An evening of Japanese culture

PANAMA. They sang, they danced, demonstrated martial arts, gave Japanese lessons. and then they made tea.

It was all part of a sampling of Japanese culture held at the University of Panama, and provided by members of JICA (The Japan International Corporation Agency) working in conjunction with the Japanese program at the University and local groups who practice martial arts.

JICA is an organization of volunteers who spend two or more years providing free assistance to programs to help the needy around the world.

There are over sixty of them in Panama, working in the capital and in the interior.

Their cultural presentation included traditional Japanese group dances, aided by enthusiastic volunteers from the audience, and Japanese songs sung in Japanese and Spanish by the JICA team, and cello performances by professor Yumiko Tokumoto.

The quiet moments of the evening came with a presentation of the elaborate Japanese tea ceremony, which is part of the upbringing of most Japanese young women.

As a backdrop to the live events there were hands on exhibitions of origami, calligraphy, theatre, and the world famed Japanese comic animatio.

There was also a more sobering exhibition of photographs of the only time the world has seen the use of the ultimate weapon of mass destruction (the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II).