Vol.010 January 2019

Kaleidoscope

MEGUROCONTENTS
1. Festival
2. Culture
3. Interview
4. Information

Welcome to MIFA Festival
The 14th MIFA International Exchange Festival- "Festival! Travel around the world in Meguro!"Let's make friends and get to know each other.
You can enjoy stage performances, Japanesetraditional culture, world cuisine and more.
Date and time: Jan. 20 (Sun) 10:00-16:00
Place: Meguro Persimmon Hall & Meguro Kumin
Campus Park (1-1-1, Yakumo Meguro-ku)

Interview with Mr. Hiroki Abe, Leader of MIFA festival
Q. When and how did MIFA Festival start?
A. We started the festival in 2006 as MIFA's original
event to provide more opportunity for all theembassies in Meguro City to participate ininternational exchange. By then, they had
individually joined some of Meguro City's events.
Q. How do you run the festival?
A. MIFA has only five staff members, so it is
impossible to hold the festival without the support
from volunteers. In the beginning, the scale of theevent was so small that only about 20 volunteers
were enough. However, by 2017, the festival wassupported by 227 volunteers, including about 50
non-Japanese residents. Recently, there are morehigh school students joining us and it is reallyencouraging to see so many people helping ourfestival repeatedly every year.
Q. What is the goal that MIFA would like toachieve through this festival?
A. We would like to help people to build
relationships with foreigners living around them.
The festival is also a place where people can enjoy
the out-of-the-ordinary: for example, meetingsomeone with a job they are unlikely to encounteron a daily basis. We would like everyone toexperience different cultures and learn something
new, it could be anything, language or food.
Anyone interested in volunteering for this year’s
festival, please do not hesitate to contact MIFA.

Interview with Mr. Jules Kankoe Aduayom, Togolese Embassy
Q. How did you start to take part in MIFAInternational Exchange festival?
A. We moved to Meguro City in October 2014, andwe have taken part in MIFA International Exchange
Festival ever since 2016.
Q. What impressed you the most about thefestival?
A. The most striking fact is that a large-scale eventas this MIFA festival is organized by volunteers.
Another noteworthy thing is that I get to know newpeople there. Some students who get to know
about Togo at the festival, for example, choose
Togo as a subject for their research, as a part oftheir summer vacation homework and bother tocome over to the Togolese embassy for theirresearch. Other people who get to know Togo at
the festival, get interested about Togo and take atrip there. An embassy tends to be isolated fromordinary people. As a member of the Togolese
embassy, I would like to make the embassy open toeverybody. I believe this contributes tointernational friendship between Togo and Japan.

Q. What is your goal to achieve through thefestival?
A. Togo is a small country, comparatively less
known than other countries. It is neither richeconomically nor in terms of mineral resources.
Neverthless, Togo is often referred to as "Smile ofAfrica", meaning the people are friendly and nevercease to smile. We are proud of this Togolese
characteristic, and I would like people living inJapan, so remote from Togo, to get to know Togoand feel closer to Togo over ethnical and culturaldifferences.2 | Kaleidoscope MEGURO January 2019

How do you like Ume (Plum Blossoms) Viewing?
about flower viewing, first of all, we recallT alking
cherry blossoms viewing. However it is plum

which blooms before cherry blossoms. It blooms
between mid-February to mid-March, and it is often
referred as a forerunner of spring. The sweet smell ofplum blossoms in the cold air gives us a feeling of
early spring.
In Japan, before cherry blossoms were geneticallymodified to match the blossoms viewing needs,
especially in the Nara period (8th century) plumblossoms were more popular than cherry blossoms.
The compiled poem book Manyoshu contains 110
poems featuring plum blossoms while only 43 arerelated to cherry blossoms.

Famous spots of plum blossoms around Kanto region
are Kairakuen (Mito city, Ibaraki pref.) andAtamibaien (Atami city, Shizuoka pref.). We would
like to introduce several plum blossoms viewing spots
and events in Tokyo especially around Meguro citywhich are best suitable for a date or stroll.
Place: Hanegi park, 4-38-52 Daita, Setagaya-ku
Event: “Setagaya Umematsuri”
Access: Odakyu Umegaoka sta., Keio Inokashira Line
Higashi-matsubara sta.
URL:
https://tokyocheapo.com/events/setagaya-plu
m-festival/
Place: Yushima tenmangu, 3-30-1 Yushima,
Bunkyo-ku
Event: “Bunkyo Umematsuri” (Bunkyo Plum
Blossoms Festival)
Access: Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line Yushima sta.,
Ginza Line Ueno- Hirokoji sta., Marunouchi Line
Hongo-sanchome sta., JR Yamanote
Line/Keihin-Tohoku Line Okachimachi sta.
URL:
https://tokyocheapo.com/events/bunkyo-plum-blossom-festival/

