DESIGNATED CITY

Sapporo City
A Destination City For All Seasons
Sapporo is the capital of Hokkaido,
which is the northernmost island of Japan.
It is a unique city with a population of
1.83 million, blessed with natural beautyand distinct seasons. As the fifth largest
city in the country, Sapporo plays animportant cultural, economic, and political role innorthern Japan. Overseas it
is commonly recognized asa host city of the WinterOlympics and the birthplaceof historic Sapporo Beer.
Situated at 43° North
latitude and 140° East
longitude, Sapporo hassnowy winters and mild,
pleasant summers. In theyear 2001, the annual mean
temperature was 9.0°C(48.2ºF), with the highest
temperature for the year
recorded 36.0°C (96.8ºF),
and the lowest temperature
coming in at –14.7°C(5.54ºF). The average yearlysnowfall for the region isapproximately five meters(16.4 ft).

“western” feel of Sapporo when compared toolder Japanese cities.
One thing that has remained unchanged
throughout the city’s history, however, is its
abundant natural resources and striking beau-for residents and visitors to relax. Sapporo
Art Park in the city’s suburbs features outdoor
sculptures that can be enjoyed even in thewinter. Moerenuma Park, designed by the legendary sculptor Isamu Noguchi, is also located in the city.

The Sapporo White Illumination Festival: Sapporo’s main street and central Odori
Park are transformed into a kaleidoscope of light, as trees are decorated with millionsof tiny light bulbs and light sculptures are erected along the park, providing a romantic
backdrop for strolling couples.

A relatively new city with a history of
approximately 130 years, Sapporo was thecenter of the reclamation of Hokkaido during the Meiji era in Japan. During thisperiod, experts in the fields of agriculture,industry, and education were invited fromoverseas, and helped spawn developmentof Sapporo using the knowledge and technology they brought. This infusion of outside ideas contributed to the noticeably

JLGC Newsletter

Sapporo City
Emblemty. More than 60% of the city is mountainous
with lush greenery. Mt. Moiwa and Mt. Teinelie relatively close to the city’s center and are
popular destinations for hikers in the summerand skiers in the winter.
The city’s numerous parks provide endless recreational opportunities for citizens.
Odori Park stretches from east to west
through downtown Sapporo and offers a place5

Sapporo’s citizens
enjoy a large variety ofcultural institutions andfestive events. Music lovers
flock to the Pacific Music
Festival every summer,
created by Leonard
Bernstein and featuring
young musicians fromall over the world. The
Hokkaido Museum ofModern Art has a wellknown collection ofmodern glassworks aswell as prominent
permanent andtemporary exhibits.
Music performancestake place throughout
the year at the highly
praised Sapporo Concert
Hall “Kitara” inNakajima Park.

Sapporo has many vivid festivals marking the seasons. Yosakoi Soran Festival began
ten years ago and has evolved into the city’s
largest summer festival. Sapporo Snow
Festival is world famous and over two million
visitors come every year in February to see
the snow and ice sculptures that adorn thecity. Other major events include the Hokkaido
Shrine Festival, the Sapporo White
Illumination, and the Sapporo Lilac Festival.

Issue 44

Fall 2002

PREFECTURE TODAY

Kagawa Prefecture
Beautiful Island Place
continued from page 4at both governmental and grass roots levels.

cities and towns with provinces, cities
and towns overseas. Furthermore thenumber of people travelling abroad andthe number of exchange students andresearch students coming from various
countries to Kagawa is increasing every
year. Globalization is progressing steadily

FutureKagawa is actively promoting the development of a new city center where the cityand the Takamatsu Port blend harmoniously.
The prefecture and Takamatsu City aim tocreate a prosperous new city center which utilizes the beautiful scenery of the Seto Inland

Sea. The new buildings, the Station Plaza,and other harbor facilities have finallyopened, and this new city has begun to lookforward to the future.
Additional information regarding
Kagawa Prefecture may be found at:
http://www.pref.kagawa.jp/kokusai/profile/mainmenu.html

