The US first lady Michelle Obama is wrapping up a visit to Japan with a taste of traditional culture in Kyoto, one of the country’s ancient capitals.
Michelle was visiting Kiyomizu-dera, a Buddhist temple founded in 780 on a forested hill overlooking the city and viewing a Noh performance today by local college students.
Kiyomizu-dera is a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of Kyoto’s most famous vistas. Michelle will also visit the 1,300-year-old Fushimi Inari shrine, a place of worship for Japan’s other major religion, Shinto.
Students will staged a performance of taiko drumming at the shrine before Michelle leaves Japan, one of Asia’s richest nations, for Cambodia, one of Asia’s poorest.
Obama arrived in Japan on Wednesday for a visit that has focused mainly on cooperation in the “Let Girls Learn” initiative to help girls in the developing world attain educations.
President Barack Obama and his wife recently announced the programme, which will devote millions of dollars in aid for girls’ empowerment projects.
This is Michelle’s first visit to Japan, as she did not accompany the president on his state visit last year. The visit is seen partly as a way of making up for her absence then, and as a sign of closeness between the close allies.
This is not the first time that the first lady has had a good time. During her first visit to India in 2010, she did an impromptu dance with children in a school in Mumbai. See the video below.
She also shook a leg when appeared for an interview at The Ellen Show. In the video below, the first lady can be seen dancing with TV show host Ellen DeGeneres, earlier this year.
In 2012, she was also seen rope jumping in the following video during her appearance in the Live With Kelly and Michael show.
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