April 18, 2012 — A free Japan Week Spring Festival, scheduled Saturday at Charlottesville's Fashion Square Mall, will feature martial arts demonstrations, traditional song and dance, and other demonstrations of Japanese language and culture.
 
The festival runs from 2 to 4:30 p.m. on the north (Sears) end of the mall, and is sponsored by the University of Virginia's Japanese Program in the Department of East Asian Languages, Literatures and Cultures, the East Asia Center and the Asia Institute, all part of the College of Arts & Sciences.
 
The event will feature welcoming remarks by Ann H. Mallek of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors and Charlottesville Mayor Satyendra Huja. Nen Daiko will perform on the Taiko drum.
 
In addition to the Spring Festival, the Japanese film "Kyo o mamoru (Resilience - Protecting Today)" will screen at Shea House room 211 on Friday at 7 p.m., and again at the same time and location on April 26.
 
The English subtitles for the film were created by over 60 students of the Japanese language at 12 different U.S. universities, including U.Va. The five U.Va. students who participated in the project will discuss the film before the screening.
 
— by Rob Seal