Japan's Obama town welcomes president with Hawaiian dance

Fri Nov 13, 12:17 pm ET

TOKYO (AFP) – When the US president arrived in Japan on Friday to kick off his first Asia tour in office, no-one was happier than his most fervent fans in the country -- the residents of the town of Obama.

To welcome the US leader, who spent part of his youth in Hawaii, and whose father was Kenyan, the town of 30,000 people dispatched its team of hula dancers to perform a dance outside the embassy of the African country.

The tropical-style welcome was actually performed several hours before Barack Obama's Air Force One touched down in a cold drizzle -- but the undeterred organisers suggested it was the symbolism that mattered.

The namesake of their ancient fishing town, which means "small shore" in Japanese, had been unable to make time to visit Obama town during his busy two-day trip, or even to watch the heartfelt Hawaiian welcome, they said.

"Security is so tight that we only hope to get a glance of the president at some point," said the group's leader, Seiji Fujihara, referring to the 16,000 police who are on duty in Tokyo during the state visit.

"We danced for friendship with Kenya and for the new ambassador," he said. "We also danced with the wish that we will meet President Obama."

Fujihara later said he and his dancers would wait again on Saturday to perform another show somewhere along Obama's route.

"We know it will be impossible to bring him to Obama," he said. "But we hope something will happen, and we are thrilled."

The people of Obama have rallied hard for the US President since his election campaign, creating a hula dance in his honour and distributing "I Love Obama" T-shirts.

The western Japan town, about 400 kilometres (250 miles) from Tokyo, has turned its accidental world fame into a cottage industry, selling presidential souvenirs and snacks, and enjoying a spike in tourism.

The town's officials had made every possible effort to contact Obama, sending him a gift of lacquer-coated chopsticks, the town's traditional craft, and offering him an invitation to the coastal settlement.

"The invitation was not accepted, due to the tight schedule of the president, but instead the US government invited the mayor to his speech," which is to be held in Tokyo on Saturday, a city official told AFP.

Obama Mayor Koji Matsuzaki gladly accepted the offer, she added.