Happy Birthday to Panama!

Masqueraders during Carnival celebrations. *Photo from Wikipedia August 31 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Trinidad and Tobago from the United Kingdom in 1962. The island of Trinidad was a Spanish colony from the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1498 to the arrival of a British fleet of 18 warships on February 18, 1797. During the same period, the island of Tobago changed hands among Spanish, British, French, Dutch and Courlander colonizers, more times than any other island in the Caribbean. Trinidad and Tobago (remaining separate until 1889) were ceded to Britain in 1802. The country Trinidad and Tobago

Interviewed & written by Isao Tokuhashi Mail to: itokuhashi@myeyestokyo.com   Clara Nakazato (Venezuela) Venezuelan cuisine instructor (She’s been in Japan since ’95) The 4th interviewee of “MET × Niki’s Kitchen” is Clara Nakazato, a woman from Venezuela, South America. She is encompassing, envelopes her students in a warm hug. Her Japanese husband has a warm personality as well as Clara and the couple creates an aura of peace and harmony. Clara never builds a wall. She has no hesitation about anything. She tries any food even if it’s new to her. To people as well, she never distinguishes people by race,

Andorra la Vella, the capital of Andorra. *Photo from Wikipedia September 8 is National Day of Andorra, also the feast of Our Lady of Meritxell. Our Lady of Meritxell is an Andorran Roman Catholic statue depicting an apparition of the Virgin Mary. Our Lady of Meritxell is the patron saint of Andorra. The original statue dated from the late 12th century. However, the chapel in which it was housed burned down on September 8 and 9, 1972, and the statue was destroyed. A replica can be found in the new Meritxell Chapel, designed in 1976. Created under a charter in