Arab News Japan
Japanese NBK Band set the ball rolling on the first day of the Japan Festival in Saudi Arabia.
Iwai Fumio, ambassador of Japan in Saudi Arabia, was pleased to see such a huge turnout at the event.
“I am very glad to see a huge number of Saudi people joining us this evening,” said ambassador Iwai.
“In fact this event shows several aspects of Japanese culture including martial arts, tea ceremony, very traditional as well as modern arts such as VR art.”
The 1st day of the festival had stage performances, ranging from Taiko (Japanese Drum) performance by the Riyadh Japanese School students, martial arts and Matcha ceremony lecture and demonstration.
Also, there was the fascinating VR art performance by Aimi Sekiguchi and the wonderful singing performance by NBK Band, doing covers for hit Japanese song and anime theme songs such as the ending theme for the famous Jujutsu Kaisen 0 the movie, “Sakayume” by the King Gnu.
Aimi Sekiguchi the VR artist who performed on stage during the event expressed how she felt about the art in Saudi Arabia, how it has a psychological aspect to it which is fascinating.
She also expressed her desire to visit AlUla and other historical sites and feel the quiet desert environment.
The ambassador said he would like to see more and more people tomorrow as well.
The Japanese festival is co-organized by the Japanese community association as well as Japanese trade representative and the embassy of Japan.
