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The last day of the European Literature Festival was held in the Europe House in the Roppongi area. I was totally lost when I came out of the metro station, but luckily, I ran into a lovely British lady who lives in Tokyo and who accompanied me right to the doorstep of the Europe House! People in Tokyo are so helpful!
On this third day of the festival, I had the opportunity to listen to Mari Okamoto’s talk about Kosztolànyi, a renowned Hungarian author. Mari Okamoto is a professor at the Hungarian department of Osaka University. As a native Hungarian-speaker, I am really amazed by the interest in Hungarian language, literature and culture that I experience over and over in Japan. Mari Okamoto’s talk was followed by a presentation by Mitsuyoshi Numano, from Tokyo University, whose research focuses on Polish literature.
After the lecture there was Hungarian pogàcsa too, which I probably haven’t had since a few years. It was such an unexpected experience to reconnect with my native culture in Tokyo and to gain a new appreciation for it through the European Literature Festival.
The last event was a panel discussion with authors who also read out of their works. The authors present at the panel discussion were Menchu Gutiérrez (Spain), Valter Hugo Mãe (Portugal), Mia Kankimäki (Finland), Thomas Stangl (Austria), Johan Lauwereyns (Belgium) and Takahiro Ueda (Japan).
After the last event, there was a small discussion with authors Jonas Jonasson, Sara Baume, Mia Kankimäki, Takahiro Ueda and Ambassador to the European Union, Patricia Flor.
The festival closed with a wine reception.
The European Literature Festival was an amazing way to experience European culture outside Europe and it made me really proud of being European.
I learned a lot about contemporary European authors and the festival really opened my eyes on the diversity of European cultures and languages.