Executive Director Diary

Muroran Chamber of commerce and industry’s President Mr.Yoshiyuki Nakata and his wife Kumiko invited us to their office.  100 years anniversary for Muroran Chamber. 

I visited Muroran City (Sister City of Knoxville ) as a part of a delegation from Knoxville City. It was very nice meeting City Mayor Aoyama again. We appreciate their welcoming events which all the city workers were waiting for us to greet. Thank you so much for your friendship. 

Students from Kaisei Gakuin, our sister city in Muroran, Japan, recently came to the United States to study English and experience American culture. We extend our gratitude to Clayton Bradley Academy for hosting the exchange program. The students had the opportunity to participate in the International Festival and experience a week of high school life in the USA. Host families arranged a Holi festival and took them to Dollywood, an amusement park, creating unforgettable memories. Thank you for your generous hospitality and support.

The Japanese tea ceremony typically takes place in a tearoom with tatami floor. Professor David Matthews’ interior architecture studio offered a portable space for the Knox Asian Festival to share this tradition with a larger audience. Students in Matthews’ Japanese Aesthetics and Tennessee Craft explored tearooms across the region in order to create their final project.

Yesterday, we celebrated the dedication of this space with a ribbon cutting and traditional Japanese tea ceremony with our university community and representatives from the Japan-America Society of Tennessee, Inc. You can see the students’ work this September at the 11th annual Knoxville Asian Festival.

The studio received funding through the Angelo Donghai Foundation, who have supported students’ learning experiences in interior architecture for more than 20 years.

Knox News 
https://www.wbir.com/video/news/local/51-f1e38cea-8486-4a8f-8848-36bb1d3ac8dc

Thank you so much City of Knoxville for your support for 10 years and being there!

Thank you so much for all sponsors, vendors, performers, volunteers and each culture group. We could not make the impact without you.

10 students and 2 chaperones came to visit for the first time after COVID from Muroran City, Japan. Students did Homestay & Teacher visited L & N Stem school & Bearden High School. Mayor Kincannon welcomed the Sister City delegations. They exchanged presents.

ACCTN partnered with the School of Interior Architecture College of Architecture. Thank you so much Professor David Matthews for inviting us to create the design of a mobile tea house with students which we can use for future tea ceremony classes and Knox Asian Festival. We appreciate this opportunity.

ACCTN organized a Japanese Knoxville History & Downtown introduction Tour. Visit Knoxville, OLD city, Gay st, History center, Sunsphere observation deck.