Vietnam-Japan Cultural Exchange Days celebrated for eighth time

The 2010 Vietnam-Japan Cultural Exchange Days will be held in Hoi An from August 21-23.
The opening ceremony will be organized at An Hoi Sculpture Garden on August 21.
This annual event will feature a series of cultural and sporting exchange activities including a performance of Koto (a Japanese traditional musical instrument); a tea ceremony; calligraphy; Japanese traditional clothing (Kimono and Yukata) and Japanese cooking classes.
Other unique cultural activities will be organized, such as traditional dance and musical instruments shows, a dragon dance, a floating lantern festival, a street exhibition of photographs about festivals, culinary activities together with many other sports exchange events including cross-river boat race, stick-pushing, etc.
Several famous Japanese art troupes, including Iwami Kagura royal dance troupe, Daisuwa Taiko drum troupe and Sakai City’s lion dance troupe, will join the event.
The first Vietnam – Japan Cultural Exchange Days took place in Hoi An in 2003 and it has become an annual event since then.The event aims to strengthen Vietnam-Japan friendship and cooperation as well as to popularize the charms of Hoi An, a UNESCO world cultural heritage site.
Hoi An was one of the most thriving commercial ports in Southeast Asia from the 17th to 18th centuries. Traders and officials from Portugal, the UK, France and Japan came to Hoi An to do business. Many settled down and some married Vietnamese residents.
A Japanese quarter was established in Hoi An, as exemplified by the Japanese Bridge (Nihonbashi), which is considered the symbol of Hoi An. The bridge is also used as a symbol of the cultural exchange between the two nations.
Since the early 1980s, Japanese organisations, experts and volunteers from the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) have come to Vietnam to research, support and directly supervise the restoration of many monuments in Hoi An.