Canadian Spirit Newsletter / October 2009 / Newsletter No. 10

Summer has come to an end and autumn is all around us in Penticton. We just returned from visiting relatives in Cawston (a short drive west of Penticton) and during our drive to Cawston we saw fields of pumpkins and squash and endless rows of trees with yellow, orange, and red leaves.

We had a very busy summer season – June through September – and our guests had the time of their lives here in Penticton. This season we had a wide variety of guests from large groups to single visitors of all different ages and they participated in a flurry of activities such as kayaking, parasailing, hiking, mountain biking, fruit and berry picking, horseback riding, tennis, scuba diving…the list was endless!

This summer season saw the arrival of some very special visitors too. We had the great fortune of hosting three performing artists who put on first-class traditional Japanese cultural shows at Columbia Elementary School and for the Kiwanis K-Kids. The artists were terrific and the Canadian audiences were fascinated by their skills and performances.

During the fall we are promoting the upcoming ski season in Penticton and we are hoping to attract skiers and snowboarders from Japan. The tremendous success of our recent performing artists has also convinced us to bring over more and more artists and set up concerts and events for them during the late winter and spring of 2010.

Angela and Matthew have started their school terms, and we cannot believe they are already in Grades 5 and 3. Angela is in her last year at Columbia Elementary School, and next year she will be attending the Grade 6 French Immersion Program at KVR Middle School in Penticton. Matthew is having fun in Grade 3 and will continue playing soccer in the Penticton mini league.

Atsuko has taken some huge steps in her new life in Canada. Starting in late January 2010, Atsuko will be teaching Japanese cooking and Japanese culture through Okanagan College’s Continuing Education Program. She will be teaching cooking and culture once a week from late January to the beginning of April in Summerland, Penticton, Oliver, and Osoyoos. Atsuko is nervous but I know she will do an excellent job teaching Canadians how to make such dishes as tempura, makizushi, miso soup in addition to instructing them on the fine arts of calligraphy, origami, koto, and tea ceremony.

Thank you for your emails and support over the summer season. June through September was a very busy time for us and we deeply appreciate your efforts to keep in touch and also your help taking care of our Japanese visitors. If you know of any Japanese who may be interested in visiting us in Penticton or performing for Canadian audiences, please let them know about our services. Thank You!

Popular Canadian English Used by Young People: “random” – For example, “Wow, that is so random” (meaning: what you just did or said is crazy or makes no sense) “sucks” – the meaning is the same as before except now you hear it all the time! “awesome” – the same as above Young people are also in the habit of saying: “Oh my gosh…I don’t care!” (When I was young it was – “I don’t know and I don’t care!”)