We had “Asian Fair (Anata no shiranai Asian Fair in Oyama) on October 25th, 2009. It was held at “Itabashi Tozei Jimusho Mae Hiroba” near the APFS’ office.
This year, we had food stall where visitors can enjoy various food from 8 countries; the Philippines, Bangladesh, Burma, Pakistan, Iran, China, Korea and Hungary. Nayeon san and Virag san, who are APFS’ volunteer members, also volunteered to prepare and sell Korean and Hungarian food respectively. Besides the food stall, we had a variety of events such as flea market, Ethnic Costume Fashion Show, and live Filipino, Bangladesh, and Iranian music. It was unfortunately raining in the morning on the day but it stopped raining in the afternoon.
Our 15th Asian Fair turned out to be successful as a result of our members having cooperated each other! We had great support from our neighbors in Oyama this year and one of the restaurants near the APFS office participated in the food stall. Live Filipino and Iranian music was wonderful and many people danced to the music. One of the challenges we have to get over is to increase the number of Japanese participants. Let’s think together how we can attract more Japanese people for next year!
The change in the immigration guideline regarding special permission for residence announced in the last July has brought tough challenges to APFS. As you may know, some of our members have been detained at the immigration bureau now. While the situation surrounding the issuance of “Special Permission of Residence” has been more demanding, Asian Fair was a great event through which our members cooperated each other and had a chance to communicate with local people in Oyama. Please be sure to come to Asian Fair next year if you could not make it this time!
