On Sunday, November 15, from 10:00 to 15:00, IAC (International Association of Chigasaki) organized our first charity market at an assembly room of an apartment house near Aeon Style Shopping Mall, Chigasaki.

Many events were cancelled because of the pandemic this year.  Normally, IAC has a booth at the Fureai Civic Festival that has been held annually on Japan’s Culture Day, November 3, at Chigasaki Central Park up until last year, but the festival was also cancelled this year.

We therefore decided to open a flea market on our own because we need to raise fund for international cooperation and aid. We tried to look for a market location but could not find any public facility that allows us to sell goods. That is why our first charity market was held at the assembly room of the apartment house. Some of IAC members are residents of this apartment house.

There were so many clothes and goods to sell that the tables that we prepared to display the items were not big enough. So we spread picnic blankets outside the assembly room building, and present the goods there as well.

Luckily, the weather was perfect, and there were a lot of people around because Aeon Style Shopping Mall and the Chigasaki Central Park are right across a street from the apartment house. We also put balloons and handmade signs to attract customers to the market.

According to the sales report, we got a pretty good result for the market.