Japanese Group Will Visit City

Twenty visitors from Shiga Prefecture, the Japanese sister-state of Michigan, will present traditional Japanese songs and dances at the next meeting of Ann Arbor People-to-People, a 6 p.m. potluck dinner at the home of Mrs. Lester McCoy, 7443 East Michigan Avenue, Saline, Sept. 16. McCoy is vice president of the Ann Arbor Chapter and the executive director of Musical Youth International, the Youth Chapter of People-to-People which performed in Australia last month and in Japan in 1969. Yoshio Nishioka, chief of social education for the Shiga Prefecture (or state) government, is the leader of the group of Japanese. He and Hiromu Nomura, the assistant leader, are in their forties, but all the others are in their twenties. This is the fifth annual Shiga Youth Goodwill Mission to Michigan. The visitors come to Washtenaw County on Sept. 16th from Sturgis. From Ann Arbor, they go first to Grosse Pointe Farms and then to Birmingham, where the People-to-People Chapter will provide their last homestays before they leave Michigan. The young men and women have been selected as outstanding young leaders of their state, which pays part of their travel costs. On Sept. 8, they arrive by plane in Sault St. Marie. By charter bus, they will travel to Mackinaw City, Petoskey, Traverse City, and other cities. In Lansing, they will meet both city and state government officials on Sept. 13. Persons wanting to meet the Japanese are invited to the potluck dinner on Sept. 16, or to call Mrs. McCoy, 429-9734, or Carl Zwinck, 665-6297. Dan Silva, a junior, from Belize, another of Michigan's sister-states, is currently living in the home of Zwinck, president of Ann Arbor People-to-People. In the summer of 1973, he was given a free trip to Europe by the local Chapter. Silva has attended the junior college in Alpena for one year, and returns next year for a second year there. Ulrich Sauer, a dental student from Tuebingen, Ann Arbor's German sister-city, has been in Ann Arbor this month and hopes to return here later as a graduate dental student. The next meeting of the Board of Directors of Ann Arbor People-to-People will be held in Rooms 4 and 5 of the Michigan League on Tuesday, Oct. 8.