October Update :)

Hello there everyone! Hope the rubbish Leeds weather isn’t getting you down too much..
Just wanted to touch base with you all, give out some notices about what we have planned for the next couple of weeks.
Membership Cards- Will be given out at every social and Cookies and Koucha until you all have them, so fear not!
At our Socials- Please remember to bring a valid Passport or a Driving License. If you don’t then you will more than likely not be allowed in to the building, and will certainly not be allowed to buy alcohol. I realise that Britain is pretty strict when it comes to alcohol and some of you may not be used to it…but it really is important that you bring I.D with you.
Also, I was approached by the Duty Manager at Cutherbert Brodrick who seemed to think that some members of JapSoc had brought in their own alcohol. I do not think it actually was any of you guys, but just in case, please, please don’t otherwise we’ll won’t be able to use that venue anymore…
Anyway, enough housekeeping! Now for the fun stuff we have got planned

1. Wednesday 19th October, JapSoc Karaoke Party at OK Karaoke, 20.00-23.30
-We will be walking down from the Parkinson Steps at 19.30 as usual for those of you who don’t know the way, or just want to walk down with the lovely committee
-If not, here’s where it is on the map http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=Ok%20Karaoke%2C%20East%20Parade%2C%20Leeds&biw=1280&bih=685&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=il
-We’ll be giving out Membership Cards to people who haven’t collected theirs yet.
2. Thursday 20th October (and indeed every Thursday until the end of term) Cookies and Koucha, 14.00-16.00 in the East Asian Departmental Common Room
-Same about the cards, really.
-Orange juice, tea, custard creams…what’s not to love!
3. The EARS + JapSoc Fancy Dress Halloween Party at FabCafe, Tuesday, 25th October, 20.00-3.00am. Tickets= £4 for Members and £5 for Non-Members. All are welcome, so bring your friends too! (Walking down from Parkinson Steps at 19.45)
The East Asian Research Society and the Leeds University Union Japanese Society are joining forces together to put on an amazing Halloween bash
For those of you who don’t really know what exactly Halloween is (Japanese members, particularly) here’s a brief link to a website explaining all about it.http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%8F%E3%83%AD%E3%82%A6%E3%82%A3%E3%83%B3.
So, as per tradition, we are holding a costume party with our departmental buddies at EARS. We are holding this year’s Halloween Party at Fab Cafe, a sci-fi themed club next to the big Morrison’s Supermarket in town (http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tab=wl).
Sci-Fi Memorabilia on the walls! Retro-sweets on sale at the bar! 80′s and 90′s Party tunes on the playlist made by the DJ! What more could you want?
Start preparing your costumes people! There’s no particular theme, so your costume can be scary, funny- anything you want it to be!
Buying Tickets
We unfortunately won’t be able to sell any on the door, so you and your friends (even if they aren’t members) will have to get yours fast!
£4 for Members, £5 for Non-Members
We will be selling tickets at our social and Cookies and Koucha next week, and every week day from Monday 17th October until Tuesday 24th October.
Ticket Selling Times
Monday 17th- 15.00-17.00 in the East Asian Departmental Common Room
Tuesday 18th- 12.00-14.00 in the East Asian Departmental Common Room
Wednesday 19th 11.00-13.00 in the East Asian Departmental Common Room (and Karaoke…)
Thursday 20th 12.00-14.00 in Parkinson Court (And Cookies and Koucha…)
Friday 21st 12-14.00 in Parkinson Court
Monday 24th 15.00-17.00 in Parkinson Court
Tuesday 25th (Last Chance to buy your ticket) 12.00-14.00 in Parkinson Court

That’s all for now folks, here’s to a fun-filled fortnight!!
All the best,
Dan

Follow us on:-

Website : http://japansoc.wordpress.com/

Facebook-
Leeds University Japanese Societyhttp://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=2245670224

Twitter

http://twitter.com/#!/leedsjapanese

Welcome to the LUU Japanese Society 2011/2012

Welcome to the LUU Japanese Society!

As President of the Leeds University Union Japanese Society for the year 2011/2012, the committee and I would like to send you all a big welcome message and let you know who we are, what our society is all about, and what we have planned for this year!

