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| yamasa.org / home / acjs / network / newsletter
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Today's Contents:
1. Sapporo applications closed, April 2006 Student Visas & Housing allocation, Demolition Job redux, Speech Contest, Coming events, Snow...
The wonders of technology. This newsletter is being sent from the
Denny's "restaurant" on Route 248 via a wireless PHS
dialup. Tomorrow we receive the 2006 April Student Visa results, finalise accommodation, confirm summer
placements for the Sapporo Summer Program,
and a host of other things. A busy day coming up. But first...
(1) The first bits:
(b) April 2006 Student Visas:
The visas for April are going to be confirmed on February 28th. I will add a small update to the alert box on the
ACJS index
page after the confirmation emails are sent, so please check your email box (and filters if necessary).
As it is difficult for the Housing Office to arrange the cleaning of about 100 rooms in a 4 day period, it will not be possible
for new students to check in during March or on the weekend of April 1st/2nd. Please try to arrive
on April 3rd or 4th. Housing will be allocated in the order that applications were approved, so it is possible/probably that
later applicants will not receive their 1st or 2nd preference. We have 31 more rooms
(Residence Hane and Yamamoto House) than at this
stage last year so placement should be closer to preferences than this time last year.
(c) Demolition Job redux:
In the last newsletter we explained how the end of Fuji Hall had been sliced off
to shorten the building due to the new road being built through the campus. The new wall has been completed and painted.
During the next 3 to 4 years there will be some serious construction going on as we rebuild the campus.
(d) Speech Contest: The 14th annual speech contest was held on Friday February 24th at the Okazaki Civic Center with
15 contestants competing (and around 200 watching). Congratulations to winners
Laurent Albert (AIJP, G Class, France),
Brian Bechtel (AIJP, F Class, USA),
Chin-Yi Liao (AJSP, A Class, Taiwan), to the "People's Choice" winner
Jonathan Schwab (AIJP, J Class, USA), and to the winners of the 2 "special prizes"
Maxime Capron (AIJP, D Class, France) and
Philippe Guillot (AIJP, M Class, France). For some reason this year was something of a
"French sweep" - is it a Winter Olympic year???
(e) Coming Events: The Hounen Matsuri at
Tagata Jinja will be held on March 15th. One of the most significant fertility festivals in Japan, it is worth visiting if you
have the time. It is always held on the 15th, so mark your calendars for 2007 if you aren't in
Okazaki yet.
2. Course and accommodation information: Summer 2006 Applications, Kyoto trips
3. Things Japanese: Hayfever
4. Student Interview: Chris Resnik (Switzerland, AIJP)
5. Japan Guide: Helicopter Skiing (Nagano) & Matsumae (Hokkaido)
6. About The Yamasa Institute
(a) Sapporo deadlines: Due to heavier than expected demand for course places, applications for
the new Sapporo Japanese Summer Program for the 2006 summer
have been closed. We will be increasing the capacity before the 2007 winter and summer sessions. Additional files will
be added to the HCJS and
Hokkaido directories
during the next 3 months as we expand and translate the content. The edited
Sapporo Snow Festival files along with
other newly completed Sapporo City content are
already online.
Sapporo Snow Festival
That well known Japanese festival known as sento-patorikkusu-dei is rapidly becoming St. Patrick's Month as the
Irish Network Japan spread the green. The 2nd annual
St. Patrick's Day parade in Nagoya will start from Osu Kannon around
1.30pm on Saturday 4th. On March 17th
Zig Zag will be open for an Irish style breakfast from 7am (yes you can drink
the best Guinness in Japan before heading to class) and open
all day and night until breakfast on the 18th. The INJ will then proceed to shut down
Omotesando in
Harajuku for the
annual St. Patrick's Day Parade, Tokyo on the 19th (Sunday).
St Patrick's Day in Japan
(f) "Snow": Spring is nearly here, and temperatures are starting to rise. However since this has been the best snow season for quite a few years the snow depth at the ski-fields is still excellent. The staff in the International Office all came to work early on Friday morning, and at exactly 4pm left the parking lot at high speed for the Hakuba Ski fields, leaving your humble correspondent to write this newsletter and hold the fort. It would bother me more if I wasn't planning to go heliskiing in Nagano next week. For those thinking of going skiing or snowboarding in the next few weeks, the conditions for skiing in Hakuba are excellent (especially Tsugaike and Happo One), as well as Shiga Kogen and for the mogul fiends at Madarao. In Hokkaido the powder was superb at Sapporo Teine but the first rain of the year fell at Niseko. We will write up and add more ski related files to the directories soon (but probably not until after the snow melts).
