Fresh from the awards ceremony last night, where Jacob and Rick walked away with both the ‘Creative Concept’ and Grand Prix Awards, all the finalists have continued on their ‘cultural experience’ tour of Japan

Day three started with a visit to a local Japanese school which was ‘a very cool experience’, with all the finalists meeting the schoolchildren then being treated to some traditional Japanese entertainment. This included a martial arts demonstration in which everyone was invited to participate. The finalists from every nation then presented traditional gifts from each of their countries to the school as a token of their appreciation. To end the day everyone boarded the Shinkansen bullet train heading for Kyoto at an amazing three hundred kilometres per hour.

The finalists have one more day left in Tokyo in which they will do some more sightseeing as well as attending a farewell party, and will be posting the last video diary right here on the blog.

Once again we would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Rick and Jacob on an amazing achievement. Well done boys!

You can view all the images from the trip on our official Flickr profile here

You can view all other posts about KWN here

Panasonic Australia Managing Director meets Jessica Watson to find out how she used her Panasonic Lumix products on her succesful bid to become the youngest person to sail solo non-stop and unasissted around the world.

Prior to Jessica’s 210 day trip Panasonic MD, Steve Rust, met up with her to supply her with some Panasonic products to take on the journey. We provided her with 2 DMC FT1 Rugged LUMIX Cameras, 1 FZ35 Camera and 1 HDC -- TM200-K Camcorder to document the trip in image and film.

Panasonic Australia Managing Director Steve Rust recently caught up with Jessica again to see how the Lumix products faired on the round the world journey. She describes the FT1 as being perfect for wet days when it was ‘too dodgy to take anything else outside’, whereas the FZ35 was well suited to taking pictures on ‘those amazing still days’.

We wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate Jessica on a tremendous achievement, Well Done Jess, from everyone at Panasonic Australia HQ! Don’t forget to look out for Jessica’s book ‘True Spirit” which is available from 28th July, and if you would like to meet Jessica in person she will be signing copies of the book at the Sydney International Boat Show on the 29th July.

To view the photos Jess took on her Lumix cameras click here

You can read all our blog updates about Jessica’s incredible journey here, and any video reports on our official YouTube channel here