We’d also like to congratulate everyone who passed their A-Level exams and are coming to study at Leeds- We can’t wait to meet you all and hopefully convince you to join our amazing society! The same goes for our international and exchange students, we are very much looking forward to welcoming you to Leeds and the U.K, and being good hosts to you all.

To our Kouhai returning from Japan- Your reputation precedes you! We’ve heard nothing but good things about you from the year above us, so it’ll be great to finally put faces to names! Hopefully what we have planned for this year will soften the blow of having to adjust to life back in plain ol’ Igirisu.

We also hope we can rely on the support of our Doukyuusei in Final Year in making this year’s Japanese Society great!!

So much for the greetings, now to tell you a little bit about our Society-

Our society is … simply put… all about Anglo-Japanese Exchange. Introducing Japanese people to British culture and vice versa, but we are not a society that caters exclusively to students of Japanese, our membership base stretches from Japanese Exchange Students and International Students to Leeds Students from all subject areas. Basically, we want to act as “cultural ambassadors” so to speak, to our Japanese guests, by acting as a forum where they can meet Leeds Students easily and learn more about their host country’s language and culture. Above all, we want our Exchange Students to feel at home during their time with us. As well as this, the Japanese Society is there for students of Japanese and those who are just Japan-crazy, so that they can meet like-minded people, make Japanese friends, practise their Japanese and learn more about Japan.

Basically… if you are interested in having lots of free tea and biscuits with Japanese people/Leeds Students once a week…if you feel like you can really bring the heat at our fortnightly Karaoke socials (or at least like watching people who think they can )…then come to our introductory Meet and Greet from 18.30- 20.00 on Wednesday 28th September in the Common Room Opposite the Hidden Café to find out more about us and what we have in store for this year. There’s going to be an ice-breaking quiz…the chance to buy membership…and an in-person introduction from all of us on the committee. Also, free biscuits! If that doesn’t tempt you out to come and see us, maybe the prospect of going to the pub afterwards to celebrate will, so save the date!!

Before then, we will be manning a stall at the International Freshers’ Fair (September 16th 14.00-18.00, The Riley Smith Hall) and at the bigger Freshers’ Fair (September 22nd 10.00- 16.00, The Riley Smith Hall) for those of you who want to get your membership earlier! (a mere £5 for the year, incidentally). All of you early birds who sign up during Freshers’ Week will be automatically entered into our Super-Happy-Fun-Raffle, to be drawn at our Meet and Greet, for the chance to win various Japanese themed Prizes

As well as myself (Daniel Brooks, President), we currently have 12 Committee Members:-

Isabelle Demaude- Treasurer
Simon Hughes- Secretary
Zoheb Ahmad- Captain of the FC Japandas
Nils Simon- Sports Secretary
Mike Gregory- Creative Designer
Kazuya Asakura- Japanese Representative
Georgie Clark- Representative for Members not studying Japanese
Jayson O’Reilly- Committee Deputy
Verity Townsend- Committee Deputy
Diana Soares- Committee Deputy
Camilla Crawshaw- Committee Deputy

Well that’s all for now…Enjoy the rest of your Summer!!!

Looking forward to meeting you all,

Daniel.

Contact:-

President: Daniel Brooks jl08dkb@leeds.ac.uk
Secretary: Simon Hughes ml08sah@leeds.ac.uk
Treasurer: Isabelle Demaude jl08id@leeds.ac.uk

For our members, and those interested in joining us, all of our fabulous socials/cultural events/updates and announcements will be posted up on our social network pages, as well as our website.

Follow us on:-

Website : http://japansoc.wordpress.com/

Facebook-
Leeds University Japanese Societyhttp://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=2245670224

Twitter

http://twitter.com/#!/leedsjapanese

Volunteering Opportunity in London

Hello all,

Japan Society UK is looking for around 100 volunteers to take part in the Mayor’s Thames Festival Night Carnival on 11th September. What they’re mainly asking for is people to take part in the lantern parade and also help out in their latern workshops during the day as well as donations of 1.5 litre – 2 litre plastic bottles to help make the lanterns themselves.

Further information and a sign-up form can be found here:

Japan Society – Thames Festival

ご協力お願い致します。

Carley

The Final Report for Japanese Society 2010/11

Glorious Japanese Society,

Hope you are all having a good summer!

