The Japan Matsuri returned to London on Saturday 6th October 2012. This year the Japan Matsuri was held in Trafalgar square and the organisers expected 70,000 visitors for one busy day! “Matsuri” means “festival” in Japanese and this event took the form of a large Japanese-style festival. There were numerous food and gift stalls, a variety of performances, nodo jiman (Japanese karaoke competition) and plenty of activities for families.

The Japan Foundation participated in the Japan Matsuri for the first time this year. We provided information about studying Japanese in the UK, useful handouts about our support for schools and  details about all of our upcoming events.  In addition, we held a Japan Quiz, which 500 people entered.  Out of those who answered the quiz correctly, we picked five at random to send our Japan Foundation Goody Bag. Congratulations to the winners who were selected at random from all those who got all the answers right to win our goody bag!

The Japan Foundation will also be attending the Language Show Live 19th - 21st October 2012 at the Olympia, London as well as Hyper Japan on November 23rd - 25th 2012 at Brompton Hall, Earls Court. We hope to see you there!