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(g) Other bits:
The Editor
Yamasa News
The
Yamasa Institute - Aichi Center for Japanese Studies
1-2-1 Hanehigashimachi
Okazaki
Aichi Japan 444-0832
(2) Course Information
Accommodation
If you are coming to Okazaki during the next few months, please visit the housing availability file (Opens new window).
Message from Yukiko Iijima (Housing Officer): Please also note that it is extremely important that you rank your accommodation preferences clearly. Upgrades are possible in the event of cancellations - so if your first preference is a single room in the village, select "Village single" as first choice, "Residence U" as your second choice and so on.
Long-term Courses:
Applications for October Student Visa intake: Admissions for long term visas for October 2006 are now open. Early application is advised due to the selection process and the limited number of visas we are allocated by the Immigration Bureau for October. To download application forms click here.
Short-term courses:
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All Extension programs have space while accommodation is available. For Academic programs, the next available start date for AIJP, AJSP and Acceleration Format 1 is July 5th 2006. For applicants for 1 academic quarter only, using a short term tankitaizai (tourist) or other appropriate visa, applications close February 22nd. |
Discovery Tours all have vacancies - contact Admissions for further information. Tour dates for this year are available at http://www.yamasa.org/acjs/english/programs/discovery_dates.html
3. THINGS JAPANESE: "Kafunshou" - Hayfever in Japan
Sales of goggles, masks, tissue paper, antihistamines and decongestants are about to soar in Japan, probably from next week. March is around the corner and so therefore is hay fever season. The morning and evening news broadcasts will even mention pollen levels...
Why? During the second world war Japan's forests had been severely depleted. Vasts swathes of forest had been cut, not only for lumber but also for fuel. In the early postwar period many motor vehicles were still powered by charcoal burners. With the cities stilled burned out, there was enormous need for construction materials, and not enough foreign exchange available to import the require timber. At the end of the occupation the government sponsored an aggressive reforestation program, aiming to solve the problem by planting some 4.5 million hectares in the 20 years to the early 1970s. The vast majority of the seedlings were planted in monoculture plantations.
As Japan's economy recovered, it became cheaper and more....
Continued at http://www.yamasa.org/acjs/network/english/newsletter/things_japanese_36.html
STUDENT INTERVIEW: Chris Resnik (AIJP)
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| Chris Resnik |
Continued at http://www.yamasa.org/acjs/network/english/newsletter/student_int_68.html
5. Japan Guide: Helicopter Skiing (Nagano) & Matsumae (Hokkaido)
Helicopter Skiing & Snowboarding:
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| Heliskiing in Japan |
One of Japan's better kept secrets (hopefully it will stay that way for a little longer) is the massive backcountry found on the Tsugaike Ridge in northern Nagano prefecture. This area has fantastic powder bowls, and on a clear mid-winter day it is possible to take in a vista including most of the Hakuba valley, the high peaks of the spectacular Tsugaike ridge, and a glimpse of the cold Japan sea.
Although Tsugaike has long been....
Continued at http://www.yamasa.org/japan/english/destinations/nagano/tsugaike_heliskiing.html
Matsumae:
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| Matsumae Castle |
After Sapporo, Otaru, Hakodate and other new cities grew rapidly in the late 19th century, Matsumae shrank to become a small coastal town, and by escaping the bombings of WWII managed to preserve much of its cultural and architectural heritage. Matsumae is located at the southern end of the Oshima-hanto peninsula facing the Tsugaru strait separating Hokkaido from .....
Continued at http://www.yamasa.org/japan/english/destinations/hokkaido/matsumae.html
6. ABOUT THE YAMASA INSTITUTE
The Yamasa Institute is compromised of three teaching centers:
The Institute is committed to providing high-quality education in the Japanese language. We are a non-profit organization, a part of the Hattori Group. We are accredited by Association for the Promotion of Japanese Language Education - APJLE, accreditation number B302 - and "the only Institute in the Mikawa region with the appropriate programs, systems, curriculum and facilities required for quality Japanese language education" according to the Ministry of Justice. Further, in recognition of the excellent quality of our programs, we are in the top tier of 'Appropriately Authorized Japanese Language Education Institutes' - in fact, the only school in the Mikawa area with this prestigious recommendation. For full details see the accreditation section on the homepage at http://www.yamasa.org/acjs/english/accreditation.html
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