Manippon at IUJ Open Day

 

The Manippon Kizuna Project sign!

On may 19th Manippon made its debut, selling handmade Manipuri products at IUJ's (International University of Japan) Open Day Festival. The festival saw people visit the college from all over Niigata prefecture and Minami Minami Uonuma City, and was filled with multi-cultural treats and festivities. 

We at Manippon named this first event the Kizuna Project (the Bonds Projects when translated from Japanese) to emphasize the connection between Japan and Manipur, and in the hopes that it would be the first of many. Overall the project was a success and we were able to sell almost our whole stock of products. The locals were very sympathetic to our cause, and we also recieved visits from IUJ's President, Masakatsu Mori, and several professors. We also set a new president at Open Day, as we were the only group to sell products, in addition to dolling out Indian tea to our guests for 10 yen a cup. We also recieved numerous orders for products that were unfortunately sold out, like our most popular produt the cane-handled bag; see the far left below)

Manippon's booth at Open Day

In the beginning the Kizuna project had a simple aim: to sell the products of Manipur in hopes of providing extra benefits to Manipuri workers. However our success and the sincere interest we received from visitors, built the foundation (and our hopes) for extending our activities and attempting to make ever larger contributions to Manipur. From that day on our schedule seemed seemed to fill up mercilessly with ambitions and plans, and our operations began to snowball. And this was at a time when we were still finishing our theses! Luckily all of the members survived to tell the tale.

 Manippon's Manipuri representative, Devi (far right), with IUJ's President Mori, who also purchased one of our wallets!

 Devi posing with Gretchen, IUJ's Career Adviser, and me in the background gorging myself on Thai curry (thanks Meow)

Please let us know if you have any inquiries about the Open Day or the Manippon Kizuna Project. For a list of our products please see our facebook page ( http://www.facebook.com/ManipponGlobal ).  

Until next time!