The New Year custom of mochi-making
Mochi-tsuki
ochi-tsuki is the pounding of steaming hot rice tomake rice cakes for special occasions such as
New Year celebration. Although ready-made ricecakes are easily available nowadays, Mochi-tsuki
remains a year-end event that draws a crowd andgets you into the festive spirit. Using a large wooden
pestle in the shape of a hammer, men pound thesteaming hot mochi-rice in a mortar while steam
comes at their face and sweat off their body. It isvery tiring work. Children also participate using asmaller pestle which is almost as heavy as they are.
Meanwhile, women skillfully turn and knead thesteaming rice in the mortar between the pounding
strokes. The shouting of “yoisho” by all participants
during Mochi-tsuki can be heard from afar. After
finishing the pounding,the women shape thedough into round,disk-like cakes while it isstill hot. This is a difficult
task because the doughis not only steaming hot
but also very sticky, andthere is a large amountof it. Freshly poundedmochi is soft with asmooth, chewy andstretchy texture, and ofcourse very delicious.

MThese round mochi cakes are then dried andpreserved for making New Year cakes. Getting thewhole family and neighborhood involved to work as ateam is the key to having a great Mochi-tsuki event.
Kagami-mochi decoration
agami-mochi is a New Year cake made bystacking two round rice cakes of different sizes the smaller one on top of the larger one. They arethen decorated with auspicious New Year items andplaced in tokonoma, the sacred alcove of the home,as an offering to the New Year Deity. Daidai, a bitterJapanese orange, is also put on top of theKagami-mochi. Because a daidai never falls from thetree even after it has ripened, it is believed to bring
the family a fruitful and prosperous future forgenerations.

KKagami-biraki
agami-biraki is a special annual custom to wish
for peace and strength from the New Year Deity.
It takes place on the 11th of January every year
when the Kagami-mochi decoration which has beenoffered to the New Year Deity is taken down from thetokonoma and eaten by the family. The mochi cake isbroken into small pieces using a mallet so they canbe easily consumed. They are added to sweet azuki
bean soup, shiruko or zenzai and eaten by everyone
wishing to have a peaceful, healthy and happy life
throughout the year.

KKaleidoscope MEGURO January 2019 | 3Interview with our international residents:
Kakizome, a Japanese New Year's calligraphy
is an interview with Ms. Noriko Otsuki from America andT hisMr. Florian Urach from Austria, before and after they practiced

the traditional New Year's custom in Japan called kakizome.
Kakizome is the act of writing in calligraphy or painting at thebeginning of the year as a way to make a wish or express a goal
for the New Year. Primary school pupils in Japan are sometimes
required to write kakizome as a homework assignment during thewinter holidays.
Otsuki is aN oriko
Japanese American bornand raised in the US. She isan active volunteer of MIFA.
She is currently working
enthusiastically in preparation
for the MIFA Festival, taking
an important role as aninterpreter.
She has always taken greatinterest in Japanese culture
since her childhood inAmerica, and has come to
Japan in order to study
Japanese language and culture. She is very happy tobe able to get acquainted with many Japanese people
through MIFA activities and to enrich her life throughcross-cultural interactions. Since coming to Japan,
she has deepened her understanding of Japaneseculture through a wide variety of firsthandencounters. While she has enthusiastically studied
such traditional performing arts as kabuki, she is now
taking another look at the art of Japanese cooking
which has gained worldwide recognition.
She also took great interest in old Japanese art andwas an ardent antique collector. But looking back, she
now thinks she may have collected too many lessvaluable items and would like to learn to better
distinguish what truly has value.
As a resident of Meguro City, she is quite satisfied
with its convenient access to transportation andshops, as well as hospitals and clinics.
As for her New Year wishes, she wants to live to be
105 years old. To be able to spend such a long life
traveling between Japan and the US to help people ofthe two countries with her bilingual skills would makeher very happy.

Urach is from Vienna, Austria, the capital
F lorianof classical music. Coming to Japan as a foreign

student of a medical college in 2015, he has been
living in Meguro City since this June. Although heworked as a doctor in his home country, he has been
studying hard in order to achieve his dream ofobtaining a medical license in Japan.
Q. How do you feel
about living in
Meguro City ?
A. I really like living in
Meguro City. There is avariety of nice stores,
shops, andrestaurants. Since myhome is very close to
Meguro River, I also
enjoy walking along
the river everyday. And of course in spring the cherry
blossoms are incredibly beautiful.
Q. What kind of a doctor would you like to be inJapan?
A. Since I believe the demand for English/Germanspeaking doctos is very high here, I would like toopen my own clinic focusing on providing foreigners
with quality medical care. Many foreigners are nothappy with the medical care currently available inJapan mainly because of the language barrier.
Q. How have you been able to improve yourJapanese language ability in just two years?
A. I started off studying kanjis only. But recently I
focus my studying on reading books from different
genres and authors to increase my vocabulary and to
get a better understandingof how to use kanjis. For
improving my listening
skills, I find it very helpful
to listen to audiobooks andof course to watch the news
on TV and so on.
In light of his endeavor to
make his dream come true,
Florian has chosen the word
“challenge” for kakizome forthe new year.

