NAIST participated in Ikoma International Friendship Festa organized by Ikoma City Hall at Belle Terrasse Ikoma and Takemaru Hall on October 27th, in cooperation with our university, the Ikoma International Friendship and Communication Association (Ikoryu) and other citizen organizations. This year Kurashinobunkasai in Ikoma, another cultural event, was held in the area as well.

 NAIST cooperated with Ikoma City Hall in 2022 to create the Ikoma International Friendship Festa, an internationally-themed festival for Ikoma citizens, as Ikoma has a growing strong, diverse international community. From this beginning, activities that allowed for NAIST international students to experience Japanese culture and meet new people were included in the event.

 Every year this event is getting larger and more and more people are getting involved and attending. We had many students volunteering and participating in the Festa, which began in the large hall in Takemaru Hall. NAIST's Robert King (UEA, CISS) and a city hall staff member served as MCs for the opening show, which began with greetings from Mayor Komurasaki
 Following the mayor's words, an international fashion show began with outfits from seven different countries. From NAIST, there were Indonesian and Sri Lankan students who showed off the countries traditional clothing. For the Indonesian part of the show, an Indonesian student took over the microphone and gave an in-depth description of the various Indonesian outfits. Backstage after the show, international students and the citizen groups got together to talk and take selfies together.
 After the fashion show got people excited, Indonesian international students studying Japanese at the Japanese Department of Hanna Central College of Rehabilitation gave a beautiful dance performance along with a famous video showing many aspects of Indonesian culture.
 The last part of the show was a performance of Korean folk music called "Samulnori" by the members of the Ikoma International Exchange Association. The performers wore bright colorful traditional costumes, women's "chima-chogori" and men's "paji-chogori", which are "hanbok", or traditional costumes wore at New Year's, wedding, etc. After their performance international students and others from the audience went on stage to try playing the traditional Korean instruments.

 Following this stimulating experience many of our international students went on to participate in the Yukata lesson where around 30 students, both male and female, were given instruction on how to wear the yukata properly. Once everyone was dressed right, they headed outside, trying tea and walking around the event, which was once again blessed with great weather.