Wedding in Nanjo City carried out as a regional promotion

Wedding in Nanjo City carried out as a regional promotion

On November 5 at the Chinen Social Welfare Center in Nanjo City, Shinnosuke and Yumiko Imazu celebrate their wedding ceremony organized with cooperation from the citizens of Nanjo.


November 11, 2011 Yukiyo Zaha of the Ryukyu Shimpo

On November 5, Shinnosuke Imazu, the leader of the NPO xBridge, a group involved in the administration of the Nanjo Citizens’ College, and his bride Yumiko, held their civil wedding at the Chinen Social Welfare Center in Nanjo City as part of an economic development project for the area. Members of the Citizens’ College carried out the preparations for the reception with dishes featuring local products such as vegetables, mozuku (seaweed appetizer) and irabu (sea snake) soup from Kudaka Island, being provided to the 300 guests, allowing it to also serve as a wedding-event to help promote the region.

Imazu has been to Kudaka Island regularly for the last seven years, and was stimulated “to think about what is important in life.” He started to become involved in the Citizens’ College and this heightened his feelings about boosting local development.

At the Chinen Social Welfare Center in Nanjo City on November 5, the food provided at the wedding was mostly local produce.


After registering their marriage in June, he thought that he would like to celebrate with people important to him in Nanjo, a place with which he has a deep relationship and special feelings towards.
The couple originally planned to hold a garden wedding in Chinen Cape Park, which is located near Seifa-Utaki and offers views of the blue ocean and Kudaka Island, and had been preparing for two months for that, but bad weather on the day of the wedding meant that the reception had to be held indoors.

Nanjo City Mayor Keishun Koja gave a congratulatory speech, saying, “I would like them both to
work hard for Nanjo and Okinawa,” and 70 year-old guest Nae Maeda, who had come from
Kudaka Island to celebrate with them said, “Please carry a touch of love like sunlight shining into every corner of your heart.”

Besides local Nanjo products, there were many examples of Okinawan produce, such as salt from Ie Island and rice from Izena Island. Friends of the bride, Eri Kuniyoshi and Ayako Tamanaha, said, “It is unconventional and nice that it’s so relaxed and free.”

Nanjo City plans to issue marriage certificates with a heart-shaped city logo, and Nanjo Tourist Association is going to look at the potential for weddings to be held at Chinen Cape Park in future.

(English Translation by T&CT, Lima Tokumori and Mark Ealey)

Go To Japanese


　


Previous Article:
Next Article:

[Similar Articles]