4 | Kaleidoscope MEGURO January 2019

“Hero Bus” is running for children from nurseryschools with no playground!
Meguro City, many nursery schools don’t
I nhave
access to a big playground for thechildren to play safely. To deal with this issue,
Meguro City started operating an exclusive shuttle
bus service, which aims to accommodate thesechildren’s needs. The bus is modified to ensure thechildren’s safety. It takes the children to large parks
such as Komazawa Olympic Park andRinshi-no-Mori Park in the neighborhood every day.
It is nicknamed “Hero Bus”, a combination ofheroba meaning an open space with bus.
The name “Hero Bus” is given in the hope that it
would act as a hero for the children,which takes them tothe place where they
can play to theirhearts’ content.
By promoting thisproject, Meguro City
hopes to let thesociety realize thateven nursery school
children in the urban
area can play and run
around lively outdoors, while being embraced by
the love of nature.

Filing tax return early is recommended
file in your tax return, put down your Social
T oSecurity
and Tax Number (My Number) andpresent your personal ID or attach its copy. Visit
the website or call for more details.

[Resident Tax]
Filing Period: Feb. 18 (Mon) – Mar. 15 (Fri)Submission methods: send the form by post or
bring it to the Tax Affairs Section, 2nd floor, Main
Building of Meguro City Office Complex.
For more information, please call the Tax Affairs
Section: 03-5722-9820 (Japanese only)or visit the following URL:
http://www.city.meguro.tokyo.jp/multi/inde
x.html[Income Tax and Others]
Filing Period: Feb. 18 (Mon) – Mar. 15 (Fri) for
Income Tax, Special Tax for Reconstruction
Feb. 1 (Fri) – Mar. 15 (Fri) for Gift Tax
By Apr. 1 (Mon) for Consumption Tax for IndividualBusiness
Submission methods:1) Send the form by post or bring it to Meguro Tax
Office2) Bring the form to the Tax Affairs Section ofMeguro City (Acceptance period is from Feb. 18(Mon) to Mar. 15 (Fri). No consultation available)
3) Submit via e-Tax
For more information, please call Meguro Tax
Office: 03-3711-6251 (Japanese only)or visit the following URL:
http://www.e-tax.nta.go.jp/en/index.html

Seminar for Disaster Prevention
City is offering a disaster prevention
M eguroseminar for foreign residents. In this seminar

you can learn how to act during a disaster throughexperience-based lessons. This seminar is available
to residents, workers and students of Meguro City.
Time and Date: Feb. 16 (Sat) 13:00 - 15:00
Place: Meguro City Office Complex (2-19-15Meguro CityNewsletter
5 languages arenow supported
on an e-book version!
Read in yourown language!
Supports
Text-to-Speech!

Easy to read even on
the smartphone!

Kamimeguro, Meguro-ku)
Contents: Experience on how to extinguish a fire,
report a fire, emergency relief activity (emergency
first aid) etc.
How to apply: Please contact Culture & Exchange
Promotion Section with your name, nationality,language, address, phone number (03-5722-9291,Japanese only)

Foreign Residents
Information Desk
Tel: 03-5722-9187 (English)

Access from QR code, and you
can easily read Meguro City
Newsletter anytime you want.

Life in Tokyo
Site for Foreign Residents of Tokyo
https://www.lifein.tokyo.jp/en/

Main Building 1st Floor,
Meguro City Office Complex
2-19-15, Kamimeguro,
Meguro-ku, Tokyo
http://www.city.meguro.tokyo.jp/multi/index.html

Published by Culture & Exchange Promotion Section, Meguro City Office
Edited by Meguro International Friendship Association Volunteer (MIFA)
5th Floor, Meguro City Office Complex’s Annex, 2-19-15 Kamimeguro, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-0051
TEL 03-3715-4671 FAX 03-3715-4672 E-mail:info@mifa.jp URL:http://www.mifa.jp/en/MIFAONLINE VER.

The bimonthly newsletter Kaleidoscope MEGURO is intended to make a multi-cultural society embracing and diversity.