Atsuko taught Japanese cooking and culture through Okanagan College Continuing Education. She taught cooking in Summerland, Penticton, and Oliver and then did a culture class in Penticton.

Her first class was held at Penticton Secondary School with 12 students in attendance and she was so nervous! However, once she got going she began to relax and had a great time. The students had a lot of fun too! Atsuko taught them to make makizushi (rolled sushi), miso soup, gomae salad, and then topped it off with tempura. Everyone loved the sushi, of course, but they also enjoyed making and eating the miso soup, gomae salad, and tempura. The tempura recipe is from Atsuko’s mom and unlike some tempura the batter is made without eggs and is very, very light and crispy – yummy!

The Japanese tea ceremony and culture class at Okanagan College in Penticton and was a success too. Again, Atsuko was very nervous going into to it but once she got going everything fell into place and she did an excellent job. She started off with a slide show of the tea ceremony and then got the students to do the ceremony and taste the matcha and Japanese sweets. March 3 was Japanese Doll Festival Day so we brought a couple of dolls and she talked about the festival and its origins. She then moved on to talking about the Japanese kimono and the geisha culture (one of her friends is a former geisha), and then she concluded with an origami demonstration.tsuko came across as very professional and the students just loved her and were full of questions!

I have been back in Canada for almost 3 years and I am still amazed over the rapid growth of the foreign-born population. My wife is Japanese and our 2 children also look Japanese so we are very much a part of this rapidly growing movement. I remember shopping at Ikea in Coquitlam when I first got back to Canada and being amazed over the number of mixed couples wandering the store. In Osaka a mixed couple would stand out but at Ikea in Coquitlam it was the norm! Although the Okanagan population is still predominantly white the landscape is changing, and it will be very interesting to see how the rapid rise of the foreign-born population will affect Canadian society, politics, and the economy particularly in rural Canada where we live. I find articles like this one fascinating and a great insight into the changing face of Canada.

Minorities to rise significantly by 2031: StatsCan
Tuesday, March 9, 2010 | 4:42 PM ET | CBC News

About one-third of Canada’s population — up to 14.4 million people — will be a visible minority by 2031, Statistics Canada projects.

The country’s foreign-born population is also expected to rise to as much as 28 per cent, about four times faster than the rest of the population, the Statistics Canada study projects.

A growing percentage of new Canadians, like these seen reaffirming their vows of citizenship before a Toronto Blue Jays game in 2003, will be visible minorities, according to a new report by Statistics Canada. A growing percentage of new Canadians, like these seen reaffirming their vows of citizenship before a Toronto Blue Jays game in 2003, will be visible minorities, according to a new report by Statistics Canada. (Aaron Harris/Canadian Press)

The projections suggest that whites will become the minority in Toronto and Vancouver over the course of the next three decades.

South Asians, including Indians, Pakistanis and Sri Lankans, are expected to make up the largest visible minority group, at 28 per cent, thanks in part to high fertility rates, the study projected.

The proportion of Chinese-Canadians, who have one of the lowest fertility rates in Canada, is expected to decrease from 24 to 21 per cent.

Visible minorities, as defined by the study, are “persons, other than aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour.”

Settlement primarily in urban centres

The vast majority of visible minorities — 71 per cent — are projected to live in Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal, building on a trend that has seen immigrants move to urban centres in large numbers.

Newcomers settle in urban areas because the sheer size of the cities means more job opportunities, which then leads to the creation of ethnic communities, said University of Toronto professor Jeffrey Reitz.

“(They) become kind of magnets in themselves for people of similar backgrounds,” the ethnic and immigration studies professor said.

“The existence of the communities in the cities sort of tends to become a self-perpetuating process.”

The largest proportion by far is projected to live in Toronto, where Statistics Canada says 63 per cent of the population will be a visible minority, up from 43 per cent counted in the 2006 census.

In Vancouver, the population of visible minorities is projected to reach 59 per cent, up from 42 per cent in 2006.

In Montreal, the population of visible minorities is projected to reach 31 per cent, more than double the 16 per cent counted in 2006.
With files from The Canadian Press

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/03/09/statscan-minority.html#ixzz0hkMZCDjT
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/100309/dq100309a-eng.htm

I thought my Canadians friends and friends of Canada would like to hear a bit about the Olympics now that it is all over. There is so much to say (and millions of journalists have said so much already!) that I thought I would just give you a list of interesting figures and personal opinions.

- Canada’s ‘Own the Podium’ campaign was created to draw corporate sponsorship. Nobody liked the campaign as it was too brash/vulgar, too un-Canadian, and put too much pressure on the athletes.

- However, that being said, the record-breaking 14 gold medals set a new Olympic record for the highest number won in a single Games.

- Stephen Colbert of “The Colbert Report” was upset at Canada, calling Canadians such things as “syrup-suckers,” Saskatchew-whiners,” and “ice-holes” but remarked that when he arrived in Vancouver to tape his shows he commented that “I am surrounded by the most polite mob in history.”

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/02/17/bc-colbert-vancouver-taping.html

- Canada’s men’s Olympic ice hockey defeat to the United States became the most-watched sports programme in Canadian history with 10.6 million viewers – over a third of the country’s population.

- Vancouver’s opening ceremony, the first to be held indoors, was the most-watched television event ever in Canada with an average of 13.3 million viewers.

- 3.5 billion worldwide television viewers are estimated to have tuned into the Games.

- Freestyle skier Alexandre Bilodeau became the first Canadian to win Olympic Gold at home with victory in the men’s moguls. His brother, Frederic age 28, suffers from cerebral palsy and seeing him cheer on his younger brother and seeing them embrace each other after the Gold Medal win was one, big tear-jerker. Alexandre calls his brother Frederic “my inspiration” and he has probably done more to elevate cerebral palsy to the forefront of Canadian minds that anything in years.

The Vancouver Games had an operating budget of $1.75 billion. The figure does not include the $900 million security budget, funded mostly by the Canadian federal government.

A friend of mine bought an opening ceremony ticket for $2,700.

Someone was trying to sell front row seat at US-Canada Gold Medal Final for $9,000 on CraigsList

A group of 4 box seats at the same game were going for $136,000.

$500-million target for gross retail sales of Vancouver 2010 branded merchandise met by end of Games.

Spending by international visitors on Visa cards at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games and in British Columbia topped US$100 million during the Games.

Top ten spenders:

-  USA

-  China

-  United Kingdom

-  Australia

-  Russia Federation

-  Japan

-  South Korea

-  Hong Kong

-  Norway

-  Germany

I end with a quote from The Vancouver Sun newspaper:

“Tens of thousands of people poured into downtown streets Sunday, as they had each night of the Olympics, to celebrate and cheer not only Canada’s hockey win but merely being Canadian and part of these Games. And as usual, it wasn’t just a young crowd spilling from bars. There were seniors, babies in strollers, kids holding glow-sticks and middle-aged men and women waving flags tied to hockey sticks. And at the intersection of Smithe and Howe (finance district), at 9:30 p.m., there was a full-on street hockey game, complete with nets. Five hundred people stood and watched and cheered every goal, no matter which team scored.”
(Iain Macintyre, “2010: A Heartwarming Olympic Odyssey,” The Vancouver Sun, March 2, 2010)