On 26 October, Canberra hosted the 10th annual Canberra-Nara Candle Festival as a part of the sister city relationship between Nara City in Japan and Australia’s capital city.
The festival has been held annually since 2004, but this year it coincided with celebrations for the 20th anniversary of their friendship, with a delegation visiting Canberra from Nara led by the city’s Mayor. The left side picture means “Congratulations on the 20th Anniversary of the Sister City relationship between Canberra and Nara”, which is written in Japanese Shodo style.
About 15,000 people enjoyed Japanese cuisine and culture such as Sumo, Judo, Kendo, and even the traditional way of cooking rice cakes. We are sure that those gathered must have felt the Japanese atmosphere due to the many lit candles in the Japanese-style garden during the evening.
CLAIR Sydney supported the delegation to promote NaraCity’s tourism and tasty sake (Japanese rice wine); we also promoted tourism spots all over Japan wearing the Japanese kimono and yukata.
We will join the Japan Matsuri at Sydney’s Darling Harbour on 14 December this year as well, to welcome people interested in, and looking to visit Japan. We are looking forward to meeting some subscribers of our newsletter there – come along for a fun day of all things Japanese!
