Nara JETNet 17th Event
Christmas Carnival
On Saturday, December 16th 2006, Tenri Christmas Carnival, the 17th event by Nara JETNet (co-organized by the Tenri BOE) was held at the Tanbaichi Junior High School Gym in Tenri City. The JETNet council, which is comprised of the 5 Coordinators for International Relations and one Assistant Language Teacher at the Nara Prefectural Board of Education, has been planning international events in Nara since 2001. This event was planned by the Tenri BOE along with JETNet, using the theme of Christmas to bring together Nara prefecture’s children and their parents, while encouraging them to interact with the Prefecture’s JET participants. The event included around 200 citizens of Nara Prefecture and 34 JET Programme participants, from various countries, including France, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, China, South Africa, the UK and the United States.
The Christmas Carnival was designed to be an afternoon of games where the Japanese and JET participants alike could interact while enjoying the Christmas spirit.
The first part of the event included booths for the amusement of the kids (Face painting, Santa relay race, Letters to Santa, Craft making, a Wreath toss game and Pin the Nose on Rudolph). There was also a performance by a Pierrot who demonstrated his various talents and tricks. The JETs ran the booths together with Tenri BOE staff, and had the chance to interact with young Japanese Children who were eager to know about Christmas as much as the JETs themselves.
The second part of the event was a set of performances introduced to the public by Anny (main CIR organizing the event from the Tenri BOE) and Olivier (CIR at the Kencho, president of JETNet). After a welcome speech by the Head of Tenri BOE, the show began with street performances by Tanbaichi JHS kids, followed by a demonstration of juggling by ALT Matt Duncan, a stand up comedy by teachers of Tanbaichi, songs by kids from Tanbaichi, a dance by Angel Hearts, and a magic demonstration by former Tenri ALT John Tomeseck III. The performances ended with the JETs giving brief introductions of Christmas in their own countries and finishing with the song ‘White Christmas’.
The JETs arrived at the venue at approximately 1.30am and began helping to set up the hall, there was then a rehearsal before the participants began to arrive at 4.30pm. Each JET (and foreign participants) received a nametag upon which was written their name in roman and katakana characters. The event culminated while participants were enjoying the different performances. The kids and their family showed their appreciation of the event while surveys revealed that JETs enjoyed interacting with the kids, although the performances schedule could be improved.
The JETNet team would like to express its appreciation to everyone who participated and made this event possible, and we hope to see you again at a future event!
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