[Held on Saturday, March 14] Mizushima Terrace Meeting 〜 An event planned over the course of a year by Kojōike High School students! Shop, eat, exchange, and enjoy different cultures

On Saturday, March 14, 2026, the “Mizushima Terrace Meeting,” a community exchange event planned and prepared by students of Okayama Prefectural Kurashiki Kojoike High School, will be held.

This exchange event makes the most of Mizushima’s character as a place where many foreign residents live and work, offering a chance to experience the appeal of a community where different cultures coexist.

This year’s themes are “school uniform upcycling” and “intercultural exchange.” The program will include sales of upcycled products made by high school students and activities for enjoying intercultural exchange.

What Is the Mizushima Terrace Meeting?

The Mizushima Terrace Meeting is a community exchange event that began with the aim of restoring some of the vitality of the Mizushima area. It is held under the auspices of the Mizushima Residential Environmental Learning Consortium, with volunteer students from Okayama Prefectural Kurashiki Kojoike High School at its center.

Each year, the students who come together choose a theme that interests them, then spend about a year planning and preparing, creating a place for exchange together with local residents.

The themes of the most recent events were “Mizushima × Showa” in March 2024 and “Intercultural Exchange” in March 2025. This year’s theme is the same as in 2025, but the event is said to be even bigger and better.

For details about this year’s Mizushima Terrace Meeting, see the image below.

Interview with Students from Kojoike High School

We asked students from Okayama Prefectural Kurashiki Kojoike High School, who planned and prepared the Mizushima Terrace Meeting, what to look forward to this year.

What are some highlights of this year’s event?

Student

This year’s theme is intercultural exchange, and you can enjoy authentic Filipino food.

We’ll be selling Filipino chicken porridge called “arroz caldo” and fried banana treats called “pinaypay,” made by people from the Philippines. These are dishes you rarely get a chance to try in Japan, so we hope you’ll give them a taste.

And after your meal, we hope you’ll try the coffee brewed by us high school students.
The other day, we learned how to brew coffee from the owner of Coffee Roast Okabe, whose shop is in Mizushima.

We’re a little nervous about serving it to customers, but we’ll brew delicious coffee.
On the day, we’ll have several coffees from around the world, including Colombia, Brazil, and Indonesia.

Another highlight of the Terrace Meeting is the sale of “upcycled school uniform products” made by high school students.

We’ll be selling upcycled products made by high school students using fabric scraps left over from the uniform sewing process, donated by KANKO GAKUSEIFUKU CO., LTD.

These are uniforms that we high school students wear every day.
This is a sustainable initiative that also considers the environment, making use of fabric scraps that would otherwise have been discarded during the sewing process.

We’ve all used sewing machines to make a variety of small items, so if you find something you like, we hope you’ll buy it.

Finally, do you have a message for our readers?

Student

We’re looking forward to finally holding this Terrace Meeting, which we’ve spent a year planning in the hope of bringing back even a little of the energy to Mizushima’s shopping district.

Many foreign residents who live or work in Mizushima are expected to join us on the day, so we think there’ll be opportunities for intercultural exchange, too.

The Terrace Meeting is held just once a year, so please come along. We’ll be waiting for you at the venue.

From the Writer

Many foreign residents live in Mizushima, but I feel that we don’t actually have many opportunities to interact with them in our daily lives.

In that context, the Mizushima Terrace Meeting, which the students have spent about a year planning, looks set to become a valuable opportunity to connect with foreign residents in the community.

This event grew out of the students’ ideas and initiative. It is an event made possible by Mizushima’s multicultural community. Why not come and enjoy it on the day?

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