Hi everyone! It’s been a while between drinks but here’s your latest update on JETAAWA activities and other things you might be interested in.
Firstly, we would like to wish a warm official welcome to new Consul-General Ishikawa and his wife.
The committee has had the opportunity to meet with the Consul-General and was encouraged by his positive outlook and personability. We look forward to ever stronger ties between JETAAWA and the Consulate-General.
The Japan Film Festival is on again from late September. Details here and there. It’s first-come-first-served, remember!
We may have some reserved spots for JETAAWA members, so stay tuned!
In other news:
1. 13 ASSASSINS DISCOUNT SCREENING
On Sunday 25 September from 1615 at Cinema Paradiso in Northbridge, JETAAWA has secured a discount screening of cult director Takeshi Miike’s new critically-acclaimed movie, 13 Assassins. Those of you who know Miike will not want to miss this!
Subidised tickets are $5 for JETAAWA members and $10 for non-members. It’s rated MA 15+ so maybe not one for the kiddies.
RSVP ASAP and by 1200 Friday 23 September 2011 at the latest to vp@jetaawa.com. We would appreciate payment in advance via EFT – you can get the details when you RSVP.
2. HANAMI
We are currently looking at a combined returnees party / hanami under the jacaranda in Hyde Park for early to mid-November.
Keep your eyes peeled to this space!
3. MEET THE AUTHORS FUNDRAISER: CRISTY BURNE
JETAAWA member Cristy Burne is the author of the Takeshita Demons series of adventures for 8-12s. Takeshita Demons won the 2009 Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Childrens Book Award and was selected by more than 30,000 children as part of the UK BookTrust’s Booked Up program. Book three in the series, Monster Matsuri, is scheduled for release in July 2012.
Cristy and fellow author Briony Stewart are sharing the secrets of their publishing success to raise funds for the International Board on Books for Young People Japan Bibliotherapy Appeal. Funds raised go to funding library vans to deliver books to children affected by the earthquake and tsunami.
The workshop runs on Saturday 24 September from 3-6pm at the Hyogo Centre in City Beach. The $20 fee includes a Japanese cultural presentation at 3pm by two visiting university interns from Hyogo Prefecture.
More details are in the attached PDF:
4. NORWEGIAN WOOD BOOK-TO-SCREEN DISCUSSION
Continuing the theme, JETAAWA committee member Richard Southern is one of the Perth luminaries who will be discussing the book-to-screen adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood and trying answer the age-old question: which is better, the book or the movie? The discussion will be at Cinema Paradiso, following opening night for Norwegian Wood on Thursday 6 October at 6.30pm.
5. UWA EVENTS
UWA is going Japan-crazy in September and October 2011. The Japanese Studies program has organised:
(1) A public lecture, Inside/Out Japan: Families moving in times of sociocultural change, given by two distinguished Japanese Studies scholars, Professor Vera Mackie, Australian Research Council Futures Fellow, currently at the University of Wollongong, and Associate-Professor LengLeng Thang of the National University of Singapore, on the evening of Monday 26 September. The lecture is hosted by the Institute of Advanced Studies at UWA and Asian Studies. Details are on the attached PDF:
(2) A 2-day research workshop on ‘Configurations of Conventional and Non-Conventional “Family” Arrangements in Japan’ on Monday 26 – Tuesday 27 September 2011. Again, flyer attached:
These two inter-related events are part of an Inaugural Bilateral Research Collaboration Award between Japanese Studies at UWA and at the University of Queensland. Both events are free and open to all interested. However, due to room capacity constraints, spaces available for the 2-day workshop are limited. If you are interested in attending the workshop, even if it’s for one of the days, please RSVP by the end of next week (so Friday 16 September – sorry we’re a bit late!) to the email listed on the flyer. There is no need to RSVP for the public lecture on the evening of Monday 26 September.
Also attached is a flyer for a separate Japan-related public lecture also organized by the Institute of Advanced Studies on Tuesday 4 October. It is a talk by Winthrop Professor Michael Levine from the Discipline of Philosophy at UWA on a film by the renowned Japanese film-maker, Kurosawa Akira. The film, ‘Ikiru’ will also be screened after the talk.
6. EDUCATION EXCHANGE SCHOLARSHIP
Applications are now open for up to 100 people to take advantage of a one-off scholarship program of education exchanges between Japan and Australia. The Program, announced by the Australian Prime Minister, the Hon Julia Gillard MP during her visit to Japan in April, has been established to provide assistance for education exchange in response to the Great East Japan Earthquake on 11 March 2011.
The Program will support short term, two-way education exchange between Australia and affected areas of Japan (including Tokyo). It is designed to provide opportunities for students, academics, researchers and professionals in Australia to travel to the affected areas of Japan to study or to continue or enhance their collaboration in education with their partner institutions, and vice versa. Applicants will be able to seek financial support for an exchange occurring in 2011 or 2012.
Details are available here.
7. PHOTO CONTEST
To help celebrate the , we are currently planning an open photo competition for the first half of 2012. It is anticipated that there will be a Hyogo Prefecture division and a separate JET division (as well as open divisions). Time to start fossicking through your old snaps!
8. kaiWA
kaiWA continues as usual, at 43 Below from 1730 every second Thursday. Dates are available at jetaawa.com. kaiWA is the perfect opportunity to chat with Japanese people staying in Perth, polish your Japanese, polish someone else’s English, or just shoot the breeze. See you there! It’s free and fun!
9. JAPANESE SCHOOL FESTIVAL
Unfortunately, it seems there will not be a bunkasai this year. Instead, the JSP is apparently cooperating with the Japanese Association for a charity fundraising event in November. We will keep you posted and will still be looking for excuses to cook gyoza.
10. HYOGO-WA SISTER STATE RELATIONSHIP
On 5 August 2011 the President and Treasurer had the honour of attending the 30th anniversary celebration reception for the sister state/prefecture relationship between WA and Hyogo. The Premier and the Prefectural Governor made excellent speeches and we had the opportunity to speak with the Governor and the Ambassador, both of whom were very supportive of JETAAWA.
11. BELMONT-ADACHI
JETAAWA is proud of its ongoing relationship with the Belmont-Adachi sister city program. Our Vice-President engaged in interpreting duties for a visiting delegation in August and the JETAAWA table was recently victorious at the fundraising quiz night for the students’ delegation to Japan.
As always, we welcome your comments and feedback.
Please let us know if anything Japan-related is happening in the community, and also if you, as a JETAAWA member, would like anything conveyed to our other members!
Honja!
Nick John
President
JETAAWA
Mobile: +61 4 0808 3131
president@jetaawa.com