With summer in full swing and hot weather affecting a good portion of the country, I hope you will appreciate the cool Breeze from the latest issue of our newsletter. July was a busy month for us as we completed the inaugural JET Memorial Invitation Program, including a kick off and wrap up meeting in San Francisco. We will continue this trend in August as we have many programs scheduled to support Japanese-language education in the United States. They include the Summer Institute in Chicago, the first part of the annual Leadership Workshop, and the first ever J-LEAP Orientation here in Los Angeles. We have introduced many of these programs in previous issues and we hope you will come back next month to find out what happened. Please keep cool with this latest issue of Breeze.
Misako Ito, Director
On July 16th, 32 students from all across the United States gathered in San Francisco to kick off the first leg of their journey on this program. The orientation started with ice breaking activities where the participants got to know one another while working as a team. We felt that the candidates were very enthusiastic about this opportunity and many were extremely motivated to carry out the mission and goals we set to achieve with this program. On day two, the participants paid a visit to the Consulate General of Japan in San Francisco to participate in two sessions that covered the details of their trip to Japan. The media was on hand to cover the story for the local press and we have included a link to the video below. After the two day orientation, the 32 participants left for Japan for their trip.
The 41st Annual Nisei Week Japanese Festival will be held from August 13-21 in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles. This festival was originally named for Nisei (second) generation Japanese Americans, but has morphed into a celebration of Japanese heritage and culture here in Southern California. The week long event is highlighted by a car show, coronation ball, weekend festival, various competitions, and is capped with a grand parade. For more information regarding Nisei Week 2011, please visit http://www.niseiweek.org.
The Consulate General of Japan in Los Angeles in partnership with community organizations will host a special event to express heartfelt appreciation to the region's individuals and organizations for their outpouring of support after the March 11 earthquake. The public event will take place in Little Tokyo at JACCC's Noguchi Plaza, 180 days after the earthquake, on Wednesday, September 7 from 6 pm. There will be musical performances, sake and foods from the Tohoku region. Everyone is welcome! The photo was taken at the Sendai airport and displays a message expressing gratitude to the people of the world.
The 5th International MANGA AwardThe International MANGA Award was established to share Japanese pop culture and to help promote a better understanding of Japan. It was created to honor MANGA artists who have contributed to the promotion of MANGA overseas. This is the fifth such award, which was officially announced by the fifth International MANGA Award Executive committee on July 5, 2011. The deadline for applications to arrive is August 31st, 2011. To find out more information about this award, please visit http://www.mofa.go.jp/announce/announce/2011/7/0721_03.html.
The 2011 JLPT brochure is now available. You can view and download the PDF brochure by visiting our website below. We made several changes to the registration process this year and we would like to get the information out to everyone who is interested in registering for the test. https://www.jflalc.org/jlpt
The Japan Foundation, Los Angeles is sponsoring the J-POP Summit Festival this year in Japantown, San Francisco. It will be held on August, 27 (SAT) and August, 28 (SUN), on the grounds of Post Street from Webster to Laguna and the Peace Plaza. There will be many artists scheduled to perform and many events to attend. If you are into J-POP or want to support Japan, please come out to have some fun.
Linkin Park Secret Show with Japan's best-selling artist, B'z on August 31, 2011, to raise funds for Japan (Raise $500 and earn 2 tickets to the show). 100% of net proceeds benefit children affected by the earthquake & tsunami to provide child care services, financial support to children at risk of not continuing their studies, psychological support, and play zones for those who cannot play outside due to radiation fears.
Deadline: August 24, 2011
Our organization has grown over the past few weeks to include several new members in our family here at the Japan Foundation, Los Angeles. This month, we would like to introduce Miyako Matsumura who will take over the role of Coordinator for our upcoming Japanese Language Course Program. Ms. Matsumura has worked for us on many projects in the past and we look forward to working with her again.
We have created a new job information page to list teaching opportunities for Japanese-language teachers in the United States. The new list is in a new format, which we hope will be easier to use. If you are looking for teaching positions, please follow the link below to see what is available. If you are interesting in posting on our site, please read the instructions on the top of the page. Job Information Page