Firstly, our sincerest apologies for the delay in getting the March Flush Bulletin out to you! With February being such a short month, the preparations for the Chinese New Year, and the several dance performances by the Pink Hibiscus Yosakoi Team kept us all incredibly busy, and we were caught unprepared for this issue¡¯s publication date.

Nevertheless, we were delighted to see that there were in fact people who were actually looking forward to receiving our bulletin! Cool! And Thanks for your support and encouragement!

So what has the Club been doing? Well, we had our New Member¡¯s Welcome party where we met and mingled with our new members with the very best of Penang¡¯s hawker food fare. No, we didn¡¯t go on a tour of Penang¡¯s hawker centres, but we got them to come to us ¨C in the form of take-aways! Many thanks goes to Kyoko-san and Etsuko-san for organizing such a great party, and Mdm Harumi for letting us use her palatial place. And last but not least, to all the members who turned up for the free makan!! Heh heh!

Over the last month we have come to realize that our role in promoting Japanese Culture in Penang has been appreciated, with the Tokio Festival making an impact and impression here, with any ¡®copycat¡¯ events being held since. We¡¯re rather proud of the fact, as the saying goes ¡°Imitation is the best form of flattery¡±! It¡¯s just gratifying to see the participants at the Tokio Festival gaining recognition with the Cosplayers, the Dango-9 sisters and the Soran Bushi teams being asked to perform at numerous other events. Well done!

I suppose with dance, particularly Yosakoi being our forte, we have been invited once again to do a Yosakoi dance at this year¡¯s Penang Charity Bon Odori in July, so we¡¯re looking to start training for it as soon as possible. Anyone interested in joining us will be most welcome so please contact Hitomi-san at 012-534 5196.

Coming to March, this is the month we celebrate Hinamatsuri on 3rd March, Chap Goh Meh on the 4th, White Day on March 14th, and for the first time, we¡¯re going to try out a Movie Mania outing (see below).

For those of you unfamiliar with the White Day, it was first ¡®created¡¯ in Japan by a marshmallow maker who convinced the men to return marshmallows to ladies who gave them chocolates on Valentine¡¯s day. It was so called Marshmallow Day, which was later changed to White Day. Of course, now chocolate manufacturers also capitalize on this by promoting white chocolate. It¡¯s obviously all a marketing ploy to sell goods, but heck, any gift from a man is better than none, even if it means putting on a few more pounds!

And finally a couple of notices, the Playgroup has moved once again, but this time to a much lovelier, larger and conducive dance studio in Tanjong Tokong, thanks to Crestar Creative Centre. The kids love the space, the mommies love being able to drop the kids off for 1 and half hours, and the teachers are grateful for the enclosed, safe and airconed place which makes teaching so much easier! Unfortunately though, we¡¯ve had to scrap the weekly Club activities we no longer hold them at Diamond Villa. Nevertheless, we are however still looking to let the mommies do something constructive while waiting for the children in the Playgroup. Keep posted!

Editor, Pink Hibiscus Flush Bulletin

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