Wine Festival Wine Festival
A message from KIS supervisor for the Wine Festival
This is the third year that I have been a
coordinator for the Wine festival event,
so this year I thought that I could write
about the event from a 'staff' perspective.
Every year, the town of Kosaka invites the
JICA participants to the festival and presents
them with free tickets to the event.
In the morning, while the JICA participants
are participating in the Frisbee tournament,
we are quite busy setting up the tent, arranging
the tables and chairs, and readying the computer
and Internet feed. One of the general aims
of this society is to work toward an 'International
Kosaka', and during this event we try to
recruit new members, and generally show the
town what we do. This year we also collected
donations for the people who were effected
by the Miyakejima volcano eruption, which
was still going on during the festival. In
an effort to have the JICA participants interact
with the townspeople, we plan games like
'watermelon splitting'. At this point I would
like to thank all of the KIS committee members
and staff who come so early to help set up,
and then stay until the very end of the day;
all during a time of year when there are
so many events going on.
We were giving away fruit and coffee to people
who made donations at the booth, and we had
many people, including the mayor and chief
of chamber of commerce dig into their pockets.
It wasn't just small change either, people
were stuffing bills in box. We were able
to recruit some new KIS members, who were
given a copy of the society newsletter 'KIS
Tsushin', which is now printed in splendid
colour. The donation box netted the highest
total we've ever received at one event, 39,607
yen, which is almost US$400, quite a lot
in this small town of just over 7,000 people!
10,000yen of this total was donated to the
Japanese branch of the Red Cross (for an
International Vaccination campaign), and
the remainder was donated to the Miyakejima
fund. Thanks so much to all the townspeople
who visited our booth at the wine festival.
For the last couple of years, we have been
introducing the KIS homepage at the wine
festival, but this was the first year that
we actually had a live internet connection
in the park; this was actually the first
outdoor internet connection in Kosaka. This
was made possible thanks to a 100 meter cable
leading to the community centre. So this
time people could do more than simply look
at the KIS homepage saved on disk; children
were visiting the NASA homepage, the Whitehouse
homepage, etc. Thanks so much to Mr.Ogasawara,
from the computing section of the Town Hall
for all his help.
Oh yes, the BBQ! One of the big attractions
of the Kosaka wine festival is the BBQ. Kosaka
produces SPF Pork (Specific Pathogen Free
Pork), which is showcased at the festival.
However, as I'm sure you realise, the JICA
participants come from all over the world,
and practice many different religions. So
every year, there are participants who do
not eat Pork. For these people, KIS brings
chicken and fish that they can BBQ as well.
Last year, out of 20 participants, there
were only 2 that didn't eat pork, so it wasn't
too much to worry about. However, on the
questionnaire we gave to the participants
before they left, someone wrote "Even
if you give us chicken and fish to cook,
it is meaningless if we have to cook it on
the same grill as the pork". How had
we missed that?! So, while feeling a little
shame for our careless miss, we now prepare
a separate grill for chicken and fish. We
did the same for this year's welcome party
BBQ as well.
On this year's initial questionnaire, I read
that there were only 5 people who couldn't
eat pork because they were muslim, so I thought
I would only need to prepare enough chicken
and fish for 5 people. However, when it came
closer to the day, 17 of this year's 19 participants
said they couldn't eat pork. I think my blood
pressure raised, as I hadn't planned to prepare
so much extra food, and feared that we would
have to scale back some other events to work
within the KIS budget. Fearing a misunderstanding,
I sent another questionnaire to the participants
"I'm not asking which you prefer, rather
I would like to know who can't eat pork for
religious reasons. The response that came
back was the same, so we made the appropriate
arrangements, and I worried that the 17 bags
of pork that came with their tickets would
go to waste (we usually spread the minimal
amount of pork around to other participants
and staff, but 17 bags is quite an amount).
I asked the coordinator at Minetec, and I
was told that most of the participants simply
don't eat pork. I also asked KIS member H.R.-san,
who probably has the most experience overseas,
and she quite frankly told me that many people
from other countries really don't eat pork
as eagerly as the Japanese do. Once again,
I was reminded that we Japanese often do
follow some customs that most of the world
doesn't follow. In the end, we managed to
do everything we wanted to within the budget,
and the participants appear to have enjoyed
the day, and that's all that matters.
Unlike the so-called 'Telepathy' between
Japanese people, when working with the JICA
participants, 20 different cultures and customs
collide. When we first started with KIS,
it was our aim to please every last desire
of the participants; however, as the years
and experiences pile up, I have come to realise
that there is a difference between 'cultural
differences' and 'individual differences'.
I have come to understand that it is impossible
to please everyone, all the time; gradually,
our programs have come to reflect this.
Through my experience, I once again learned
that I may be thinking "it's just porkc",
but another person may feel differently;
it is important to be considerate of other
people's cultures, customs and individual
tastes. I really do feel that I grow as a
person through my experience with the JICA
participants; this is really the reason that
I enjoy interacting with them. I invite all
of you reading this on the homepage to join
KIS if you're not already a member. We would
especially welcome people willing to help
as staff. You can find information on joining
the society on this homepage. I hope to hear
from you!
Shigeko Harimaya