It’s that time of year again for us to say goodbye and hand Japanese Society over to the new committee. But first, a report and message of thanks to everyone that has made Japanese Society into the amazing beast that it has been this year.

We’ve had a tremendous year this year, not only have we been able to hold several amazing events but we have also won awards and donated £12,000 to good causes inluding the Red Cross in aid of the Japanese tsunami appeal and an extension of the UK-Japan Young Scientists Programme that will allow orphans from the tsunami disaster to come to the UK on an exchange trip to escape the trauma of living in evacuation centers. Though like many committees we have not been able to do everything that we would like, we’ve worked hard this year and improved our links not only with the LUU and our department but we have also managed to establish them in both industry, across the university and with various schools, academics and Japanese public figures.

Financially, we have used your membership money to offer the best events at the cheapest prices that we possibly can and have left enough in the pot to give the guys next year a decent start in the hope that the next committee will be able to carry on all that we have built up over the past 12 months. We also bestowe you our awesome torii gate and Japandas.

OK, with that report stuff out of the way, there are quite a few people we would like to thank. To start with, our biggest thanks go to our members who have not only supported us throughout the year but also often contributed their time and hard work to various causes within the society. Japanese Society is what it is because of you guys.

ありがとうございました

Across the University we have a lot of thanks to give out, particularly to the Union and International Office who helped us a lot with Tanabata and the thousand cranes event. Special thanks go to the department, the Japanese teachers routinely let us interrupt their lessons to recruit help for Tanabata and often relayed messages for us which was really helpful. The office staff have been great in letting people know what is going on, we recieved a lot of support for Professor Williams and Dr Ruru Li during Tanabata and Dr Rose has been helping us out majorly all year, it is also thanks to her we were able to host the talk by Akiko Yamanaka.

The committee also deserves thanks for all of their hard work this year, Katie Turner and Karen Orme especially for all that they have done, as well as Matt Anstis, Zoheb Ahmad, Sarah Turner, Alex Hammond and everybody else. Special thanks also go to our DJ’s Kosuke Ishida and Yasuharu Suematsu, as well as Kimmochi Eguchi for organising for his parents to do several talks and demonstrations, Oscar Shefik for always fixing us free karaoke and Jason Liu for all of his cardboard creations.

Lastly Darlo, who neve really seems to get quite as much appreciation as he deserves, thanks for everything, there will never be such an excellent web or quiz master.

Right, think that’s everything, it’s all up to the new guys now. All the best for next year and take care.

Carley Radford
LUU Japanese Society President 2010-2011

Riley Award Winners of 'Best Event' and Faith and Culture Society

Japanese Society – LURPS Semi-Otley Run!

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=111222428967025

Saturday 25th June, 12:30pm from the Hyde Park Pub.

And so the time has come for a final Otley Run. This time it will be a joint event between the Japanese Society and the Leeds U Rock Paper Scissors Society. In each pub along the way there will be a Rock Paper Scissors tournament, with a medal awarded to each winner. At the end, the overall winner (from points awarded depending on each tournaments placings) will be awarded a trophy.

Owing to the timing… of events, and to ensure that people can comfortably relax, this is a half-Otley run. The tournaments will be held under an instant knock-out structure, but people will be able to enter the next tournament in the next pub.

Please remember that you do not need to drink alcohol in every pub, and you are encouraged to drink responsibly. Also please be aware that FAB Cafe has a no sportswear policy, so please no tracksuit bottoms (trainers are ok).

— Schedule —
Please note that you will need to register for each tournament before its start time, as they need to begin on time.

12:30pm – The Hyde Park Pub
1:30pm – The Library Pub
2:30pm – The Packhorse
3:30pm – The Eldon
4:30pm – The Old Bar
5:30pm – The Fenton
6:30pm – Strawberry Fields
7:30pm – Dry Dock
8:30pm – FAB Cafe

Please remember ID!

East Asian Ball Photos!

Hi everyone!

The photos from East Asian Ball are finally up!!

Anyone can view them on by clicking this link. The link is also on the Japanese society page!

