Tomodachi

Year of the Rabbit!

The Year of the Rabbit 2023 started in style with some fun events for members and friends, a great chance to renew friendships and make new acquaintances.

A lively group attended the Maho Magic Bar, part of the Sydney Festival, where magicians from Japan entertained us with a variety of mysterious magic while we enjoyed complimentary sake.

This was followed by our Shinnenkai New Year party on January 19th. Forty members and friends relaxed over drinks and an izakaya dinner, with a kanpai for success in 2023. This event looks to become a regular feature in our calendar.

Pictures of the fun are available on our Instagram and Facebook pages.

On the following weekend, make-up artist and kimono enthusiast Lucia Chung demonstrated the art of Japanese traditional Shiro-nuri (白塗り, or white-paint) makeup, by Zoom, and on herself! It was a fascinating look at this makeup worn by performers of Japanese arts such as Kabuki and Nihon Buyou.

Our next event is an in-person talk by solicitor Dai Ueda of H&H Lawyers, on February 28 (Tuesday). This will highlight issues of inheritance and succession faced by people with assets in both Japan and Australia. Registration is open now for the talk and networking. We have a full pipeline of events planned, so more details to come.

Have you visited the Gosford Edogawa Gardens yet? Harmony Day on March 26^th will be celebrated with kite making and flying, origami, Japanese food, garden tours and a calligraphy workshop. Details below. Be quick for registration for the tours (free) and workshop (small charge).

We look forward to seeing you at an AJS event sometime soon.

Anita Byrnes, President

Event: Australia/Japan Cross-border Inheritance 101Upcoming AJS events

Australia/Japan Cross-border Inheritance 101

It is more common than ever before for people to have assets in multiple countries, and particularly for AJS members, in Japan and Australia. The differences in the succession laws in these two countries may cause undue stress to family and friends if you pass away without carefully planning your cross-border estate management.

Our speaker is Dai Ueda, a solicitor at H&H Lawyers (Sydney). He will speak on the basics of succession planning and inheritance procedures in these two countries and share some of his recent experience in Japan-Australia cross-border succession matters.

This is a member-only free event, and numbers are limited. Register now at this link.

HHarmony Day in the Edogawa Gardens, East Gosford

March 26^th (Sunday) 10am to 3pm

armony Day in the Edogawa Gardens, East Gosfor

March 26^th (Sunday) 10am toA free event by Central Coast Council, this day in the Edogawa Garden, a traditional "strolling" garden, features kite-making and flying, origami, taiko drumming, Japanese food and a calligraphy workshop. Reservations are required for the garden tours, and the calligraphy workshop entails a small cost as well. Be quick to book both.

The calligraphy workshops will be conducted by Tomoko Oka, a Japanese calligraphy artist based on the Central Coast. Tomoko practiced calligraphy from the age of ten. She has practiced many established styles as well as developing her own unique forms and abstract works. Her calligraphy has been used in restaurants, accommodation, and on various products such as sake labels.

Details to follow, but we are planning a group excursion to this event.

 Supported Events & Community Info

Japan Foundation

Architecture Talk Series: Cities And Urban Living In Japan 1868-2025

Four consecutive Thursdays from February 9 to March 2, 2023.

Curated and hosted by Dr. Raffaele Pernice, Senior Lecturer in Architecture and Urbanism at UNSW, this Talk Series brings together academics and scholars of Japanese architecture and urbanism, to give an overview of urban development and architecture from Meiji to the present day. Held in-person and through Facebook live stream. Link.

Japanese Language Seminar: Challenges of raising Bilingual Children

February 25 2023

F2F seminar in Japanese language with a guest speaker, Professor Mitsuyo Sakamoto, from Sophia University (Tokyo). Details here.

News from CLAIR Sydney (Japan Local Government Centre)

School exchange. If you are a teacher interested in an exchange with a Japanese school, see here for details.

Read how Campbelltown and Koshigaya maintained their sister city youth exchanges during COVID, here.

Australia-Japan Sports News

Follow Samurai Japan or the Team Australia baseball teams?

A 30-man roster from Team Australia will compete against Japan in Pool B of the World Baseball Classic in Tokyo in mid-March. The other national teams in Pool B are Korea, China and the Czech Republic. Two teams will advance to the quarter-finals, also in Tokyo, followed by finals in Florida.

Japan is the current world No.1. See website for details.