As the new school year has started, please allow me to introduce a monthly online Nihongo café 輪和話(WA WA WA) again. It started last November, hoping that we can get together online and talk in Japanese as much as possible. The session will be for 30 minutes and the topics vary from our hobbies to Japanese schools under Covid-19, etc… The April session will be on the 13 of April, 4:30-5:00 pm. If you are interested, please fill in this form for the April session or email tuituia.languages@auckland.ac.nz to keep being informed every month.
Here’s a voice from one of the participants, Yuki Yoda (Motueka High School).
"I have really enjoyed 輪和話 since I joined for the first time. As a trainee language teacher working at a small high school in rural settings, it is important for me to connect with other teachers in different areas, and 輪和話 is exactly the right place for my needs. We enjoy exchanging ideas, plans and resources information as well as just chatting in Japanese. Most of us might have "ZOOM fatigue" under the long-time social restriction but it is certain that ZOOM meeting and 輪和話 gave me new learning opportunities and fresh experiences of online meetings. I hope that more people will join this fun virtual space to meet the people who usually have no opportunity to meet often."
Kaori Fukazawa Japanese National Language Advisor Tui Tuia | Learning Circle
Old/New - Japan/Aotearoa: from NZJEP Recipient Dylan Lardelli
I was very happy and fortunate to receive NZJEP funding in 2021 to enable a music project bridging Japan and New Zealand during this difficult global situation. This funding has greatly assisted in connecting musicians in both countries during the pandemic period, through the recording of new and traditional musical works by some of Japan’s most accomplished musicians.
The videoed recordings were captured at the elegant Ebila Hall in Tokyo in November 2021, and have aimed to document the valued work and showcasing of the artists. This is intended to act as artistic interest and educational tools, for those interested in Japanese culture, and its meeting with New Zealand music.
The Japanese performers featured in this project are all leading authorities of their given instruments, in both traditional and contemporary contexts. The performers include Nanae Yoshimura (Koto) Mayumi Miyata (Sho, and the newly Developed bass Sho - Mo) Tosiya Suzuki (Recorders, and Traverso) Miyama McQueen-Tokita (Bass Koto), Dozen Fujiwara (Shakuhachi) Joji Murasawa (Shamisen and voice) This spectrum of Japanese and contemporary instruments provides a wide palette of sound and visual substance for people to engage with.
A varied group of New Zealand composers created new works for this project, which culminated in the Japanese musicians learning, rehearsing and recording the works. In response to our current situation, the course of developing, rehearsing, and learning the works was enabled through Zoom connections between Japan and New Zealand. This connection through online platforms facilitated meaningful dialogues between our two countries, and concluded with a strengthened relationship between the New Zealand and Japanese musicians. Each of the new New Zealand works was paired with a work from the traditional Japanese cannon. These Japanese works represent a range of music between the 10th and 20th centuries, and display a number of corners of Japanese musical culture.
All of the works were recorded by a professional videographer in Tokyo. Takuma Kamaishi, recorded these works at Ebila hall, with a range of equipment, which were then taken by SOUNZ the Centre of New Zealand Music who edited and stitched together the materials in to cohesive video displays of this project. These videos were tailored to be shared through SOUNZ’s websites, and their social media including Vimeo and YouTube, as well as through the artists’ media sites, and also through broadcast on Radio New Zealand’s Concert FM. This sharing is designed to engage New Zealander listeners and viewers with examples of the potential of Japanese instruments and Japanese music.
Below is the trailer of this project, which offers a small preview of the New Zealand works included.
みかんアート
My first trip to Japan was as a teenager, when I had the amazing experience of spending six weeks there on a Lions Club Youth Exchange. My host families were in Wakayama prefecture, south of Osaka. Three different families had offered to host me, and we also had away trips organised with other recipients from Australia and New Zealand, so time with each family was relatively short. Nevertheless, I have stayed in contact with one of these families for nearly 35 years.
Whenever I eat a mandarin orange, I often think of a memory I have from so long ago with this family. Sitting underneath the kotatsu , (another invention which I thought was the most wonderful thing), we snacked on mandarins. Wakayama is well-known in Japan for its production of fruit, including みかん. I had always haphazardly torn off skin from a mandarin in little pieces and was interested in how the family peeled theirs, peeling them so that the skin would be left in one piece. ‘お父さん’showed me how to do this and since then I peel mandarins like ‘my Japanese family’ does. Who would have thought that the way you peel an orange could be a topic for two people with limited common language, and from different generations, to engage with each other and forge a friendship! Now that I am more aware of how the art of doing things is so valued in Japan, it is no surprise that when I mentioned this to Kaori Fukazawa, the Japanese National Language Adviser, she found more on this topic. There is a lot on the internet about ‘wakayama-muki’ (peeling in the ‘Wakayama-style!) and ‘mikan-aato’.
Soon みかんwill be in season here, so Kaori and I plan to deliver an Explore workshop on this topic. So Japanese teachers, of all levels of proficiency, whether you teach primary or secondary, put your thinking caps on when you next see mandarins in the grocery shop! We’ll have fun creating some art with these and share how you could bring this into your classroom. Look out for more details!