DESIGNATED CITY

Sapporo City
continued from page 5
The winters are harsh in Sapporo, andsnow removal is challenging for citizens andthe government alike. However, the citizensof Sapporo have used wisdom and ingenuity
to make winter an enjoyable and livable season. The Sapporo Snow Festival is one way
winter is enjoyed, and the ski grounds andski jump stadiums located in the city enablecitizens to have fun in the snow. Sapporo
has also been working to develop and promote technology and industry related toheavy snowfall and cold region issues, andthese efforts led to the establishment of theInternational Association of Mayors ofNorthern Cities by former Sapporo Mayor
Itagaki Takeshi in 1982.
The city’s vibrant atmosphere has
made it a favored location for events ofinternational scale, including the 1972 WinterOlympic Games, the Winter Universiade, andthe Asian Games. The all-weather Sapporo
Dome opened in June of 2001 and was thevenue for three games of the FIFA Soccer

JLGC Newsletter

World Cup in June 2002. The Sapporo
Convention Center, with an expectedcompletion date of 2003, will further
increase the number of world-classconventions held in the city each year.
Active sister-city relationships
with Portland (Oregon, USA), Munich(Germany), Shenyang (China), andNovosibirsk (Russia) also give Sapporo’s
citizens many opportunities to learn about
foreign countries and participate in exchange programs and events. This year
marks the 30th anniversary of sister-cityties between Sapporo and Munich, andcommemorative events include an outdoor
German Christmas Market in downtown
Sapporo.
Japanese consistently cite Sapporo as
one of the most desired places to visit inJapan, and Sapporo aims to preserve its
reputation and charm while developing its
sports, events, fashion, arts, culture, tourism,and information technology in order to play
an even more active world role in the future.
6The Sapporo Snow Festival: Huge replicas ofworld famous architecture made from snow, as
well as delicately crafted ice sculptures, can beseen at this internationally famous festival.

Additional information regarding
Sapporo City may be found at:
http://www.global.city.sapporo.jp/*Part of this article appeared in Winter Cities MagazineMay 2002 and was reprinted with permission.

Issue 44

Fall 2002

JETAA ACTIVITIESNorthern Alberta JETAA – Edmonton, Canada
by Brenda McDonald
President of the Northern Alberta JET Alumni Association
The Northern Alberta JET Alumni
Association (NAJETAA) is located inEdmonton, Alberta, Canada. On anannual basis we offer a wide varietyof activities to our alumni which appeal
to many different tastes. We provide an
Orientation Weekend for departing JETs
and a Fall dinner for returning ones. We
have a bonenkai celebration every
December and follow in January with aJapanese cooking night during which
we’ve made very oishii (delicious) sushi,
okonomiyaki (Japanese flat pancakes) andnabe (a hot-pot dish). We are participantsannually in the Consulate sponsoredSpring Festival; we have a Japanesephoto and art exhibit, and this year weeven went so far as to rent sumo suits
which proved to be very amusing foreveryone involved! In 2002, we introduced
a curling workshop and bonspiel forumin the winter and a sake tasting event inthe spring. Both events brought outmembers who hadn’t participated before –a sure sign of a successful event!

Last November, a joint effort wasformed between NAJETAA and the Southern
Alberta JET Alumni Association (SAJETAA)
which is based in Calgary. We combined ourefforts to create the “Alberta JET Re-entry
Retreat and Workshop.” This weekend event
was primarily aimed at returning JETs togive them the opportunity to network andshare their experiences with other returnees
and alumni.

The Retreat began on Friday evening
with NAJETAA carpooling down to Calgary
and meeting up with SAJETAA for a night atthe pub. Accommodations were provided by
SAJETAA members in tatami-timesharestyle. The sessions on Saturday ran from 9am
to 5pm and were filled with discussions
regarding settling back into life in Canada,dealing with reverse culture shock, finding
work, keeping in touch with Japan, and getting involved with your local JET Alumni
Chapter. The highlight of the day, however,
was keynote speaker Deb Calderon fromVancouver who led us through a lively,
hands-on workshop.
Deb has done reentry sessions for
JET Alumni
Association ofBritish Columbia(JETAABC) in thepast and is highlyregarded in thisaspect. During theworkshop, we identified the skills wedeveloped in Japanand learned how toapply those skills toThe Alberta JET Workshop was a success, in part due to the idea of twosell ourselves in thechapters working together to achieve the same goal.

