Fun Festival To Commemorate Disaster

GEORGE TOWN (Penang, Malaysia), March 8 (Bernama) -- The Consulate-General of Japan in Penang will organize the "Spring Akari Festival" at the Straits Quay on Saturday and Sunday to express gratitude for the continuous support from generous Penangites following the natural disaster that hit Japan last year. Japan's Consul-General in Penang, Tetsuro Kai said besides commemorating the first anniversary of the tsunami in Japan, the festival would also celebrate Japan's resurgence after the disaster. "Japan's reconstruction has made steady progress. The support we received from the community here is a gift steamming from "kizuna" (bond of friendship)," he told reporters, here Thursday. One of the highlights will be riding in Japanese sports cars for charity. For only RM10, visitors have a choice of six different sports cars to ride around Straits Quay, courtesy of the Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) club. Kai also said that proceeds from this event would be channelled to needy people in Penang state of north Malaysia. "This is a way for us to thank Penangites who have been generous and supportive when we were in need," he added. Visitors to the festival are also in for surprises such as various flash mob sessions held from time to time throughout the event. Other interesting programmes at the festival include kimono demo, bizarre food tasting, an assortment of performances and Japanese traditional games. The disaster on March 11, last year, saw an earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0 shaking the northeast coast of Japan, followed by a 20m-high tsunami that wiped out entire villages and towns, and caused a nuclear accident. The catastrophe killed about 20,000 people on Japan’s northeast coast and sparked the world’s worst nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. -- BERNAMA