In association with Japan Ireland Travel & Ireland Japan Association.
Tuesday June 16, 2009.
Venue: The Button Factory (Temple Bar).

Elm Park Golf and Sports Club in Donnybrook is the venue for this year’s IJA Golf outing. The annual golf event is the sporting highlight of the IJA calendar and teams of 4 will battle it out to be crowned the association’s champions.

Summer always whets the appetite for something new and Japanese food never fails to deliver both new and delicious dishes.

The rainy season has started to spread across most parts of central Japan by now which means Summer is quickly approaching! Japanese people love their seasons and take great pride in making excuses for celebrating them.

For  many,  the  word  ‘sushi’  means  simply  raw  fish.  To  those  of  us  with  an  interest  in  all  things  Japanese,  it  means  a  wide  variety  of  wonderful  delicacies.

Ireland’s under 20’s team headed East to give it their best in the Under 20’s World Cup tournament that commenced on June 5th with games scheduled for the next few weeks.

The IJA hosted an evening Calligraphy workshop on June 4th 2009. Ms Yoko Wakabayashi performed the workshop. Yoko has been studying and practicing calligraphy for many years now and also teaches Japanese Language in Dublin.

Japan Ireland Travel recently participated in a Trade Mission to Japan organised successfully by Tourism Ireland. A small group of Irish Travel Trade arrived to Tokyo on Monday May 25th ready for a heavy schedule of selling their products and services to the Japanese travel trade.

If you live in Tokyo or are going to be visiting there in the second week in June, why not call in on Irish Week at the Center for the Study of World Civilizations (CSWC)?

Sushi King of 146 Baggot Street Lower has now opened a second outlet on Dawson Street (opposite the Apollo Gallery) with Eat-in or take-away. Across the city centre on 19 Liffey Street (opposite the Gin Palace pub) a new Sushi and Japanese food outlet called Kokoro opened in early May. Take-away only.

Albert Bender (1866-1941) was born in Dublin but emigrated to San Francisco where, by the beginning of the 20th century, he was one of the most successful insurance brokers on the US west coast.

A list of links to external websites with articles of interest to members. Websites listed include information on Sumo, Pera Pera Penguin, the European Central Bank's latest exchange rates for the Yen and Euro currencies and the award-winning Financial Times blog.

TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen and Japanese prime minister Taro Aso discussed the global recession, the crisis in the Middle East and the incoming Obama administration during their first bilateral meeting in Tokyo on January 15th 2009

The Japanese Saturday School was founded to provide compulsory school education for Japanese children whose ages are between 6 and 15. It follows the Japanese government guidelines for teaching and thus the pupils can keep up with the Japanese basic scholastic level.

The quintessential Japanese drink is sake which has been brewed and enjoyed by Japanese people since ancient times and still today plays a central role in Japanese life and culture.

If you say the word ‘Sushi’, most people will automatically think about raw fish. When I mentioned that the IJA was organising a sushi workshop, many people said that they didn’t eat raw fish. This common perception existed before we started our recent sushi-making workshop, but at the end, we knew differently!! A very eager group of novice sushi makers were guided by the expertise of not one but two prestigious Japanese chefs, Ito – San and Miyachi – San.