2026 Aoba Ward Residents' Festival

On November 3, 2026 (Culture Day), the Aoba International Exchange Lounge took part in the Aoba Ward Residents' Festival, held at and around the Aoba Ward Office.

Foreign residents who study Japanese at the Lounge created custom pin-back buttons for festival-goers, writing words or names of the visitors' choosing in their own native languages.

"How do you write 'hello' in Thai?" "สวัสดี (Sawatdee)."

"And how would you write it in Sinhala?" "ආයුබෝවන් (Ayubowan)."

"My name uses the same kanji characters in Chinese!" — yet, when read aloud, it sounds completely different!

As visitors interacted with people from China, Sri Lanka, Russia, and Thailand, they were delighted and intrigued by the unfamiliar scripts and unique pronunciations. The venue was filled with smiles.

In total, 270 pin-back buttons were created that day—270 "seeds of exchange" that might one day grow into something much larger in the realm of international connection.