The Viet Nam-Japan Cultural Exchange and Cuisine Festival 2014 continues today in a park near Da Nang’s new Administration Centre on Tran Phu Street.  The event is being jointly organised by the Da Nang Representative Office in Japan, the municipal Department of Foreign Affairs, and the city’s Japanese Businesses’ Association.  The event celebrates today’s official opening of direct flights between Da Nang and Tokyo’s Narita Airport.

This year’s festival is one of the city’s important cultural exchange events, further deepening the friendship, strategic partnership and comprehensive cooperation between Viet Nam and Japan, and creating a firm foundation to foster bilateral relationships in the future.

The event features the cultures and cuisines of the 2 countries via a wide range of activities including musical performances, martial arts, calligraphy and fashion shows of Japanese and Vietnamese traditional costumes.  Visitors can learn about the distinctive Japanese culture and fine arts through its tea ceremonies, the traditional arts of origami (folding paper to make models) and kirigami (cutting paper), and manga comic books.   In particular, visitors can try on a yukata (a casual, unlined, summer kimono usually made of cotton or synthetic fabric) and pose for souvenir photos or experience the elegant nature of Japanese people.  In addition, the festival treats visitors to Vietnamese and Japanese traditional dishes, as well as explaining the investment activities of Japanese businesses already operating in Da Nang, and their recruitment requirements.  In particular, those who want to travel or study in Japan can access all the necessary information at the event.