JETAA Undokai 運動会
Do you remember Sports Day in Japan, when the entire school joined in the competitive spirit to determine who is the fastest, strongest, and most agile? Well, you can re-live…
Japanese Supermarkets In Toronto
Missing Japanese home cooking? Need some ingredients you can’t seem to find anywhere? How about checking out the many options we lucky Torontonians have at our disposal. Explore the various Japanese supermarkets in Toronto. Ashley Haley breaks it down for you.
J-Town
3160 Steeles East / 404 & Steeles
J-Town, should you be close enough to access it, should always be your first stop for authenticity. This shopping complex encompasses a supermarket, restaurant, bakery, fishmonger, cafe, izakaya, kitchenware store, cosmetics store, beauty salon…it is, essentially, a tiny Japanese mall. The prices are consistent with what you might find at Sanko, though slightly higher than the Korean grocery stores that stock Japanese products. Still, for the experience – especially for expats fighting homesickness – this place is the Promised Land. It’s also the only store I know of in the city that sells melon pan, fresh or otherwise.
Access it by the 53 Steeles East bus at Finch Station – the stop you want is “3381 Steeles Avenue East,” immediately afterWoodbine Avenue.
Sanko
730 Queen Street West / Queen & Bathurst
Sanko is the more well-known of the two purely-Japanese shops in town, open since 1968 and run by a local family. For downtowners, it is a much more sensible choice than J-Town, especially as it has a fantastic stock of both drygoods and fresh ingredients, including burdock root and shiso leaves. Rice balls and takeout obentou available too. Sanko also carries an extensive stock of Japanese dishware; priced for imports but of excellent quality.
Access it via the 511Bathurstor 501 Queen streetcars.
PDOT Cooking Class: A Delicious Start
On July 6th nine new JETs, as well as four JAVA volunteers and two JETAA volunteers, participated in the 2012 PDOT cooking class. The menu included chilled somen, okomiyaki and strawberry daifuku. The day turned out to be hot and muggy, but hey, it’s a preview of actual cooking in Japan!
JAVA volunteers demonstrated how to make somen and daifuku. A couple of participants impressed everybody with their knife skills, while others got a knack in handling mochi dough (hint: cornstarch is your friend)
A Tearful Final Journey
Recently JETAA partnered with the JCCC in their newly created Toronto Japanese Film Festival to sponsor the movie Ending Note: Death of a Japanese Salaryman.
This story is about the final months of a Japanese salaryman, Tomoaki Sunada, who had retired from the board of directors of the company he worked for his entire life. He had recently been diagnosed with cancer and decided to live life to the fullest until he passed away.
The director of the film is the youngest daughter of Sunada-san. While the film starts and ends with the passing of Sunada-san, it is one of the most heartwarming testaments to life, family and love. A man who had spent his days focused on work and is estranged from his family discovers what is truly important to him — being a husband, father, grandfather and son. However, true to himself and ever the organized Japanese businessman, he begins to document and plan for his passing and types out his “ending notes”.
PDOT Pub Night 2012
This year’s edition of PDOT pub night was a resounding success. Some 30 promising Toronto JETs-to-be and a handful of hopeful alternate candidates (for whom we’re keeping our fingers crossed) took to the Bedford Academy patio following Saturday’s pre-departure orientation. PDOT was held that day at the Japan Foundation on Bloor Street, and hosted by the Japanese consulate in conjunction with JETAA Toronto.
The kohai cohort were joined by a crew of JETAA members, a number of whom were also present at Pre-departure Orientation, helping out in various roles. In any case, this Yorkville patio was certainly taken by storm with some seventy people in attendance at its most hopping point, including an excellent turnout from JAVA members, representing visitors to Toronto from Japan! The weather was at its June loveliest – all in all, a perfect setting for our new JETs (who left for Tokyo on August 4th) to mingle with alumni of the programme and members of Toronto’s Japanese community. (more…)