The 1st Family Festival in Kagoshima (Japan) was held last Sunday, April 13. Junko Sakurada, the famous Japanese UC member and comebacking actress and singer was the guest speaker. She did a heart moving speech testifying about her blessing and family which she recieved from God and True Parents. After her more than an hour speech, she was presented a bouquet which she gave away as a gift to the oldest participant of the event. The recipient was a 94-year old lady who was very happy to receive personally from Junko Sakurada who came down the stage and walked thru the audience. The event was very memorable for Junko Sakurada because the following day, April 14, was her 50th birthday.

Prior to Junko Sakurada's speech on the said event there was an entertainment from 5 groups of performers. The opening number was done by the 2nd gen. junior and senior students' choral group, followed by a hip-hop dance performance from two 2nd gen. high school girls. The third presentation was a short but meaningful play from Camel Rider hero (a UC member, in full costume) who showed his mighty wits and physical skills. Yoko-san (wife of Kuya Willy Mendoza) was the narrator/emcee during Camel Rider's play w/ another UC member guy from same Church area. They have Q and A portion where they gave away some presents to children who answered questions on the stage. The next performance was a Hula (Hawaiian Dance) by the Satsuma Aloha Sisters (SAS) which is composed of 3 Japanese sisters and 2 Phil. sisters (Rose and Janet). The last and the main performance was from a famous male guest singer (not UC member) here in Kagoshima who rendered about 5 all English songs including It's A Beautiful World.

After Junko Sakurada's speech, there's the drawing of prizes to lucky participants of the said event and was wrapped up with a special pictorial w/ Junko Sakurada with each of the lucky families as she had drawn them herself by lot. Thanks for reading,

Rose Tamondong-Ninomiya
Kagoshima (Japan)