Tanabata Potluck Party

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Dear Florida JETAA Members,

This is your South Florida Regional Representative, Wendy Lo, we will be holding our 2ndannual JETAA Tanabata get together on Saturday, July 19th at 4pm.

This year our president, Bahia and her husband Chris, have kindly offered their home for us to have the JETAA Tanabata party. Bahia’s place is in Miami, 33134

In the tradition of a Japanese summer festival  I am suggesting that people attending to wear a yukata or jinbei. I have a few ladies yukatas with obi that I can lend out for the party and three men’s jinbei and one men’s yukata (but no obi).
I will also have some tanzaku slips in which you can write your wishes for Tanabata. Luckily, Bahia and Chris have Bamboo growing in their front yard so we can tie them onto the branches.

I know it will be past the actual Tanabata date, but it’s the spirit of it all that counts and this was the only available date.

This is a potluck so please feel free to bring a food item or drink.

Please RSVP to wlo01@hotmail.com by July 16th. If you are bringing a guest please include that in your RSVP.

If you plan to bring a food item, please let me know and I will place that on the list.

Parking is extremely limited, so please RSVP, Bahia will email parking instructions and her address to those who RSVP as the date approaches.

This is a great way to meet new and old JET alumni and to reconnect to our time in Japan. I hope to see you there!

Cheers!

Wendy Lo

JETAA-FL, South Florida Rep.

(Toyama-ken, 2002-2005)

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Second Annual City of Sunrise Anime Film & Japanese Culture Festival

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The City of Sunrise and Tate’s Comics have partnered to host the second annual Anime Film & Japanese Culture Fest. This free event features displays of vintage Japanese cars and motorcycles; bonsai, Taiko drum, martial arts and manga demos; and a sumi e-brush painting activity. There will be vendor tables and Japanese food will be available for purchase.

In addition, Tate’s Comics is sponsoring a Cosplay Costume Contest and screenings of two Hayao Miyazaki films – “Kiki’s Delivery Service” and “Castle in the Sky.” (Film seating is limited, and passes are available on a first-come, first-served basis.)

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JET-inspired Kanji App on Kickstarter

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My name is Saren and I am a JET alum living in Irvine, California. My six year-old, Genji, is in Japanese Saturday School here and now that he is a 1st grader, he’s starting to memorize the first of his ichinensei kanji. Kanji, as I’m sure you remember, isn’t easy. It’s a lot of rote memorization and repetitive practice. It’s the same for all beginners, no matter how old.

Genji and I started brainstorming recently about what the perfect app would be to help memorize kanji. I said it needed to have tons of good looking flash cards, and Genji said it should all be one big game. It was an awesome beginning to what would become our personal passion project together.

We call our project Kanjilicious and this weekend we put it up on Kickstarter.

http://bit.ly/kanjikick

We would really like to engage with the larger JET community, so I’m writing to ask if you wouldn’t mind posting our Kickstarter link into the JETAA network, or pass it along to friends who you think might like the app. Of course we’re looking for backers, but we’re also looking for collaborators, designers, developers, anyone who has had similar experiences, and shares our love for Japan and Japanese.

Here are the other relevant links just in case.

Thank you very much for the time and consideration. Please let us know if you have any questions.

よろしくお願いします。

m(_ _)m

Saren Sakurai

Miyagi-ken 1999-2001

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