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We again do not break our traditions and we celebrate the Hanami Festival in the National Assembly Park. Taking the advantage, I would like to congratulate you, Mr Ambassador, on holding this responsible position and to wish you successes in this important job: The Head of Armenia-Japan Friendship Group Babken Tunyan said, welcoming the attendees. “This event is a good occasion to break away from other problems for a moment and to combine the pleasant with the useful,” the Head of the Friendship Group noted, adding that the meeting with the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Armenia Aoki Yutaka is also designed.

On April 1, by the initiative of the Armenian-Japanese Scientific and Cultural Union Arumenia-Nippon NGO it had already been for the 9^th time that the Hanami Festival had been celebrated in the NA Park, in which the RA NA deputies, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Armenia Aoki Yutaka, the representatives of the RA Foreign Ministry, the members of Arumenia-Nippon Union and other guests took part.

“It’s a great honour for me to be with you in the Hanami Festival taking place in the RA NA Park, and to enjoy the beauty of sakura on this beautiful, sunny day. The sakuras blossomed, as the Armenian-Japanese relations blossomed,” the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Armenia Aoki Yutaka underlined in his speech. The Ambassador thanked the Armenian-Japanese Scientific and Cultural Union Arumenia-Nippon NGO, the National Assembly, the Armenia-Japan Friendship Group for organizing the event dedicated to Hanami Festival.

The Expert in Japanese Studies, the Head of the Armenian-Japanese Scientific and Cultural Union Arumenia-Nippon NGO Anna Vardanyan presented the poet, novelist, playwright Armenuhi Sisyan, noting that her works were translated and printed in 32 languages, among them also Japanese.

Hanami is a bright festival admiring the beauty of the blossomed sakura flowers. The planting of sakuras took place in the RA NA Park in May 2015 as a sign of friendship between the Armenian and Japanese peoples. The planting was dedicated to the 100^th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide and the 70^th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki cities.

At the end of the event a tree decoration ceremony was held: The attendees decorated the blossomed sakuras with paper cranes as a sign of peace made by the students of the Hikari Scientific-Educational-Cultural Centre.