VERNON JAPANESE CULTURAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER – MARCH 2020

MARCH 2020

UPCOMING EVENTS

Sun. Mar. 8 (2 pm) – VJCS Annual General Meeting

Fri. Apr. 3 – Fujinkai Chow Mein sale

April 3-4 – BC Open Judo

May 3 – Haru Matsuri (11 am – 3 pm)

May 30/31 – VJCS Artisan Sale (10 am -4 pm each day)

June – Fujinkai Golf Social

Fall 2020 – Taiko Performance (Performing Arts Centre) and Workshop (Japanese Hall)

Oct 17 – Fall Bazaar

Annual general meeting

SUNDAY, march 8 – 2 PM Agenda Items

Election of Officers Financial Report

Reports: Japanese School, Fujinkai, NAJC, Vernon Buddhist Temple, Vernon Judo Club, Odori, Hall Manager, Youth

Delegate

Submitted by: Ritsuko Yoshikawa お菓子教室 okashi kyoshitsu (baking class) in Februrary was

quite an accomplishment and well attended despite our first

attempt. Everyone's 抹茶 matcha (green tea) rolled cake

with あんこ anko and 求肥 gyuhi whipped cream (sweet 小

豆 azuki beans and 餅 mochi rice cake) turned out

absolutely beautiful. Thank you pâtissier Rieko Kimura for

sharing your talent and dedication!

As you all know, every spring we have the Japanese dolls

out on display at the hall. This annual tradition originates

from 雛祭り Hinamatsuri (Girl's Day) observed on on March

3rd.. We celebrate and pray for continued health and

happiness for girls. When a baby girl is born, she often

receives a set or pair of雛人形 hinaningyo dolls as a gift

from her family. As the second of three girls, I grew up

adoring hinaningyo dolls with my sisters. I remember

rushing home from school to my mother's special dinner on

the day of Hinamatsuri. We sat around the dolls and

enjoyed colourful ちらし寿司 chirashizushi (sushi rice

artfully decorated with vegetables and seafood), はまぐり

のお吸い物 hamaguri no osuimono (clam soup), and 甘酒 amazake ('sweet sake': non-alcoholic fermented rice

drink). Hinamatsuri memories of my childhood stay crystal clear to date.

Many of the dolls the VJCS owns appear to have been shipped from Japan several decades ago, and some

are weathered and worn. Since it is commonly believed that dolls, being a part of people's lives for years, hold

memories or even have spirits, their owners find it heartbreaking to simply throw them away. Some shrines

and temples in Japan hold ceremonies called 人形供養 ningyo kuyo (memorial service for dolls), where you

can bring your dolls to be treated and disposed of with respect and appreciation. We are hoping to take our

'retired' VJCS dolls to Japan for ningyo kuyo, after concluding they would be happy to return home at the end.

We will continue the display at the hall until 春祭り Harumatsuri in

May, so drop in to take a look at the beauty!

Speaking of春祭り Harumatsuri, it is in the works and we are

actively seeking volunteers. Our goal is to have a solid group of

people who can commit themselves to the event. We have a

number of fun positions, so come and join our Harumatsuri team!

Page 2 Japanese School 日本語学級

Japanese Language class for Youth & Adult are held on Mondays (5:30-7:30pm) from

October to June for high school students and adults who wish to learn Japanese as a

second or third language. The class is designed to effectively study Japanese with

“Marugoto” as a regular textbook. Currently we are about half way done in the second

session and each student is working hard especially they are very good with their skits (role-

plays)! The spring session will start in April and will be beginner levels (A1).

We are learning a song 「いつも何度でも」“itsumo nando demo"(Always With Me) and

planning to perform for the Spring Festival on May 3rd

…as well as “Paprika”.We looking for

more singers ♪

Session 2:10 session ( Jan 6,20,27, Feb 3,10,24, Mar 2,9,23, April 6 )

Session 3 : 9 session ( April 20,27 May 4,11,25, June 1,8,15,22)

