Monday, November 18, 2013

[ACTIVITY REPORT]IMCY Booth at Hodogaya International "Tsudoi" Festival 2013

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IMCY admin members joined the Hodogaya International Festival "Tsudoi" 2013 on Sunday, 17th November.

This time, in addition to the bazaar,  we served Indian Hena Hand Paint and we also sold cookies like kinako macarons and pain d'epices (ginger cookies).

Three of our members also helped the ethnic costume exhibition at the gallery wearing their traditional costumes. They were really appreciated.

Since this was an international festival, there were various people - different nationalities/origins and age, which was nice, too. Just next to our booth was the Kimono Try-On room, where many foreign visitors (even our members!) tried on gorgeous Kimono (Furisode) and the staff also arranged their hair for kimono style, too. Some kids also put on the kimono and were really cute.

We've got positive comments from many people that they were impressed by the fact that we, the mothers of young children, do this kind of activity by ourselves.

We would like to show our gratitude to the HIEC (Hodogaya International Exchange Center) staff for all their support to our booth.

Thank you!!

Sunday, November 17, 2013

[EVENT] Children's Bento Class by HIEC, 23rd February 2014

HIEC (Hodogaya International Exchange Center) will provide a one-day class of Children's Bento for foreign people.

Date: SUN 23rd February, 2014 (time has not been indicated yet)
Place: Hodogaya Chiku Center 2F Kitchen
Charge: ¥500
Targets: Foreign people (18 years old and up), 20 people at max

Application: Call 045-337-0012 from 23rd January, 2014


Larger Map




Scenes from last year.

















Website of HIEC

Sunday, November 3, 2013

[PLAYGROUP] French & Multilingual Playgroup by IMCY

IMCY is going to have a French & Multilingual Playgroup in December and January. This playgroup is open for every family with preschool children and younger.

[Overview]
This playgroup is conducted mainly in French with some help of English and Japanese. French skills are not required, so please feel free to visit and enjoy the French culture. We also add "multi-lingual" as we will have some families who speak other languages. It will be greatly welcomed if you can introduce stories (picture books), songs or finger plays in your other language(s) to us.

[Place]
Yokohama Miyazaki Chiku Day Care Center 3F Multi-purpose room.

Larger Map

[Schedule]
13th December (FRI) 13:30-15:00
Theme: Saint Nicolas
Stories, songs and finger plays (in French and other languages).







Saint Nicolas is one of the saints and his birthday, 6th December is celebrated as "La Saint Nicolas" in some areas in France and in other European countries. He is said to be a model for Santa Claus. A little donkey brings gifts and cookies for children while the Santa's mates are reindeer. 

11th January (SAT) 10:30-12:00
Theme: L'Epiphanie (La Galette des Rois)
Stories, songs and finger plays (in French and other languages).

 




The Epiphany is another Christian holiday which is the 12th day from the Christmas. This is also the day when three Wise men (Rois mages in French) visited the baby Jesus in Bethlehem.

In France, they eat "Galette des Rois", which is a pie with almond cream filling. There is also a brioche version (the very left photo). There is a little porcelain called la fève (literally means "broad bean") inside the cake. The cake is cut in pieces and the youngest person hides under the table and choose a piece for each one. The one who gets la fève will be a king/queen and choose a queen/king.

*IMCY is not a religious group, so we deal with these holidays as a part of culture.

[Charge] ¥100/child
*We are going to prepare some snacks for children. You don't have to pay if your child is not old enough to eat them.

[Reservation]
Reservation is NOT required. You can come and leave anytime you want. However, since we are going to prepare snacks, it would be nice if you could e-mail us beforehand so that you will surely enjoy the shack.
e-mail: imcy.info*gmail.com (please replace * with @)

Friday, November 1, 2013

[IMCY ACTIVITY REPORT] Kandaiji Chiku Center Festival (Bazaar)

We, six of the admin members, joined Kandaiji Chiku Center Festival (神大寺地区センターまつり)on 27th October.

We got the chance to join this event thanks to an international exchange group "Kokusai Koryu Jyuku Kanagawa". When we are looking for some festivals or bazaar where we can sell goods to earn some money for our new activity (this time, for Deko Maki Sushi workshops), they kindly offered us a part of their place at the festival.
*Kokusai Koryu Jyuku Kanagawa (国際交流塾かながわ) is a group that encourage communication between locals and international people through parties, cooking classes etc...

We were there from 10:30 to 15:30 and sold 38 items!!
We sold handmade goods (hair accessories, otedama balls, wood and leather crafts and knits) and souvenirs from India (bindis, cotton stoles and necklaces) as below.


We also handed out the flyers of IMCY and the Deko Maki Sushi workshops.

It was the very first experience for us, and we enjoyed it a lot, too. However there are also some things that we should improve:

-Presentation and service: we didn't bring mirrors, so people who wanted to try on the necklace or stole had to go to a restroom to see if it suit them or not. Also, who we are and what we sell were not clear enough for passers-by.
[lesson] We should bring mirrors and hangers for things like stoles. We should prepare more posters explaining IMCY and the items.

-Goods for everyone: Most of our goods were for girls and women. ¥100 hair accessories were popular among school girls and so were Indian stoles and necklaces among elderly ladies. Maybe it would be nice if we have something for boys and men, too.

-Advertising: We were too busy selling goods and couldn't advertise IMCY enough. Our current flyer is more for would-be members (mothers of young children) and we'd better prepare another for "everyone".

Our booth was in the entrance hall, with food booths just outside in the patio, it smelled good all the time and we enjoyed some of the foods, too.

The profit (the sales with the cost subtracted) will be used for the Deko Maki Sushi workshop.

We're looking forward to the next festival at Iwama Shimin Plaza on 17th November. Please come and join us!