Janelle Wood Facilitator Tui Tuia |Learning Circle
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2022 - Japanese Articles - Term 1 Newsletter
Nihongo café 輪和話
As the new school year has started, please allow me to introduce a monthly online Nihongo café 輪和話(WA WA WA) again. It started last November, hoping that we can get together online and talk in Japanese as much as possible. The session will be for 30 minutes and the topics vary from our hobbies to Japanese schools under Covid-19, etc… The April session will be on the 13 of April, 4:30-5:00 pm. If you are interested, please fill in this form for the April session or email tuituia.languages@auckland.ac.nz to keep being informed every month.
Here’s a voice from one of the participants, Yuki Yoda (Motueka High School).
"I have really enjoyed 輪和話 since I joined for the first time. As a trainee language teacher working at a small high school in rural settings, it is important for me to connect with other teachers in different areas, and 輪和話 is exactly the right place for my needs. We enjoy exchanging ideas, plans and resources information as well as just chatting in Japanese. Most of us might have "ZOOM fatigue" under the long-time social restriction but it is certain that ZOOM meeting and 輪和話 gave me new learning opportunities and fresh experiences of online meetings. I hope that more people will join this fun virtual space to meet the people who usually have no opportunity to meet often."
Kaori Fukazawa Japanese National Language Advisor Tui Tuia | Learning Circle
Old/New - Japan/Aotearoa: from NZJEP Recipient Dylan Lardelli
I was very happy and fortunate to receive NZJEP funding in 2021 to enable a music project bridging Japan and New Zealand during this difficult global situation. This funding has greatly assisted in connecting musicians in both countries during the pandemic period, through the recording of new and traditional musical works by some of Japan’s most accomplished musicians.
The videoed recordings were captured at the elegant Ebila Hall in Tokyo in November 2021, and have aimed to document the valued work and showcasing of the artists. This is intended to act as artistic interest and educational tools, for those interested in Japanese culture, and its meeting with New Zealand music.
The Japanese performers featured in this project are all leading authorities of their given instruments, in both traditional and contemporary contexts. The performers include Nanae Yoshimura (Koto) Mayumi Miyata (Sho, and the newly Developed bass Sho - Mo) Tosiya Suzuki (Recorders, and Traverso) Miyama McQueen-Tokita (Bass Koto), Dozen Fujiwara (Shakuhachi) Joji Murasawa (Shamisen and voice) This spectrum of Japanese and contemporary instruments provides a wide palette of sound and visual substance for people to engage with.
A varied group of New Zealand composers created new works for this project, which culminated in the Japanese musicians learning, rehearsing and recording the works. In response to our current situation, the course of developing, rehearsing, and learning the works was enabled through Zoom connections between Japan and New Zealand. This connection through online platforms facilitated meaningful dialogues between our two countries, and concluded with a strengthened relationship between the New Zealand and Japanese musicians. Each of the new New Zealand works was paired with a work from the traditional Japanese cannon. These Japanese works represent a range of music between the 10th and 20th centuries, and display a number of corners of Japanese musical culture.
All of the works were recorded by a professional videographer in Tokyo. Takuma Kamaishi, recorded these works at Ebila hall, with a range of equipment, which were then taken by SOUNZ the Centre of New Zealand Music who edited and stitched together the materials in to cohesive video displays of this project. These videos were tailored to be shared through SOUNZ’s websites, and their social media including Vimeo and YouTube, as well as through the artists’ media sites, and also through broadcast on Radio New Zealand’s Concert FM. This sharing is designed to engage New Zealander listeners and viewers with examples of the potential of Japanese instruments and Japanese music.
Below is the trailer of this project, which offers a small preview of the New Zealand works included.
みかんアート
My first trip to Japan was as a teenager, when I had the amazing experience of spending six weeks there on a Lions Club Youth Exchange. My host families were in Wakayama prefecture, south of Osaka. Three different families had offered to host me, and we also had away trips organised with other recipients from Australia and New Zealand, so time with each family was relatively short. Nevertheless, I have stayed in contact with one of these families for nearly 35 years.
Whenever I eat a mandarin orange, I often think of a memory I have from so long ago with this family. Sitting underneath the kotatsu , (another invention which I thought was the most wonderful thing), we snacked on mandarins. Wakayama is well-known in Japan for its production of fruit, including みかん. I had always haphazardly torn off skin from a mandarin in little pieces and was interested in how the family peeled theirs, peeling them so that the skin would be left in one piece. ‘お父さん’showed me how to do this and since then I peel mandarins like ‘my Japanese family’ does. Who would have thought that the way you peel an orange could be a topic for two people with limited common language, and from different generations, to engage with each other and forge a friendship! Now that I am more aware of how the art of doing things is so valued in Japan, it is no surprise that when I mentioned this to Kaori Fukazawa, the Japanese National Language Adviser, she found more on this topic. There is a lot on the internet about ‘wakayama-muki’ (peeling in the ‘Wakayama-style!) and ‘mikan-aato’.
Soon みかんwill be in season here, so Kaori and I plan to deliver an Explore workshop on this topic. So Japanese teachers, of all levels of proficiency, whether you teach primary or secondary, put your thinking caps on when you next see mandarins in the grocery shop! We’ll have fun creating some art with these and share how you could bring this into your classroom. Look out for more details!
Janelle Wood Facilitator Tui Tuia |Learning Circle
