September 27-28 is the weekend mini-festival of Japanese culture to be held at St. Mary's University in Halifax NS.

September 27th (Saturday) is movie night at the McNally Theatre. Entrance is free! Two Japanese movies will be shown:

6:00 p.m. 歓待 Kantai (Hospitalité) , 2010, 96 min, comedy.

Tokyo is bigger and different from what people often think. Some neighbourhoods are like forgotten villages. One of these is home to a hard-working family with a small printing business. A man arrives who will not leave. The unease of hospitality. Xenophobia exists in Japan too. As does humour.

8:00 p.m. ツナグ Tsunagu (Until The Break Of Dawn), 2012, 129 min, drama.

たった一人と一度だけ、死者との再会を叶えてくれる人がいるらしい―。半信半疑で依頼をしてくる人たちの前に現れる使者は、ごく普通の高校生・歩美（松坂桃李）だった。横柄な態度で、癌で亡くなった母・ツル（八千草薫）に会うことを希望する中年男性・畠田（遠藤憲一）。喧嘩別れをしたまま自転車事故で死んでしまった親友・御園（大野いと）に聞きたいことがある女子高生・嵐（橋本愛）。プロポーズ直後に突然失踪した恋...

For a trailer with English subtitles, please click here. (Sorry, we could not embed the video in the blog post.)

September 28th (Sunday) is a day of cultural presentations including tea ceremony, bugaku performance (court dance & music), kyudo (Japanese archery), taiko (drums), calligraphy, washi (Japanese paper), incense, and of course, ikebana! Entrance is free. Venue is also the McNally Theatre.

We will be doing the ikebana part. :-) Hope to see you there!

The Japanesque event is co-organized by St. Mary's University and the Consulate General of Japan at Montreal, with the support of The Japan Foundation.