The visiting Kyoto Tachibana Senior High School Band, which is scheduled to perform at Taiwan’s Double Ten National Day celebration on Monday, played a spontaneous concert at the Grand Hotel in Taipei yesterday.
The 88 students and five teachers from the school arrived in Taiwan on Wednesday for a six-day visit, and are scheduled to depart after the performance on Monday.
The band gave a five-minute performance in one of the hotel’s halls shortly after 9am, as a crowd rushed to take photographs.
Photo: CNA
The band also played at Liberty Square later in the day.
The students also attended an event at Taipei First Girls’ High School, where they were presented with pearl milk tea and vintage cakes sent by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in her capacity as the chairwoman of the General Association of Chinese Culture (GACC), association Secretary-General Lee Hou-ching (李厚慶) said yesterday.
Tsai also sent a card that said: “Welcome to Taiwan! I look forward to your performances, and I believe the Double Ten National Day will be even more glorious because of your presence.”
The Tachibana school band, nicknamed the “Orange Devils” because of their orange uniforms, are to perform during a massive ceremony to mark Taiwan’s National Day, Lee said in a statement on Wednesday.
The band was invited by the National Day Preparation Committee and the GACC.
Although travel between Taiwan and Japan had been restricted for more than two years during the COVID-19 pandemic, donations of masks from Taiwan and vaccines from Japan enhanced the countries’ friendship, Lee said.
This is the first time a large foreign group has been invited to participate in the National Day event, Lee said.
The band is scheduled on Sunday to have exchanges with three Taiwanese school bands that are to perform on Monday, Lee added.
The band’s videos often receive millions of views on YouTube, with four having received more than 10 million views each.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei MRT is to begin accepting mobile payment services in the fall, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said on Saturday. When the company finishes the installation of new payment units at ticketing gates in October, MRT passengers can use credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, the operator said. In addition, the MRT would also provide QR payment codes — which would be compatible with Line Pay, Jkopay, iPass Money, PXPay Plus, EasyWallet, iCash Pay, Taiwan Pay and Taishin Pay — to access the railway system. Currently, passengers can access the Taipei MRT by buying a single-journey token or using EasyCard,
RSS