this issue includes - council of local authorities for ...this issue includes: 2 local cuisine...
TRANSCRIPT
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This issue includes:
2 Local Cuisine around Japan
3 Visit to the City of Greater Geelong
3 LGNSW Conference in Sydney
4 Visit to the Queensland Government Office of the
Commonwealth Games
4 Emperor’s birthday reception
5 Matsuri Japan Festival 2017
6 2017 Annual General Meeting of Sister Cities Australia
6 CLAIR staff visited Kangaroo Island
7 Visit to the Hunter Valley and Port Stephens
8 JETAA Canberra – 2017 Nara Candle Festival
9 From the Director
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Morioka City
Morioka City is the capital city and is located in the central
inland of Iwate Prefecture. It is well known for local noodles
such as “Jajamen,” “Reimen,” and “Wanko soba.” They are
called, “The Three Major Noodles of Morioka.”
Morioka Reimen
Originated in Pyongyang on the Korean Peninsula. Many
people are fascinated by the distinctive taste combining al
dente noodles, rich beef bone broth and sour kimchi!
Morioka Jajamen
It was first introduced from China, and Chinese people called
it Zhajiangmian. “Jajamen” is flat noodles topped with miso
and meat. It can be garnished to your taste with garlic,
vinegar and chilli oil before eating. When done, add some
boiling soup to a whisked raw egg in your bowl to enjoy Chi
Tantan (egg soup).
Wanko Soba
Long ago in Iwate, there was a custom of providing freshly
boiled soba noodles to large numbers of customers at the
same time, a small amount of noodles was served to each
customer in a bowl and as the noodles were eaten, the server
would continuously replenishes the bowls whilst saying ,“Hai
janjan.” This turned into a playful dining experience and can
still be enjoyed now whilst eating Wanko Soba.
Come visit Morioka City and taste the fantastic noodles! The
three major noodles of Morioka are waiting for you!
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On 1 December, our Deputy Director and
a staff member visited the City of Greater
Geelong to talk about the upcoming
students exchange tour between 26 and
29 March 2018.
Both the City of Greater Geelong and
Nagoya City are home to wetlands of
international importance under the
auspices of the 1971 Ramser Convention
on Wetlands. Nagoya City has sent a
delegation to Geelong every two years,
with 2018 being the sixth delegation to
visit.
We met Ms Diane Luscombe from the City of Greater Geelong who has been engaged in this programme
since the first visit and is currently helping Nagoya City coordinate the upcoming tour. Through the visit, junior
high school students from Nagoya City will learn more about measures to protect and maintain a sustainable
wetland environments for migratory birds and other creatures in Geelong.
The 2017 Local Government New South Wales
(LGNSW) Conference was held at the Hyatt Regency
in Sydney from 4 to 6 December. Various
presentations were made such as a case study on
rezoning and on housing affordability. This year’s
conference was attended by more than 800
participants including mayors, councillors and
other government officers from all over New South
Wales.
CLAIR Sydney promoted many tourist destinations
in Japan and sister city relationships between
Australia and Japan at the conference. We got many positive responses with regards to establishing a sister
city relationship with a Japanese city.
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On December 4, we visited the
Queensland Government Office of the
Commonwealth Games for research on
the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth
Games which will be held this April. The
Office of the Commonwealth Games is a
special division in the state government to
coordinate action between the three tiers
of government in preparation for the
games.
The Commonwealth Games is an
international multi‐sport event similar to
the 2019 Rugby World Cup and the 2020
Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics meaning
what we learnt from our visit here will be useful for Japanese local governments in the preparation to host
these upcoming events. We will continue to conduct useful research in relation to international sporting
events.
On December 5, the Emperor’s
birthday reception was held at the
Consul‐General’s official residence in
Sydney. We ran a booth at the
reception to promote Japanese
tourist destinations. This time, we
introduced Nagoya ( which is a sister
city with Sydney), Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe,
Sakai and Nara. Most guests who
visited our booth were interested in
Japan and took brochures of each city
after the reception. This reception
was a great opportunity to promote
Japanese tourism to people in NSW
who are involved in the Japan‐Australia relationship.
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On 9 December, CLAIR Sydney participated in the
Matsuri Japan Festival 2017 which was held in
Tumbalong Park, Darling Harbour, Sydney. This
annual event has been held since 2006 to introduce
Japanese culture to locals.
This year, there were many information stalls on
Japan including those run by the Consulate‐General
of Japan in Sydney, Japan National Tourism
Organization, All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines.
Visitors enjoyed Japanese cuisine and cultural
workshops teaching the art of Ikebana, calligraphy
and Origami. Guests also performed live
performances on the main stage which included live anime songs, group dances and taiko drum displays.
During this year opening ceremony, the Matsuri Japan Festival committee also handed out letters of
appreciation to all parties involved in the success of the Matsuri over the years.
Prior to the event, we advertised within
Japanese local government the opportunity to
participate in the festival with us. As a result,
Yamanashi prefecture, Nagoya City, Kansai,
Wakayama prefecture and Kagawa Prefecture
Tourism Association joined us in promoting their
local areas. It is our aim to provide local
governments in Japan with the opportunity to
promote their region in Australia. We are happy
to have been able to achieve this aim during the
festival and will continue to support the
promotional activities of Japanese local governments in Australia.
