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News from your National AJET Rep: March ’11

Hey Hyogo JETs, hope your winter vacations have been great! Now, I know all the ski trips, Valentine’s chocolate, naked men melées and graduation ceremonies are wrapping up, but don’t resign yourself to Facebook and Cracked.com just yet. Not that I’m knocking either of them – heck, they’re bookmarked on both of my school computers. I’ll never look at Grimace the same way again…sniffle…

Anyhoo, in the world of Block 6 we have a fundraiser this month. Conveniently named “March of Dimes,” the plan is simple:

March 1 – start collecting 10-yen coins (and get your friends, coworkers and well-wishers to donate!)

March 31 – count up your money and send it in to be donated

See? Simple. The good kind of simple.

To spice this up a little bit, those participating in the fundraiser are encouraged to join the “march” up Inari Mountain on Saturday March 12 (yup, you see where I’m going with this). Once we finish the 4km walking course, we will have dinner in Higashiyama and take a more leisurely stroll to see the lanterns in the Gion area. If you live far away or your legs are too gelatinous to take you straight home can join the group going to…*drum roll* SPA WORLD baby! If you’ve never been, just imagine an onsen-version of Disneyland or USJ but smaller-scale, cheaper, and way more relaxing. Sorry, no light parades, but if you’re going on the lantern tour you’ll be covered.

Proceeds will go to Baan Unrak Children’s Village, the cornerstone of Go M.A.D. (Make A Difference). It’s a wonderful orphanage in rural Thailand that aims to be as self-sufficient as possible – the children help to grow their own food and take care of animals (they even have a puppy nursery) – but the majority of expenses come from health and medical care. Because the children are not legally considered as Thai citizens, health care workers demand a lot of money just to visit the orphanage and see them. I was honoured to volunteer with other JETs this past Christmas at Baan Unrak, which is why I decided to do this fundraiser for this particular organization. Go M.A.D. is an international web-based organization founded and run by teachers on the JET Programme and their Japanese friends. E-mail me to register for this fundraiser!

In the National AJET Council world, we are currently drafting surveys for the Opinion Exchange this spring with CLAIR and the three ministries (MEXT, MIC, MOFA). Please keep your eyes open for those, especially if you’re a senior high ALT – the “[Teaching] English in English (working title)” survey will need your input. We are also looking for awesome Japanese teachers, friends, and colleagues to reward for dedication to increasing international awareness within their communities. The AJET Teaching Awards and Internationalisation Awards Programmes will accept nominations until April 2; fill out the forms and nominate people you know!

And for those of you who have fewer classes and more free time to peruse the Intermanet, check out the Aussie National AJET Group on Facebook and the brand-spanking new forum at that lists all of AJET’s Special Interest Groups. New groups include Writers, Muslims in Japan, and Japanese Religion and Meditation.

That’s all from me for now. Stay warm everyone, keep drinking lots of miso soup and matcha tea. Spring is just around the corner…isn’t it? Shoot. I wasn’t paying attention on Groundhog Day; I got too wrapped up thinking about the movie. Ah you’ll be fine. Soup and tea.

Cheers,

Sifton

Block6@ajet.net

Sifton is the 2010-11 National AJET Representative for Block 6 (Hyogo, Kyoto and Shiga). She currently resides in Kobe and lives on bubble tea and a secret stash of Tim Horton’s coffee from home. Her reactions during suspenseful TV shows, movies and anecdotes are rumoured to be quite entertaining.

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