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Today was the last day of this year's workshop. It has been a truly unbeliebable experience for me. Last year, I gave a lecture that encouraged people to become familiar with indigenous japanese music. The seminar at which I spoke, sponsored by JAPET, was held in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya. In the course of the seminar, I was able to meet many Japanese teachers as we all talked about Japanese music and played traditional instruments. At that point, I had an idea. Wouldn't it be interesting and relevant to share this pleasure with foreign teachers? That is why I wanted to sponsor a workshop that introduces foreign teachers to traditional Japanese music. Mr. Ueno fo JEARN supported me in my quest to start this workshop. However, the expense of conducting such a workshop was daunting. I estimated roughly that such a workshop would cost one million yen or more. Fortunately, the president of a software company that has cooperated with the seminar gave me valuable assistance. He said,"It's admirable that you have taken up the challenge. If you need some help, I will loan you one of my employees. The woman I have in mind is quite able.″When I told him that I don't have any traditional Japanese instruments, he offered to have the musical instrument factory with which his company is affiliated lend us the instruments. A marride couple affiliated with JAPET came to AWAJI in order to assist us with the preparations. With the help of many friends and other volunteers, we were ready to open the workshop.
Mr.Harada	Ms. Tomoko Ito	Ms.Kimie Oitate
iEARN staff ,Ms.Ito, Miss.Nagai,	Miss. Mayumi Nagai	Paper dolls space

In the hall we set up musical instruments such as shamisen, koto, and Japanese drums. We also set up three personal computers and a screen with a projector in order to create and to share video-mail. The foreigners surprised us. They enthusiastically approached and attempted to learn how to play the instruments. One of them sat on the floor and asked a menber of the staff to teach him the basic technique for playing one of the instruments. It was the first time he had ever played a koto. After a bit of practice, he and the Japanese teachers were soon confidently playing music together.
"Sakura sakura″practice on the koto (Mrs.Motoko Hirota )	Mr&Mrs Komatu	He was very keen on music.
The Taiwan teachers enjoyed making Japanese peper dolls.	The Iran teachers too...	How many dolls?
We love Japanese drums.

Later, we decided to teach the foreign teachers one-on-one how to do the Bon festival dance to the accompaniment of the music on the traditional instruments. We could not help but smile as we watched them dance so enthusiastically.

While the teachers were dancing, one person in the middle of the dance circle drew a picture using computer software. I was surprised when he drew the sun and colored it yellow instead of red. At first I asked him if it was the moon. He seemed a little disappointed. "No″,he replied. "It is the sun.″I realized that the established "color″of the sun differs from culture to culture.

After that. I used my video camera to create JPEG files that blended the picture of the yellow sun and images of workshop participants dancing in front a curtain. The teachers, when they saw these files, cheered enthusiastically. "It's fantastic!″they said. One teacher said, "Please explain to me how to synthesize images. If possible, I want to try to do it on my video camera.

Other teachers took home to their countries CD-ROMs tha we burned for them. Though I didn't prepare as thoroughly as I might have, I was very pleased by the high turnout for the workshop. The teachers enjoyed making Japanese paper dolls, exploring video-mail and learning how to play traditional Japanese musical instruments. It was a great success. We have promised to make exchanges with each other's schools in the future. I want to thank the iEARN staff for your encouragement and assistance. You were key to the success of the workshop. I look forward to working with you in the future. By the way, because some of the addresses we collected are invalid or mistaken. I have decided to place all videos on my homepage. Participants may download the videos onto their own computers. The homepage address will appear with the workshop repout by the end of August.