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150205565617912.322549.596012911&l=b6d61ca2fa

Please tag yourselves and friends. Sorry If you’re tagged as the wrong people (Facebook’s new face recogniser believes you to all look the same – so full apologies!)

Happy holidays!!

Japanese Society xx

So long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Adieu~!

The Faversham
31 March · 20:00 – 23:00

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=103321226420948&index=1

As some of you may know, Natsuki Kitai will be sadly leaving Leeds this week to head back to Japan:(

Meet at the Faversham (which is just behind Charles Morris residences on university campus) from 8:00pm to have a farewell drink and say goodbye:)

Don’t forget I.D. See you all there:)

(videos added by Darlo)

Message from Next Year’s Committee

Greetings Japanese Society!
The recently elected Secretary (Simon Hughes), Treasurer (Isabelle Demaude) and President (me, Daniel Brooks) would like to thank those of you who gave us your support at the AGM. Our new team is looking for people to staff the LUU Japanese Society Committee with us for the upcoming academic year!

We are searching for people to fill the following potential positions:-

1. Vice President (duties would include filling in for me on occasion, and generally helping me out, as well as potentially taking the lead on certain events)

2. Assistant Secretary (the same as above, but acting as Simon’s deputy)

3. Deputy Treasurer (You are starting to get the idea)

The following are less heavy in terms of responsibility but still fulfill specific roles:

4. Representative for Japanese Exchange Students (as in a Japanese National to sit on the committee on behalf of the other ryuugakusei in Leeds and express their views)

5. Representative for Non-Japanese Students (a representative for students who are members of Japanese Society, but don’t study Japanese)

6. Creative Designer- (Someone who’d be willing to handle the design aspect of our p.r)

7. Committee Member (People who do not want any specific responsibility, but would still like to be on the committee and be an extra pair of hands)

If people who are interested in a particular role could (As soon as possible) send their names to me either by facebook email or to jl08dkb@leeds.ac.uk,… including a short statement explaining why you would be good for the role, and what you think you could bring to the committee. We are looking for people who are prepared to make a long term commitment to the society, so please note that committee members will not be chosen on the basis of their relationship to we three (Simon, Izzy and me), but rather on how they can contribute to the society. The positions are open to friends as well as people we don’t know as well. Looking forward to hearing from you

Dan

Lantern Reflection

24 March · 19:00 – 21:00
Terrace, Union Building

Come and experience a space to reflect amongst the bustle of uni life about the recent disasters in Japan.

Purchase a lantern from the Union Foyer in the lead up to the event for £3 and watch the transformation of Terrace’s own terrace as hundreds of lanterns set an atmospheric mood.

Japanese food will be on sale and there will be opportunities to leave a message on a huge message wall that will be sent over to Japan. It doesn’t matter whether you stay 2 minutes or 2 hours, just be sure to witness the spectacle and support this unique event.

All proceeds are going to the British Red Cross. You can also donate on their website at http://www.redcross.org.uk/.

Global Cafe – 28/3/2011 & Thanks

Hey guys,

For anybody that is interested, we need to re-enlist our army of crane folders for Global Cafe on 28th March!! People at the global cafe will be paying £2 to fold a crane and write a message inside which we will then hang up somewhere in the union! The event is on from 3 – 7 and there will be FREE tea, coffee and biscuits available!

Secondly, we have a social on friday and will be going bowling. Hopefully peoples minds will be taken off of current events, if only for a short time, to relax and have fun and to let all of you fundraising de-stress. Bring your student cards and you will get a game for a discount price!

Thirdly, huuuuuuuuuge thanks to Islamic society who have raised a tonne of money for the Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami Appeal, thank you for your support guys, it’s really appreciated!

Also thanks go to our friends EARS, who helped us collect money at their conference last weekend. Really thankful that you guys offered to let us do it! And great conference!

Lastly due to technical and union issues we now cannot send money to the Japan Earthquake Relief Fund, and will be sending it directly to the Red Cross instead. This is purely a red-tape decision and we still lend our full support to everyone else at JERF and wish them the best of luck in their fundraising efforts.

See you all on Thursday for the lantern reflection, if not see you on friday for chill times at bowling, and thanks again for everyone’s support in this time of crisis, you’ve all been brilliant!