With the dust from the parade finally settling down, were now in the midst of clearing the final bits and ends of returning borrowed items, settling bills, clearing and storing props, and doing a post mortem of this years Penang Yosakoi Parade. But before we get into the bureaucratic part of things, I would like to first of all thank everyone from the bottom of my heart, for your contribution and participation at this years event. By most accounts, the event was an improvement from last year, and most of the people who attended truly enjoyed themselves, with a wider range of food and carnival stalls, an extended dance programme and many new features to the event this year. With only one years experience under our belt, we were still rather nervous about this years event and tried very hard to improve on several fronts this year. But there were still many areas where we know we have to improve and rectify and not everything went exactly as planned! So, at this juncture, I would like to apologise for any inconveniences, trouble and aggravation that it may have caused you - some of the problems were due to our oversight and/or lack of manpower, others were unfortunately out of our control, but I can promise you that none of them were ever intentional, so I hope you will find it in your hearts to forgive us for any shortcomings and mistakes we have made. Like last year, we started with only 3 ladies working on this project from the beginning, but towards the end we were blessed with the help from additional 3 members who made up the core group of 6 committee members. I cannot thank them enough for their incredible hardwork, their team spirit and for their initiative to step into areas where I could not handle adequately. So inspired by the Oscars season right now, I would like to thank by name, the people whose help this event could not have done without! Kiyoka - my right-hand, left-hand, behind and front woman; she was both my conscience and sounding board in all our planning and arrangements, and she was always there to step in for me when I needed her to. She endured many sleepless nights worrying about things that I didn’t have time to worry about, but nothing seemed to frazzle her cos she always kept herself immaculately groomed and always ready with a joke and a smile. With her sharp eyes and ability to spot things going awry, she adverted many potential disasters for us throughout the process. Thank you so much Kiyoka-san! Fumi had the least enviable task to handle as she took on the momentous job of booking and handling all the carnival and food stalls. She tirelessly went out to contact all the vendors, and followed up and followed up and followed up! And despite not being able to speak Hokkien or Chinese, she explained the options and took down and coordinated all the requests from over 75 vendors for that day. Without her near-Godly patience and meticulousness, we would not have been able to offer so many stalls for everyone to enjoy. Thank you for making it all possible Fumi-san! Helping Fumi-san in the task was another lady of immense patience and reason – Ms Kim was instrumental in helping Fumi-san negotiate, explain and solve some issues that inevitably creep up during this long and difficult process. It was certainly not easy being in the ‘middle’ as a ‘messenger’ (no disrespect intended!) but Ms Kim carried out her tasks incredibly efficiently and never showed any temper! Thankfully too, she was endowed with immense logic and reason, which helped to smooth the verification and set up process. Thank you so much Ms Kim for being such a pillar of strength! Winging her way in from freezing Japan 2 weeks before the event date, was Hitomi-san, who left her beloved goats and other animals in Japan just to help us with the organization of the parade. With over 23 teams and 650 participants and ever-changing schedules, her task was made harder by the fact that the route she had to manage was over 400m long! Otsukaresama deshita!! Another lady who would ‘wing-in’ at crucial times is Soo Bee, whose knowledge and experience opened up doors and smooth out the process for us in the background. Without her push and pull, we would have been unceremoniously ‘stuck’ a couple of times. Many people mistake Kazuki for a girl – but that’s because he looks so pretty in his Cosplay costumes!! As head of the Malaysia Cosplay Toshokan, he pulled in and organized the colourful cosplayers from all over South East Asia and provided the much needed manpower from his ‘army’ of cosplayers to help with the parade logistics. Thank you also to Ozy and Frank!! There are many other people who contributed to the organization and success of this event – from the dancers, the volunteers, the parade staff, the decorators, the Japanese senseis, the carpenters, the movers, the cooks, the drummers, the kimono dressers, the announcers and many more!! And last but not the least; we would like to thank the Chief Minister YAB Tuan Lim Guan Eng for gracing our event despite his very busy schedule (opening the 2nd Penang Bridge!); YB Danny Law and the Penang Global Tourism for their marketing support; YDP Puan Patahiya for her incredible support in allowing the use of the facilities and MPPP staff to organise this event – especially to Encik Akbar and En Hashim of MPPP; YB Phee Boon Poh and his team of PPS knights for their enduring and important support; the Japanese Consulate and the Japanese Embassy; and everyone who attended and supported the event!!! THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH!! May the Penang Yosakoi Parade continue to inspire people with what’s possible in Penang! Hope to see you all again soon!
Posted on: Wed, 05 Mar 2014 12:47:39 +0000