Sunday, July 23, 2006

World picture books available for browsing:
A display of world picture books will be held Aug. 2 to 6 at Kyoto City International Foundation's facility in Sakyo Ward.

About 150 illustrated children's books from around the world will be on exhibit. All feature various animals, drawing young readers into a virtual zoo. About a third of the books are translated into Japanese. Visitors are free to browse through all of them.

Kim Fang, an award-winning picture book author, will read children books written by himself or others each day from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m.

There will be a lecture by two keepers from the Kyoto City Zoo at 11 a.m. Aug. 6 on how animals raise their young, along with a picture-card show illustrating a story of a zoo monkey.

All events will be in Japanese. The display will be open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day.

Admission is free, but reservations must be made for the book reading by Kim and the zoo lecture.

The venue, also known as Kyoto-shi Kokusai Koryu Kaikan, is a six-minute walk from Keage Station on the Tozai subway line.

For reservations and more information, call the organizer at (075) 752-1187.

Lecture on S. Korea over the recent past:
Amnesty International's Osaka office will host a lecture meeting to discuss South Korea through the past 30 years from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday at conference room 302 in piaNPO building in Minato Ward, Osaka.

The speaker will be Yoshimasa Furuno, vice president of the Japan Committee for UNICEF Osaka Area Committee, who as a newspaper correspondent spent three years in South Korea starting in 1973, when the country experienced one of the most turbulent periods in its contemporary history, marked with such incidents as the kidnapping of Kim Dae Jung. Having observed the country since that time, Furuno argues that the recent policies of South Korea pertaining to the liquidation of the colonial past are often misunderstood in Japan. In his lecture, he will detail the reasons why the South Koreans seek liquidation after 60 years.

The lecture will be in Japanese.

Participation is 500 yen. Reservations in advance are recommended.

For reservations and details, call the organizer at (06) 4395-1313 or fax (06) 4395-1314.

Australian circus coming to Osaka:
An Australian circus will perform for the first time in Osaka at 7 p.m. Aug. 31 at International House, Osaka, in Tennoji Ward. A workshop will also be held Aug. 30 and 31.

Circa is a world-touring company that combines circus with dance as a new form of theatrical art. The performance will be held as part of Australia-Japan Dance Exchange 2006, a project to promote exchanges between the two countries through dance.

The program is "The Space Between," a production portraying the relationship between a woman and two men in an acrobatic performance with chanson numbers and mechanical noise.

The workshop, held 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. both days, will teach juggling and other stunts to children attending elementary school and junior high school, along with older participants with dance experience.

Tickets to the performance cost 1,500 yen in advance and 2,000 yen at the door, while the workshop is free.

Reservations for the workshop must be made by Aug. 21. Those wishing to attend the workshop must send their name, address, phone number, the date they wish to attend, and the number of attendants to the venue. Advance tickets are also available through the same procedure, or through ticket agency Pia or at the venue's information center.

For advance tickets and reservations to the workshop, call International House, Osaka, at (06) 6773-8182, fax (06) 6773-8421 or e-mail nichigo@ih-osaka.or.jp

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