A Reception to Celebrate the Birthday of His Majesty The Emperor

A reception celebrating the birthday of His Majesty The Emperor of Japan was held in the Sheraton Hotel in Vancouver on Monday, December 7. About 470 guests including The Honorable Naomi Yamamoto, Minister of State for Intergovernmental Relations of BC attended the reception.

At the beginning of the reception cerebrating His Majesty’s 76th birthday, a chorus group sang the National anthems of Japan and Canada. The evening included a koto and a shakuhachi performance as well as demonstrations of karate, aikido, sake tasting and ikebana arrangement from the Ikenobo school. In addition, many guests made origami cranes for the “5,000 Cranes Project” in support of the athletes participating in the 2010 Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.