~Photos and article from JETAA Queensland~
Hi from the JETAA Queensland committee and Cultural Consul Mr. Shusaku Hirashima!
We’d like to share some highlights from our year so far.
January: 2014 Oshogatsu Dinner
The first JETAA event of the year was our ever-popular Oshogatsu Dinner at Nonbei Sake Bar and BBQ in Fortitude Valley. About 20 members, family and friends attended for an evening of great food and conversation. Cries of “oishii” and “natsukashii” reverberated around the table as people rediscovered flavours they had enjoyed so much during their time in Japan.
Our special event for the evening (besides the food) was in celebration of the Year of the Horse. Each person randomly chose the name of a horse that had won the Melbourne Cup over the last couple of centuries, including legends such as Archer, Carbine and Phar Lap, for the chance to win some prizes.
February: Hana wa Saku: a 1000 flowers will bloom project
On Sunday 16 February, a group of JETAA members, family and friends participated in the One Million People’s Flowers Will Bloom project. We sang “Hana wa Saku” for NHK to help spread the message about recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 2011.
The crew from NHK were in Queensland filming a documentary about disaster recovery after the floods of 2011 in the lead up to third anniversary of the Tohoku disaster. The song, “Hana wa Saku”, was written by composer Yoko Kanno and director Shunji Iwai as an outreach to the victims of the disaster and people throughout the world are encouraged to send in videos of their performances to NHK to show their support.
We decided to sing the Japanese version for our performance. The day was both exciting and emotional as we took turns in small groups to sing different parts of the song. The final performance as a group in the acoustic of City Hall allowed our massed voices to bloom beautifully.
Our performance is available to view on the NHK website along with many other submissions from around the world:
http://www.nhk.or.jp/japan311/flowers/video/australia_5_0430.html#video
A big thank you to NHK Japan and Brisbane City Council for organising the event and for the opportunity to be part of such a fantastic project!
March: The University of Queensland Careers Fair
Every year, JETAA QLD organises a booth at a careers fair to promote the JET Programme to prospective graduates. This year we were at the University of Queensland and were ably assisted by Melissa Lawler from the Consulate-General of Japan and Hiromi Hakuta from CLAIR.
A steady stream of students dropped by the booth for information on the programme and to pick up some of the pamphlets and other goodies that CLAIR had provided. We have been promoting the programme at UQ for a few years now and we are noticing an increasing number of international students wanting information on applying for JET. This year, enquiries from international students, especially from China, far outnumbered those from Australian citizens and we were scrambling to dig up relevant information for them.
It’s great that there is so much enthusiasm for the programme but we will need to be better prepared in future to provide more specific information for overseas citizens, most of whom must apply through the Japanese embassies in their home countries.
June: JET Pre-departure workshops
We had the opportunity to meet the new JET participants in the pre-departure workshops held at the Consulate-General of Japan during June and July. Around 40 participants were selected for departure from Brisbane this year – close to double the usual number! Many of them had lived in Japan previously as exchange students or had been on JET.
The first night was a Q&A session with ex-JETs and consulate staff covering everything from school life to driver’s licences and bank accounts. Afterwards we retired for a nijikai at Nagomi by the Brisbane River for a chance to discuss the programme more informally. Follow-up workshops on team teaching, Japanese language and culture were led by JETAA members with invaluable input from consulate staff.
A final farewell reception was hosted by the Consul-General Ms. Yoko Yanigasawa on 23 July. By now this year’s JET participants will be settling into their new lives in towns and cities from Kyushu to Hokkaido. We wish them all the very best on their impending adventures and when they decide to return to Queensland, we look forward to sharing all the memories and special moments they bring back with them.