JLGC Newsletter

7

job market. Who would have thought all
those drinking and karaoke nights could
be interpreted as people skills, conflict
resolution and translation technique!
The Saturday evening enkai was hosted
by the Consulate at a fabulous Japaneserestaurant where we enjoyed wonderful foodand many toasts of “Kampai!”…. This was,of course, followed by the nijikai at a local
club. On Sunday, alumni went out for the day
to Banff in the Rocky Mountains to soak in
the hot springs and slurp some ramen.
The “Alberta JET Re-entry Retreat andWorkshop” was undeniably a success, in partdue to the idea of two chapters working
together to achieve the same goal. Not onlywas the Retreat good for the returning JETs,
it was good for the relationship between
NAJETAA and SAJETAA. This November,
Edmonton will host the Retreat and we lookforward to repeated success.
If any chapters would like further
information regarding the Retreat, pleasecheck our website at:
http://najetaa.jetaa.ca
or contact by e-mail:president@najetaa.jetaa.ca
orwebmaster@najetaa.jetaa.ca.

Issue 44

Fall 2002

JLGC UPDATEJETs Return to Hometown
The 14th Annual Welcome Home Reception in New YorkOn Thursday, October 21st, 2002, theConsulate General of Japan in New York,JLGC, New York and JETAA-New York
chapter hosted a Welcome Home Reception
at the Nippon Club for newly returned JETs.
JET Programme participants who had justcome back to the New York area after
spending over a year in Japan werewelcomed by their hosts and several
important guests.
Among the notable guests were Mr. Jun
Okumura, President of JETRO’s New York
office; Mr. Fumitomo Horiuchi, Director
General of the Japan Foundation; and Mr.
Takashi Iwao, Secretary General of CLAIRin Tokyo.
The newly returned JETs were in Japanon 9/11/2001 when terrorists attacked theUnited States. In fact, the reception itself washeld just one month after the one-year
anniversary. Accordingly, there were somecomments from the guest speakers regardingthese tragic events. Mr. Hida, Director of
JLGC, encouraged those in attendance bysaying; “This city is built on the efforts oftalented people like you, while it, in turn,feeds your own energy and creativity.”
Mr. Koshikawa, Director of the Japan
Information Center of the Japanese
Consulate General in New York, expressedthat all returning JETs would continue to add
to the mutual understanding between Japanand the United States, thus helping to create
an even deeper and stronger relationshipbetween the two nations.

The Welcome Home Reception, hosted by the Consulate General of Japan, JLGC and JETAA-New York,was held at the Nippon Club in New York for newly returned JETs.

comed new members and stated that JETAA
would aggressively continue its activities andlook to enhance partnerships not only among
the JETAA organization, but also among
other NPO and volunteer groups related toJapan and New York.
After opening speeches, everyone
enjoyed a buffet dinner and spent the evening
catching up with old friends and making newacquaintances. Always well attended, theannual Welcome Home Reception is a great
way for the Consulate General of Japan in
New York and JLGC, New York to say“Thanks” and ”Good Job” to JET
Programme participants. The reception,
attended by almost 120 participants, offers
one of the best opportunities for the JETAANew York chapter to attract new members.

Ms. Shannan Spisak, the President ofthe JETAA New York chapter, also wel-After the reception, some of attendees

JAPAN LOCAL GOVERNMENT CENTER
666 FIFTH AVE., NEW YORK, NY 10103-0072

TEL: (212) 246-5542
FAX: (212) 246-5617

headed toward midtown for the nijikai
post-party party. JETs members are always
young at heart.
HOKKAIDO

Featuredin thisissue:

Sapporo City

ISIKAWA PREF.
Kanazawa
CityTokyo
Shodoshima

Takamatsu
City
KAGAWA PREF.

E-MAIL: info@jlgc.org
WEBSITE: http://www.jlgc.org