On 27 October, CLAIR Sydney lent support to Nara city at the “Nara Candle Festival” in Canberra. Nara and Canberra have fostered a close sister city relationship since 1993. We promoted Nara city and Japanese tourism to festival attendees. The Japanese embassy introduced examples of Japanese culture, such as “Shuji” (Japanese calligraphy) and “Mochitsuki”.
“Mochitsuki” involves using a mortar (“kine” in Japanese) and pestle (“usu”) to pound rice. After pounding the rice, the Japanese embassy presented the “mochi” (sticky rice cake). Of course, visitors were delighted, and enjoyed the lovely taste of this Japanese sweet.
In addition, CLAIR staff supported JETAA, rolling up their sleeves and assisting with cooking and selling dumplings; they truly looked like good dumpling master chefs. After sunset, the lantern lighting ceremony was held. The atmosphere was fantastic.
Next year will be the twentieth anniversary of the Sister City relationship between Canberra and Nara. We hope Canberra and Nara will continue their strong relationship, and that next year’s festival will also be a success.\
From the 3rd to the 13th of December, eight selected swimmers from the Fukuoka Swimming Association visited NSW, where they participated in joint training sessions with a local school and competed in the 2024-25 Speedo NSW Senior State Age Championships.
