Knees and Toes and children talked about wanting to visit Sri Lanka and see its diverse environments.

 We would like to thank Ashmari for all her work for this fun event and will continue to cooperate with Ikoma City to create new opportunities for international students and Ikoma citizens to interact and get to know each other.