[caption id="attachment_229088" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="L to R: Hirata Rina, Miyazawa Sae, Takajo Aki"][/caption]

On March 26th, various members of AKB48 arrived in Washington DC and paid a visit to Thomson Elementary School participating in a cultural exchange with the school children. The group is visiting to show their gratitude for all the support received after the Tohoku Earthquake. AKB48 displayed various �energetic� pop culture symbols from Japan to the children.

AKB48�s Takajo Aki (20), Miyazawa Sae (21), and Hirata Rina (13) appeared in the cafeteria of Thomson Elementary School, where around 50 2nd grade students greeted them with �Konnichiwa�. AKB48 showed the children things like Doraemon, Japanese manga, and Hello Kitty; causing the children to scream out in joy.

They also showed pictures of an elementary school that suffered damages by the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. The three members and the children worked together to create messages on cards shaped like cherry blossom petals to give to the victims of the area struck by the disaster.

Miyazawa commented, �The kids were so cute. I wrote in my message that I hope everyone can pass their time with a smile every day.�

This will be the 100th year since Tokyo gave the cherry blossom trees to the United States and to commemorate this, AKB will be performing in Washington DC on the 27th at the �National Cherry Blossom Festival�.

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Source: Sanspo