For more info on classes, please contact Mitsuyo: mitsuyokaneda@gmail.com

日本語クラス Japanese Youth & Adult Class

2020

Haru Matsuri 2020

Sunday, May 3rd 11 am – 3 pm

The Haru Matsuri Planning Committee: Miyoko Croken, Rose Okazaki, Darren Mathies, Renee Laaja, Mari Cameron, Mitsuyo Kaneda, Sue Kaneda, Janice Ogata, Grace Takagi, George Okazaki, Naoko Shibata, Ritsuko Yoshikawa, Wakana Takai MacLean, Takako Azuma, Janice Buick, Darrell Oshiro, Rick Ogasawara, Aubrey Comley, Brian Yakura, Tom Ouchi, Janie Crockett

Looks like another amazing spring festival in the works! There will be food…..ice cones, sushi, j-dogs

and more! There will be entertainment including Taiko Drumming, Koto, Odori dancers and a

performance by the Japanese school children. There will be lots of displays and demonstrations including a Japanese Tea Ceremony, Furoshiki, Judo, Karate, Mochi pounding and Kamishibai. How can you help? - Donate a prize for the raffle (contact Darrell Oshiro or Darren Mathies)

- - Volunteer to help with Dorayaki making (Apr.19th) - Help with set-up on Saturday, May 2nd , 5 pm

- - Promote the event in the community – tell all your friends and neighbours! Let us know if you can put up a poster. Next meeting: Sunday, March 29, 4 pm

The pre-sold chow mein sale will be April 3rd for prep and April 4th

for cooking and pick up. We will be making 450 plates. If you can

sell tickets for this, please contact

Agnes.

The 2020 Bazaar will be held on

October 17th

The chow mein sale and bazaar

are the biggest fundraiser for the

VJCS and therefore is really a VJCS function, not just the “Fujinkai” so we

welcome and appreciate everyone to come out and help.

Betty Murray has agreed to organize the “mini” golf tournament usually held

in June. Date has not been finalized. Betty has forwarded an email

regarding changes and costs from Hillview Golf Course. Please contact

Betty at beerbetty@shaw.ca if you have any questions regarding this event.

Regular Odori dancing practices began on Thursday, January 16th, 2020 and will continue until May.

Performances coming up: March 11 – Okanagan College Multicultural Day time to be confirmed around 12:15

p.m.; Saturday, April 4, B.C. Open – Vernon Curling Rink 9 a.m.; Sunday, May 3 Harumatsuri (Spring Festival)

time tba; July 1 Canada Day – Armstrong tba. Practices are from 7-8 p.m. Thursdays in the conference room of

the Japanese Cultural Centre.

For further information about Japanese (Odori) Dancing, please contact Rose Okazaki at 250 - 542-2912 or E-Mail

rokazaki@shaw.ca

VERNON CHIDORI-KAI JAPANESE DANCING

Submitted by Rose Okazaki

Happy

New

Year!

We celebrated January 1st together with a service and wonderful potluck dinner.

Thanks very much to everyone who brought such delicious food, to Linda and Jane

Ohashi for bringing accessories for the photo booth and to Nancy, Brendon,

Sheldon and Jasmyn Yakura for preparing and leading the Origami craft and

games. I think every really had a fun evening!

Walking Meditation continues every 2nd Tuesday of the month from 7 to 8 pm.

We do a guided Gratitude Meditation for 15 minutes, Walk meditate for 20

minutes and finish with silent, sitting meditation for 15 minutes. It is a

wonderfully quieting hour.

Our AGM was on Feb.22nd at 2pm before February’s monthly service. The Agenda

for the AGM was emailed to everyone in the first week of February.

The refurbishing of our altar should be finished by the AGM thanks to the skill of

Mike Pearson. We are grateful that he agreed to take on this project. He also

built the stand for our Kansho bell two years ago. Hope you made it to service on Feb. 22nd to see what the new

altar looks like.

Please mark the Artisan’s Sale on your calendar. The sale will go from 10am to 4pm on May 30 and 31st.

It is a fundraiser for the Parking Lot with the rental of the booths going to the VJCS. We will have paintings,

pottery, jewelry, functional and decorative fabric art, metal sculptures, and more. Each of the Artisans have been

handpicked and invited to this show. It should be spectacular!

In gassho, Mari

Monthly memorial services for the following will be ovserved during monthly services. Please come to give thanks for what they did and who they were.

