TOC 12th Summer Festival

Blessed with very refreshing fine weather, “The TOC 12th Summer Festival” was held in a grand scale on the terrace and the open space on the western side of the Tenri Youth Hall in the Centre on 14th January. Especially, the Festival this time was in danger of not being held due to the disaster of intense rainfalls and great floods which had occurred in different places including the Brisbane CBD and throughout the State of Queensland since late December in the previous year. Once we made a final decision of holding the Festival judging by various circumstances comprehensively, however, we were blessed with very fine weather on that day and able to hold the Festival as scheduled. This brought us great joy and delight and made us strongly feel the profound parental love of God the Parent.

The “TOC Summer Festival” has been held and sponsored by the Centre since 2001 as a means to introduce Japanese culture to the local communities on a Friday evening in mid-January every year. The Festival this time, which marked the 12th, was held with a special purpose for fund-raising to support the sufferers from the above-mentioned Queensland Floods as well as with an announcement that all the proceeds from the Festival be donated to support the sufferers. The event drew over 400 people: children who had participated in “The 40th Children’s Sleepover” from the 12th till noon on the day, their families, Japanese class students, the neighbours, students and their families from Japanese Language Supplementary School in Brisbane, and Tenrikyo followers not only from the Brisbane-Gold Coast district but also those from distant places such as Sydney. The participants, including many of those wearing their own Yukata or coats, spent a pleasant time in a joyful and lively manner in the atmosphere of a typical Japanese “Summer Festival”.

The Festival started at 6 o’clock with Rev. Adachi’s opening greetings in which he asked for the support for the sufferers from the Queensland Floods, and then opened all the food stalls in the terrace including “Octopus ball dumpling”, ”Yakitori grilled chicken”, “Japanese fried noodle”, “Squid-tail BBQ”, “Spam rice-balls”, “Shaved ice”, “ Chocolate banana”, etc. Visitors fully enjoyed and were satisfied with the first “tastes of the Japanese festival” in a long time. On the other side of the Yagura scaffolding tower was a game area with “Quoits”, ”Yo-yo fishing”, “Penalty Kick” and a well-received game called “Splash!”, all of which boosted the festival mood and attracted many children again this year.

The entertainment programs began from 6:30 p.m. with a wonderful performance by “STOMPS”, a TOC percussion group, which attracted the audience. Then the “TOC Dancers” performed dances, followed by a dance performance, “Takio Soran-bushi”, by the Tono Sydney Fellowship group. Furthermore, hula dancing was shown by “Reno Sisters”, a hula group from Sydney, which made the festival reach its peak in excitement. Then followed the usual “Bon dance”. In addition to the familiar Yagura scaffolding tower, red and white lanterns were beautifully set up once again this year so as to create a Japanese Bon season atmosphere. Everyone, both Japanese and Aussie, young and old, enjoyed the Japanese dance whole-heartedly to the tune of “Tokyo Ondo”, uniting their hearts into one. At the end of the program all the people in the venue fully enjoyed a Bingo game. In this way, everyone without exception savoured the Festival whole-heartedly, which became an unforgettable summer evening with happy smiling faces everywhere.

The TOC Summer Festival that marked the 12th this time recorded over 400 participants, the largest number ever with the huge success to the extent that there were not enough parking spaces. This makes us realise that the TOC Summer Festival not only has firmly taken root in the local community as its big annual event, but also is a great opportunity for us to sprinkle the fragrance of the teachings to the local people.

We will continue this wonderful event as one of our main events in January, and therefore would like to ask for your continued help and support. Finally, we would like to thank those who sincerely engaged in hinokishin in preparing and operating the Festival. Thank you so much.