Category JCCA President’s Report

The visit to Canada by His Royal Highness Emperor Akihito is the first since 1953, when he was a 19-year-old crown prince and travelled by train across Canada, making this visit very special. His visit was special for me as it was a great honour to meet Japan’s 125th Emperor.

The GVJCCA will once again be participating in the Powell Street Festival on August 1 and 2, 2009 at its temporary location this year at Woodland Park, located at 700 Woodland Drive, Vancouver, just off Commercial Drive. The GVJCCA through The Bulletin will again provide the program guide to everyone attending the festival.

The Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Citizens’ Association in conjunction with the National Association of Japanese Canadians will be sponsoring the conference, Honouring Our People: Stories of the Internment on September 25 – 27, 2009 at Nikkei Place in Burnaby, BC.

We arrived in Japan as the cherry blossoms were blooming. They were truly beautiful, particularly the trees at the Kyoto Imperial Park where the Imperial Family resided when Kyoto was home to the Imperial Family and capital of Japan pre-1868.

I truly appreciated the beauty, history, and honour of going to some of the Buddhist and Shinto shrines in Kyoto. Visiting the Daisen-In Temple, Kiyomizu Temple and Ise Temple were very memorable. While in Kyoto we were able to see the library about Japanese culture at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies. We even managed to see some of the first cherry blossoms at the Imperial Palace grounds in Kyoto.

Upcoming on March 14, at Nikkei Place, the Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Citizens’ Association will be holding its Annual General Meeting from 2 – 4 PM at the JCCA office on the second floor. The GVJCCA’s work has always been important in the Nikkei community and having a strong directorship is important in order to meet our mandate.

Hi everyone and Happy Year of the Ox! Well, it seems like it’s only been a few weeks since I wrote my last message and so it has been. We’ve already gone through a lot weather wise, and while I…

Hi Everyone and Happy Year of the Ox! Wow what a month of December we’ve just had! It is amazing the amount of snow that three major storms brought us in Vancouver and other parts of the country. I haven’t…

Season’s Greetings everyone! I would like to begin by paying a tribute to Pearl Williams, who passed away on November 3 at Vancouver General Hospital. Pearl sat on the Board of Directors of the Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Citizens’ Association…

Hi everyone! First I would like to apologize to everyone who already purchased a ticket for our planned Halloween Dance that was to happen on November 1 at Nikkei Place. For those few who did commit, a sincere thank you…