HOW far would you go to give your kids an amazing experience?<\/p>\n
For one family the answer was over 8100km after they travelled from Inagawa in Japan to Ballarat to experience Sunday\u2019s Wiggles concert at Civic Hall.<\/p>\n
Naoko Sato said she chose Ballarat because she wanted to share the city with her husband Yohei and two children, Ayabe, 6, and Natsuki, 4.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been to Ballarat before and I know this town is very lovely,\u201d Ms Sato said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne day I just checked the homepage of the Ballarat council and I saw that the Wiggles were coming. Then I just wanted to see them and show them to my children.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sato\u2019s didn\u2019t just get to see The Wiggles perform live at Civic Hall, when the band found out about the family\u2019s journey, they offered to meet with them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was amazing, I was really surprised,\u201d Ms Sato said. \u201cOne guy said, \u2018are you from Japan?\u2019 and I said yes. After that they asked us to wait and then he said, \u2018we\u2019ll show you The Wiggles because you came all the way from Japan.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cSimon, Lachie and Emma were so friendly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, Ayabe and Natsuki enjoyed meeting The Wiggles too. \u201cThey don\u2019t know how special it is,\u201d Ms Sato said.<\/p>\n
The journey from Inagawa, a sister city of Ballarat, to Civic Hall was a long one.<\/p>\n
One-way it\u2019s two flights, one from their hometown to Tokyo, and then to Melbourne – about 12 hours flying time alone, after that there was a bus trip to Ballarat and a taxi ride to their accommodation.<\/p>\n
As they are only in Australia for three nights, on Tuesday they turned around and made the same trip in reverse.<\/p>\n
Despite all the travel, Ms Sato said it was worth it, not just for The Wiggles.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe children really enjoyed the concert and also they enjoyed the Wildlife Park,\u201d she said. \u201cI think the people in Ballarat are very friendly and calm. I also love the town because of the scenery and the sounds from the birds, and it smells very beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HOW far would you go to give your kids an amazing experience? For one family the answer was over 8100km after they travelled from Inagawa in Japan to Ballarat to experience Sunday\u2019s Wiggles concert at Civic Hall. Naoko Sato said she chose Ballarat because she wanted to share the city with her husband Yohei and […]<\/p>\n