~ Article and photos from JETAA Canberra ~
Children’s Day BBQ
The BBQ was held on 3 May to 
commemorate Children’s Day, traditionally celebrated in Japan during Golden Week in the first week of May.
Canberra turned on a perfect day for the event at the Canberra Nara gardens on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin. More than 80 people came along for the BBQ, bringing a range of delicious food to share.
There were sausages prepared by our terrific BBQ chefs and delicious green tea cakes, chocolate brownies, onigiri, inarizushi and a chocolate cake covered in Maltesers! This was all washed down with Japanese beer for the adults and ramune for the children.
The kids enjoyed koinobori craft and then challenged the adults to several soccer matches. Prizes were given out to the ‘best costume’ winners and people gave donations to the Nepal Earthquake appeal.
Trivia Night Fundraiser
This fabulous day enjoyed by all was followed by JETAA Canberra’s annual trivia night on 30 May, where thanks to participants, sponsors and organisers, we raised $1,600 for the Tohoku Youth Foundation, which is administered by the AJS.
Over 60 keen trivia players packed out St Peter’s Church Hall in Weston, which was kindly donated by the Church for the night. JETAAC President Andrea Carroll welcomed all guests and friends of the Japanese community in Canberra, thanked sponsors and handed the night over to the incomparable compares, Keith and Ken Parker. Keith and Ken asked an eclectic mix of Japanese, Australian and general trivia questions which brought out the competitive and generous streak in players who bought raffle tickets, paid for answers to boost their score and threw gold coins for ‘closest coin’ to win a bottle of sake or umeshu.
Due to an early start, people brought their own dinner and JETAA Executive Committee members, Amanda Wanda, Matt French and Michael Anziliero sold drinks at the bar. Darryl Pearce offered an exclusive Ninja table service, selling drinks while participants concentrated on the game at hand.
Keith and Ken asked questions, provided answers, marked answer sheets, ran the games and encouraged a generous and competitive spirit from all. While many people walked away with prizes, first prize went to Team Ichiban with Second prize going to The Umbrellas.
We hope for increased participation from the general public, so go on www.jetaacanberra.org and join our events if you are in the area.
