Japan Matsuri returned to Trafalgar Square in London on Saturday 27^th September 2014. This popular annual festival brings members of the Japanese community and Londoners together to enjoy the many aspects of Japan with Japanese food, music, dance and other activities.

The Japan Foundation ran a stall at the festival providing 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 over 600 people entered. 

The answers to the quiz were as follows:

1. Japan is in which continent?  a) Europe       b) Asia      c) Oceania
Answer: b) Asia. Japan is in East Asia.

2. What Hollywood film was inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s classic Japanese film ‘Seven Samurai’?  a) The Magnificent Seven   b) King Kong   c) Jurassic Park
Answer: a) Seven Samurai. John Sturges’ 1960 movie The Magnificent Seven was inspired by Kurosawa’s 1954 movie, Shichinin no samurai, called “Seven Samurai” in English.

3. The kanji (Japanese character) 言means “words,” and the kanji 舌 means “tongue.” What do you think their combination, 話, means? a) To taste   b) To read   c) To speak
Answer: c) To speak. The Japanese word to speak is “hanasu” (話す).

4. What is Japan’s famous high-speed train, the Shinkansen, also known as? a) The Bullet-Train      b) The Maglev      c) The TGV
Answer: a) The Bullet-Train. The Maglev is the more recent “magnetic levitation” train, and the TGV is France’s high-speed rail service.

Out of those who answered the quiz correctly, we picked four at random to send our Japan Foundation Goody Bag. Congratulations to the four winners M.F Stringfellow from Brighton, , and Melissa Schuh, Samantha Junak and Ashaar Shaikh all from London, who have now been sent their good bags!