Frankston Fair

ORIGAMI AT THE FRANKSTON/SUSONO FRIENDSHIP ASSOCIATION'S JAPANESE FAIR 8 SEPTEMBER 2002

On the weekend of 7 and 8 September 2002 the Frankston/Susono Friendship Association (FSFA) held their biennial Japanese Fair; a showcase for Japanese Art/Craft/Performing Arts and Trade. A concert was held on the night before featuring the talents of our Susono visitors and Australians in Shakuhachi playing and Taiko Drumming.

There were also demonstrations of drum playing during the day Our stand was closest to it . Martin had to buy one of the CDs featuring the group.



The City of Susono is located at the base of Mt Fuji in Japan. Brenda Saunders, Committee Member of the Association and also Acting Secretary for the Melbourne Origami Group secured a stand and participation at this fair. Matt Gardiner and Martin Liu also participated along with Brenda in the demonstration and teaching of models.



Helping the Melbourne origami group was one of the visiters from Susono with whom we exchanged gifts at the end of the day. This lady showed great patience in teaching all comers and seemed to cope with our group's chaos



The Tori Gate which overarched our stand was decorated with dinosaurs, and one of the models of connected cranes from the first origami book Sembazuro Orikatamade from a single square cut to give smaller squares and folded cranes connected together



Yoshii the origami triceratops and mascot overlooked proceedings at the Fair with great interest and attracted a great deal of attention by itself and behaved particularly well Matt and Martin were a bit over excited which was probably based on sleep deprivation . Brenda coped well under the circumstances

A farewell dinner and party was held by FSFA for our Susono visitors which Martin, Matt, Brenda and Alan (Brenda's husband) attended.



Matt practised his Japanese with a lot of people who all seemed to be young ladies during the meal and during the Barn Dance. (this barn dance was good fun! Martin you should have danced too - Matt) Matt wanted to kick on but martin showed his age and made him leave early.



Brenda has been a member of FSFA for the past four years and had co-ordinated the Origami stand at these fairs. Brenda also attended the Australian Fair in Susono, Japan in 2001 folding koalas (my own design), kangaroos and penguins to the delight of many Japanese, some of whom wanted to be taught how to fold their sacred crane! The next fair in 2003 will be held in Japan. Thanks to Matt and Martin and of course Yoshii for their participation at the 2002 fair which was highly successful and alot of fun!

Hopefully more of the group will attend these biannual events in Frankston as it featured the Japanese culture through a number of varying activities of which origami was just one Given Matt's love of travelling it could be an annual event for him!!.

Written by Brenda Saunders, edited by Martin Liu.