Do you want to know about Japan’s food, culture, and music? Check out Japan Day at the Kingstown Fish Market next Friday, May 26. The event is part of the month of activities being put on by the Fisherman’s Day Committee.

Japanese volunteer Mariko Sakuma, attached to the Fisheries Department, spearheads this aspect of the festivities.{{more}}

She is into the sixth month of a two-year attachment, and she wants people here to have a greater appreciation of the Japanese way of life.

“People don’t know about Japan,” Sakuma said. “People think it is the same as China.”

She has taken up residence in the central leeward town of Barrouallie and has settled into a new lifestyle.

This is the first time that “Japan Day” is being observed here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, but Sakuma wants to make it an annual affair.

“I want people to know more about Japan,” she said.

Soft spoken, but assured, Sakuma defended her country’s position on whaling and of its support to St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

“Japan wants to see the fishing industries of these islands progress,” she outlined. She alluded to whaling and blackfish expeditions undertaken in Bequia and Barrouallie.

Sakuma has been on several trips to catch the blackfish with her Barrouallie colleagues.

“I like to ride a boat. I like to catch fish. I never sea sick,” she said.