February: Isaku Yamada,

Usa Natsuhara, Kumakichi

Sato, Shigeo Tanaka,Kikuye

Okazaki , Masaye Ohashi

March: Hiroshi Nagano ,

Kanichi Yamada, Yoshihiro

Okano, Yoshitomo

Ogasawara, Tokimitsu

Takemura, Jujiro Ohashi,

Chiyoshi Sakakibara

Woody Kuraoka

REALTOR®

CENTURY 21 Executives Realty Ltd.

Phone Number 250-503-6169

E-mail Address

woody.kuraoka@century21.ca

Brian Yakura, Kiyoshi Comley, Abby Phillips, Ava Gruber and Aubrey Comley at FSJ

The VJC kids at the BC Winter Games in Fort St. John did very well with a bronze medal showing in the team competition and Kiyoshi Comley added gold there to his first place showings earlier in the month in Kamloops Youth provincials (in both U16-50kg and U18-50). Judo BC streamed the entire BCWG event—with two days of competition still up—on YouTube. When Aubrey competed in judo in ’84 FSJ BCWG, he never expected

he’d be back as an off-mat official with his son 36 years later. We are sending six kids to the inter-club Okanagan Open in Kelowna: Athrun Arav, Chase and Koen Robinson, Finlay Ritson, Blaize Rommel, and Lane Magee. There are just a couple months left in our regular season but we do have athletes, coaches/referees attending Pacific International, Edmonton International, Canmore Inter-Provincial camp, and Nationals mid May (in Edmonton again this year).

We are gearing up now for the BC Open tournament we host annually at the curling rink—with Kata this year 7PM April 3rd and the Shiai (individual competitions) starting 10AM April 4th. For a change, we expect to have at least couple teams in the Kata event. We will open with odori, courtesy of the chidorikai dancers, and a short composition on our new taiko drum. We’re down to less than 20 boxes but the Vernon Judo Club Parents' Association annual fundraiser is still underway: $15/box for 5 litres of locally-pressed juice (a blend of Bella-Visa-Grown Gala, Spartan, Aurora and Ambrosia—courtesy of Ringo En Orchards). This money supports our athletes by refunding registration fees for competitions, camps and clinics. A special thanks also goes to Tom Ouchi at Ringo En for donating the use of his trailer to get mats to events. There’s no competition without tatami! The club currently has 48 members with room for more. We meet Mondays and Thursdays 6:30-7:45 for kids 7-12; 7:45-9:15 for 13+, with most holiday Monday classes made up on the Tuesday. For more information on the VJC, contact George Okazaki 250-542-2912, Aubrey Comley 250-260-3885, email vernonjudo@gmail.com, find us on facebook or visit our website http://vernonjudo.ca.

BC Winter Games Team Competition medalists, Bert Bowes Middle School FSJ, BC.

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Vernon Japanese Cultural Society

2019/20 Executive

President: Rick Ogasawara

1st VP: Brian Yakura

2nd VP: Aubrey Comley

Treasurer: Darrell Oshiro

Secretary: Janie Crockett

Youth Delegate: Hana Ogasawara

NAJC Reps: Janice Buick/Rick

Ogasawara

Hall Manager: Tom Ouchi /George

Okazaki

Hall Rentals: Rick Ogasawara

Communications: Aubrey Comley/Brian

Yakura

Newsletter Editor: Janice Mori

Fujinkai Rep: Agnes Sakakibara

Buddhist Temple: Mari Cameron

Japanese School: Ritsuko Yoshikawa

Odori Club: Rose Okazaki

Judo club: Aubrey Comley/Yosh Ouchi

Donations to VJCS (2020 to date)

Aubrey Comley

Darrell & Jennifer Oshiro

Kazu & Naoko Shibata

Kazumi Hoshi

Rose Okazaki

Ruby Ohashi

Stacey Sakakibara & Brendan

Robertson

Vernon Fujinkai

Tea Ceremony at Haru Matsuri

FEES ARE NOW DUE FOR 2020: FAMILY MEMBERSHIP - $20 SINGLE - $10 Complete the following and send with appropriate remittance to:

VERNON JAPANESE CULTURAL SOCIETY BOX 566, VERNON, BC V1T 6M4

NAME: ___________________________________________________________________

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