Our annual celebration of a successful year was held and 35 members and guests showed up in support of the group. With lots of snow on the ground outside many people brought homemade dishes to share with others. The food was plentiful and delicious, the entertainment included the first comedy routine which illustrated intercultural miscommunication. It was not really a "manzai" performance, but the audience seemed to thoroughly enjoy the humor provided by Ken and his wife Junko.

The second act was comprised of our MSC band (Kaoru on the keyboard and Rob on the guitar) with the comedy duo singing a couple of oldies. Junko showed her range with a moving rendition of "Raise me up" by Celtic Woman. This was following by a peppy keyboard solo by Kaoru. The finale had everyone singing the Carpenters hit song, "Top of the World."

The entire room was singing along and that was really beautiful. The energy and conversation in the room was flowing and so we closed the show with the final dance performance of "Luke" Evans leading most of the people there in learning some new dance moves. She is a young dance instructor from California, studying at Hokkaido University, and she brought a few of her regular students along to demonstrate the moves. It was great to see almost everyone up on the dance floor giving it their all to work off some of the excess calories they had consumed earlier.

On display in the front of the room was our new cloth banner, which matches the image at the top of this page. It was really nice to see our organization name up on high, so bright and clear. We have been able to accomplish a lot since our formation, and everyone can be proud of the support we are providing to the community. Unfortunately, some of the key people who contributed so much during 2017 were not able to attend the party, but all of us recognize their support, especially the Sapporo International Communication Plaza staff.