Friday, October 23, 2009

Cooking Japanese Foods!

On October 18th (Sun), we held the first Japanese food cooking class in this year!



People from the Philippines, Brazil, Myanmar, and the United States took part in and enjoyed this event.
The main recipe for this time was teriyaki-yellowtail (Buri no teriyaki) and freeze-dried Tofu (Koya-dofu).
Even we Japanese staff from APFS had not tried to make “dried foods” like Koya-dofu, so we also learned a lot from this interesting class!
Participants enjoyed talking not only with a teacher but also with other participants:
especially “Moms” were chatting a lot about box lunch in Japan (Obento). They said that in their country they had never seen a box lunch which includes such many foods like Japanese ones.
Now we learned, “different places have different box lunches”. Interesting!


Wanna join this class?
This class is opened for anyone, so feel free to contact us: 03-3964-8739.

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*Next class
November 15th (Sun)
13:30~
at Narimasu Shakai Kyoiku Kaikan
 (成増社会教育会館).


the main recipe:
-Miso soup (cooked from Dashi)
-rice boiled with soy sauce (Takikommi Gohan)
-also some side dishes

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We are looking forward to seeing you :)

Minister Fukushima Mizuho, we expect your commitment!

On October 15th, we and a foreigner staff participated in an event which commemorating publish of Mizuho Fukulshima’s book, the special mission minister of the Cabinet office.

She mainly takes charge of consumer administration, safety of foods, equal rights for men and women, and declining birth rate.
In addition, she also brings “ten topics” for her policy, including a “policy for foreigners living in Japan”

First, minister Fukushima talked with Mr. Yuasa, who started to work in the Strategy room in the Cabinet office, and then she delivered speech about her policy.
Her speech was concentrating on safety of foods and declining birth rate as we had expected.
In terms of foreigners in Japan, she just said “I’ve dealt with problems of Japanese Brazilian, and then…” which was kind of disappointing for us.
But what interesting was that there were lots of NGO’s booths there, and those showed easy-to-communicate atmosphere on this event.

We hope this new administration and Minister Fukushima will consider rights of foreigners seriously for making their policy.

Cultural exchange in neighborhood meeting :)

On October 12th, we held “Share Meeting”!




This meeting is aimed at foreigners living in Japan, giving them opportunities to talk about challenges they’ve faced in Japan and look for how to overcome.
This series have been held irregularly since the last year.

The topis for this time was "Communication in PTA (Parent-Teacher Association) and neighborhood meeting (町内会)"

It is said that these days even Japanese are likely to hesitate to attend neighborhood meeting.
But many participants in this “Share Meeting” take part in their neighborhood meeting, and enjoy some events like summer festivals as an opportunity to know Japanese culture.
One participant said “My kids can make friends with children in neighbors, and I also can make friends with neighbors”.
She had a positive impression toward neighborhood meeting.

*This meeting is supported by the administration of Tokyo (“東京都在住外国人支援事業助成”)

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

APFS 15th ASIAN FAIR

15th ASIAN FAIR that you don’t know in “oyama”


date:10/25(sun)11:00~17:00 (plan) *Sprinkle carry on

place:Square in front of Itabashi Tax Office


traffic:5 min walk from Tobutojo Line “Oyama”station


*map http://www.tax.metro.tokyo.jp/jimusho/t_itabashi.htm


content
■□ASIAN FOOD STALL VILLAGE■□
we can meke you happy by asian taste at once!
Philippine,Burma,Bangladesh,Pakistan,Chine,Itan,
Hungary(friendly guest appearance)etc.


■□ASIAN STAGE■□
○Introduce culture
○Music co-star with Bangladesh,Philippine,Pakistan and Itan’s bans singer
○ Dance Burma and Philippine’s Folk dance (you can experience)


■□INFORMATION FLEA MARKET■□
Early person winning!!
Challenge to Face to face negotiation!!


■□INFORMATION & VISA CONSULTATION■□
We introduce APFS’s action.
We can recived to consultation about VISA and life.




host:Asian People’s Friendship Society(APFS)

partnaership:Yuza Oyama Shopping Street Promotion Union etc

support:Itabashi Culture and International Exchange Foundation


*We take place to besubsidized by
「Central Industrial Bank’s Subvention program 2009」
inquiry:APFS TEL 03-3964-8739

Petitioning in Ikebukuro

September 23rd was the last day of the holidays.




We were in Ikebukuro gathering signatures for a petition.
We were joined by 18 unofficial resident families that are seeking special residency permission. We gathered approximately 300 signatures in about an hour!


About 20 children also participated. They handed out leaflets and asked people for signatures.


Elementary school students actively participated, but it seems that junior high school students are hesitant to start a conversation with strangers.
 
On a side note, although they do not have a “visa” at the moment, they have already obtained a temporary release, and have requested the immigration bureau for temporary permission to travel, which enables them to participate in these activities.

Myanmese cooking class

We held a Myanmese cooking class on September 13 (Fri).





The menu consisted of Myanmese style noodles and coconut jelly.
The Myanmese teacher managed to communicate the Japansese participants what the taste of real Myanmese grandmothers’ cooking is like.
Although the participants could adjust spices themselves according to their own taste, still in some cases the proper amount was not easy to know, so some people ended up with too hot and spicy noodles.
So it has to be stated that we were sweating, but in a way one can easily become even addicted to it. After cooking we continued with cultural introduction.




The program included performances of the Myanmese harp and traditional dances, as well las a small lecture on the country.

For foreigners! We are waiting for applicants to our Japanese Cooking Classes

APFS is planning Japanese Cooking Classes for foreigners according to the following schedule♪



If You are interested, please contact APFS!


Date and time:


alltogether two occasions on October 18 (Sun) and on November 15 (Sun), 1:30 PM–4:30 PM


Venue: Narimasu Social Education Hall, Kitchen Room (five minutes walk from Narimasu station of Toubu Tojo Line or Tokyo Metro Yurakucho Line)


Program:
1st time* We are making koyadofu (freeze dried tofu) and other Japanese side dishes
2nd time* We are making miso soup from real dashi
Fee: 800 JPY per occasion
Contact: APFS 03-3964-8739 or GZL07472@nifty.ne.jp
 

* These photos were taken on previous occasions of our Japanese Cooking Class (making of home made miso)

Introduction

Hi everybody.


This blog is for reporting on the daily activities of the APFS staff.

I hope it will be of some use in letting you know about the status of our foreigner assistance activities here in Japan.