SANO MUSLIMTHON 2016 – ROUND 1

Disseminate appealing spots to the world

On 18th July 2016, an event made for Muslims called ‘Muslimthon Sano’ was held by Ryoumo Muslim Inbound Development Council. The word ‘muslimthon’ is derived from the word ‘muslim’ and ‘marathon’.
While wearing the original Sano Muslimthon T-shirt, participants have to stroll around Sano city either by walking, public transport or even own cars, take pictures of pleasurable spot and upload it to social media. The one with the most ‘Likes’ will be awarded a lavish prize during BBQ session that was held at the end of the day.

The objective of this event is to spread the beauty of Sano to the world and let everyone knows that Sano is a Muslims welcoming city through social media.
About 11 Muslims (from Malaysia and Indonesia) and 5 Japanese took part in this round of Muslimthon. At first, all of the participants walked together to a famous spot in Sano city; the Yaku Yoke Taishi. With explanations from the Japanese participants and volunteers, participated Muslims were able to understand a foreign culture of visiting temples in Japan.

For lunch, lunch packs were prepared for every participants by Wakaba; a Muslim Friendly Japanese Food restaurant. After lunch hour, participants were divided into several groups to go to the next destination. Each group includes Muslims and Japanese combination. Among the spots that were visited are Santaki, Mount Yomogi Log Village, Karasawasan Castle Site and Izuruhara Benten Ike.

One of the Malaysian participants, Asri said ‘This is not my first time coming to Sano but I’m glad that I joined this event as I went to many beautiful and interesting new places! I would like to go to another beautiful place in Sano someday again. Plus, a very fun way to spend my spare time too’ commenting on the event.
Muslimthon ended with all the participants, staffs and volunteers gathered at Nikkoken where the organizer prepared a Halal BBQ dinner. Having dinner together allowing interactions between the Japanese and the Muslims, a great chance to get to know Islam and the practices. Because of the great feedbacks, Ryomo Muslim Inbound Development Council are planning to hold another Muslimthon in other season too.