Pat's Blog

Takamatsu has been given two great and exciting events in the last week. The St. Patrick Day parade now looks like becoming an annual event, adding fun & color to the city’s busy
shopping arcade areas.



Started only two years ago through the initiatives and huge input of two local members of the Irish community, Messrs. Michael Bedlow & Shane Martin Coughlan. Both have been the talents and the driving force to get this event started and working well, and they’ve really done a wonderful job. Michael with his Celtic music groups, tireless efforts with dance instruction and Shane with his entrepreneurial skills.



The support group even made green St. Pat’s udon for the occasion. How creative ! Even though my name is Pat, there were no free samples unfortunately. So this is something to remember if you’re from out of town and here in Takamatsu on St. Pat’s day in March next year.



The other event of course was the opening ceremony for the
Setouchi Triennale Art Festival which started on the 20th of March
http://setouchi-artfest.jp/en/
This was a big opening event in the roofed outdoor auditorium area in Takamatsu’s Sunport.



Many dignitaries both local, Japanese government and foreign officials attended and all were asked to hold then wave small white flags at the appointed time. So when the band struck up I could hear the gentle rustle of hundreds of white flags. There was something very Japanese about this.



The ceremony culminated with the oddest-looking wind-blown instrument I’ve ever seen? Some bloke dressed in black with a dapper top-hat was riding on the back of this thing then huffed and puffed and finally blew it to officially open the event. He looked spiffy but very tired after the effort.



This thing made a sound like something coming out from the bowels of the earth and was a grand start to what promises to be a truly wonderful festival with many foreign artists and guests scheduled to arrive in the coming weeks, months.

I’ll be back next month with more news on art events in Takamastu.

“Spring is sprung, the grass is ris.
I wonders where them birdies is.”

So Ogden Nash’s poem humorously reminds us, so please do make an effort to come here and enjoy this wonderful art festival in Takamatsu.

              http://wikitravel.org/en/Takamatsu

http://www.city.takamatsu.kagawa.jp/english/