Many people visited our booth on the day, taking home brochures and other promotional materials. Tokyo,
Kyoto and Osaka, the so‐called “Golden route” cities
and Hokkaido were very popular. However, many
visitors also had high interest in other destinations,
since many of them have been to Japan before and are
planning their next visit. Many exhibitors restocked
their brochures as most nearly ran out before the
closing ceremony. We also had the opportunity to
promote our sightseeing destinations up on the main
stage thanks to the event administration, and we were
able to introduce our recommended tourist spots and
activities!
According to the event organizer, the event posted a peak of approximately 55,000 attendees and we were
able to hand out more than 11,000 brochures to visitor who stopped by our stall.
Overall the event was a great success!
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CLAIR attended the annual general meeting of Sister Cities Australia, which was held in Mildura Rural City
Council, Victoria on 8 December. During the meeting, we exchanged ideas about sister city relationships
between Australia and Japan and ran a booth to promote Japanese tourism and provided attendees with
information on Japan. We gave a presentation about the role of CLAIR Sydney, trends within sister‐city
activities and the importance of sister city relationships. We also introduced Komaki City in Aichi prefecture
as it is currently looking to find a sister city in Australia. It was a great opportunity to promote Japan and
sister city relationships.
From December 11 to 13, our staff
visited Kangaroo Island in South
Australia to research policies
promoting local governments located
on islands in Australia. Although
Kangaroo Island is a small island and
the number of its residents is only
about 4,500, it is a very famous tourist
destination in Australia. They have
more than 250,000 visitors every year
who come to enjoy its nature and
scenery. During this business trip, we
first visited Kangaroo Island Council
and the Island Information Centre. We
talked about policies for promoting tourism in cooperation with the state government, current efforts to
promote settlement in the island, employment and related policies. After the meeting, we traveled around
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the island. Next, we went to Adelaide to meet with Ms. Wendy Campana who is the Commissioner of
Kangaroo Island in the SA Government. We talked about her role as Commissioner, regional development
and the current state of affairs in Kangaroo Island. In Japan, promotion of remote islands is one of the most
important policies for relevant local governments. We’ll continue to conduct research to provide useful
information for them.
From December 19 to 20, three CLAIR staff members
visited the Hunter Valley and Port Stephens in New
South Wales to research local food and experience
tourism.
Although the Hunter Valley provides only a small
fraction of the amount of wine in Australia, it is the
oldest winery region in Australia and it specializes in
making premium wines. It is a very famous tourist
destination in Australia.
Port Stephens on the other hand is blessed with
beautiful beaches and visitors are able to participate
in many activities such as camel riding, 4WD tours and
sandboarding on the sand dunes at Stockton Beach.
During this business trip, we met with representatives from the Hunter Valley Wine and Tourism Association,
David Hook Wines and James Estate Wines to conduct interviews for an upcoming article we are publishing.
The article will be in our April issue of the CLAIR FORUM magazine.
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On 28 October 2017, JETAA Canberra held its
annual stall at the Canberra Nara Candle
Festival at the Nara Peace Park. 2017 marks the
24th anniversary of the establishment of the
Sister City relationship between Canberra and
Nara and the festival commemorating this
relationship is now in its 15th year.
With a lot of new faces on our Executive
Committee this year, it was the first time for
most of us to plan and run the stall. We decided
to carry on the JETAA Canberra tradition of
selling gyoza, beer and soft drinks, because who can say no to freshly grilled gyoza and a cold drink on a hot
afternoon?
We fired up the barbecues at 4:00pm and cooked
non‐stop until we completely sold out of over 1000
gyoza! Of course, our stall didn’t run itself and we
were fortunate enough to have more than 30
volunteers on the night to help man the barbecues
and serve drinks and gyouza. The energy and
enthusiasm of everyone at our stall was infectious
and it wasn’t long before all of our volunteers were
joining in the chorus of “Irasshaimase!” resulting in
many curious looks from festival goers. Despite
storm warnings, there was just a light sprinkling of
rain in the early evening, meaning that thousands of Canberrans came out to Nara Peace Park to enjoy the
food, performances, stalls and hands‐on activities.
Thanks to our forward planning, the hard
work of all of the volunteers on the night,
and the crowds of hungry festival‐goers,
our stall was a great success and we
managed to raise a grand total of $3889.
All of the funds raised go towards our
annual events for members such as our
Bounenkai and Shinnenkai as well as
operational costs for our annual charity
trivia night. We hope 2018 will be
another fantastic year for JETAA
Canberra events and look forward to
seeing you there!
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Coming of Age Day is a Japanese holiday celebrated on the second Monday of January each year to
congratulate people who turn twenty years old in the current financial year.
Twenty is the age of maturity in Japan as legislated in civil law. Although the voting age was lowered to
eighteen from twenty in 2016, other adult activities such as drinking and gambling can only be done once
one turns twenty.
Local governments hold celebratory ceremonies for the newly recognized adults on Coming of Age Day.
However, as many young adults attend university in city centres, rural local governments hold these
ceremonies around New Year’s Day or in mid‐August during the summer holidays. The ceremonies held by
local governments tend to become a reunion for most young adults as they are reconnected with their
childhood friends who would’ve grown up and went to school in the same local government area.
Many women wear kimono to these ceremonies, especially the furisode which has wide sleeves and
extravagant embroidery. This beautiful traditional attire is a common sight in many Japanese towns during
Coming of Age Day.