This page is retained as a historical reference.  Its contents are only relevant to the 2008 festival. 

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CIR checklist for June International Festival preparation

1. Feb – March 決裁 (kessai) at City Hall, in past years up to the 部長 level, for permission to help with the festival and to use city monies for some supplies.

2. March-April Reserve a room at City Hall and begin meetings with volunteers to start planning. In past years we met twice a month, about 6 times in total before the event. Once people decide on a tentative day (2007-June 9^th: 2008-June 21^st), you need to check with the parks dept. to find out if the location is available. It helps to decide the dates for all future meetings in advance, and then reserve the same room, if possible, to make it easier for people to find it. Probably early June is better, as it will avoid the cotton tree blizzard of ’08, and it won’t overlap so much with preparations for the sister-city exchange programs.

3. March-April If the park is available, you’ll need to submit two forms to the parks dept. (copies in folder). You can then check to see if (1) tents are available (福祉課) (2) tables and chairs are available at the Sports Center (and confirm that there isn’t some big sporting event on the same day which would mean limited parking) and (3) panels and cooking room are available at Ryokuryo High School. If those things are available, then you need 依頼文書 (request letters) for each of them. (Copies online and in folder.)

4. March-April In ’07 and ’08, the park near the Sports Center was being managed by an outside company. We took a trip to their office, asked about any restrictions on using the park, showed them newspaper coverage from the previous year, and gave them flyers and posters which they were nice enough to distribute.

5. April POSTER—Past years’ are on file, or maybe an artistic volunteer will come up with a new one. In order to get them posted at city buildings and schools, you need another 決裁　with the poster, and then an 依頼書 with the number from the successful 決裁to attach to each poster to ask that they hang it up. You can also print out lots of copies and give them to the volunteers to post around town at their favorite shops and such.

6. April TRUCK—Look for a truck to carry the panels, tents, sand bags, and other big stuff. In ’07 we got one from the 教育委員会, and in ’08 we got one from 管財係. We picked up the truck on the Friday before the festival, and returned it on the Monday after.

7. April SAND BAGS—In ’07 we didn’t have anything to weigh down the legs of the exhibit panels, and with a little more wind they probably would have fallen over. So in ’08 we got 30 sand bags from Kita On, the outdoor amphitheater outside of town. You need an 依頼書　for this. We picked them up on Friday when we got the truck, and returned them on the Monday after the festival.

8. April FOOD—Once people start putting forth ideas for food, it’s good to contact the health department by phone and ask whether that menu item would be possible or not. They will ask for lots of details on preparation, ingredients, and storage, so be sure to get that info from the volunteers at the meeting. You can then report back to the volunteers at the next meeting.

9. April-May SUPPLIES—Ask volunteers for a list of the supplies they think they’ll need for their booths, as well as paper plates, utensils, garbage bags for the food area. In 07 and 08, the International Exchange Section was willing to cover the cost of 1-2 万 worth of supplies. Once you have the list of what people want, you’ll need to go to the stores (we used Package Plaza and the ￥100 shop at Daiei), price all the items, and come up with a list to submit to the money people in City Hall, after you get another kessai, of course. Last year’s Excel file is called物品購入.

10. May PR—In order to get the festival listed in the June 広報 City Paper, you’ll need to submit the information by the first week of May. We also submitted 取材依頼 (requests to the newspapers) to the Iwamizawa and Hokkaido papers, asking them to print articles about the upcoming event. Future possibilities for PR may include announcements on the city-wide speaker system, or on the local FM Hamanasu radio station.

11. May HEALTH DEPARTMENT—About 2 weeks before the event (or whenever the menu has been decided), you need to submit paperwork to the health department over at the Sorachi Govt. Building, including ingredient lists, map of the location, simple illustration of the food booth to show grill and hand washing area etc., and fee of ￥2,200. Copies of past years’ papers are on file. It only took them a few days to issue the certificate. You’ll need to go pick it up, and tape it somewhere visible on the day of the festival.

12. Day of FESTIVAL DAY—In ’08, I came to City Hall at 8:00, got the truck, and went to unload the sand bags at the park. Another group went to the cooking room at Ryokuryo to prepare the food. Most of the others were to meet at the park at 8:30. While volunteers were bringing out the tables and chairs, we went in the truck to Ryokuryo to get the panels, and to the ふれあいセンター to get the tents, and got back to the park by 9:30. It may be a good idea to get the panels earlier next year, as I think the volunteers were rushed in setting up their booths. We finished returning things and cleaning up by around 18:00.

13. Monday AFTER—On the Monday after the festival, we returned the truck and sandbags. Later that day, we went back to the park management company to thank them, and made the rounds in City Hall to the various different departments to thank them for their help and give them copies of newspapers articles showing that it was a success.