We hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and we wish you a happy and prosperous new year! This is the year of the rabbit and with it brings optimism and virtue that we hope to embrace with our continuing events including our live exhibition, and Japanese language classes, with in person classes for the first time in almost three years. We also have a new report from one of our J-LEAP participants as well as a Japanese language teacher who participated in our teacher training program in Japan last summer. If you missed the mindfulness webinar last month, you have the chance to view it online below.

For the new year, we will also continue our trio of wellness events so make sure to join us on Facebook every Wednesday at 12:30PM PT. As always we appreciate your support of our programs and look forward to bringing you more exciting events in the new year!

The entertainment world was dealt a big blow by the pandemic. One after another, theaters were forced to either postpone or outright cancel performances. Beginning in July 2020, freelance photographers (Arisa Kasai, Shizuka Minami and Maiko Miyagawa) took portraits of 18 groups of artists over a period of about 7 months guided by their concept of “capturing the ‘present’ during the pandemic, characterized by the way in which the subjects’ routines meshed with the demands of the moment”. The photographers captured these artists’ emotions and their performances that would have otherwise never come to light, but were forged in a state of emergency which rekindled their passions for the stage.

New year, new skills, new friends!

Let’s study Japanese with us online or in-person!

Get a scoop now!

Whether at work or at home, let's refresh yourself for 15 minutes on your lunchtime together with us! Karate Exercise will be offered via JFLA Facebook LIVE!

World class instructors from Kyokushin Karate of Los Angeles will give you a set of beginner’s level exercises from their basic movement with their English instruction.

There will be one 15-minute session starting at 12:30pm. Just go to JFLA's Facebook page. Achieve the unity of body and spirit!

Bilingual Yoga will be offered this month via JFLA Facebook LIVE!

No need to change clothes or use a yoga mat; you will be seated in a chair at home and receive an instruction from our instructor in bilingual (English and Japanese). Easy and relaxed!

There will be one session starting at 12:30pm. Just go to JFLA's Facebook page. Refresh and recharge yourself with us at home!

Meditation with Japanese Singing Bowl will be offered this month via JFLA Facebook LIVE!

The singing bowl used for this program harmoniously combines the healing qualities of the Tibetan singing bowl and its Japanese traditional singing bowl. Relax and feel your stress dissipate into thin air as the sounds of the singing bowl lead you into a meditative state.

There will be one session starting at 12:30pm. Just go to JFLA's Facebook page. Stretch and refresh yourself with us at home!

We concluded last year's programs with a webinar “Exploring Mindfulness & Wellness Through Japanese Food Culture” by a registered dietitian Mayuko Okai on Dec. 2nd. It was a perfect timing for learning about healthy eating habit right at the beginning of the holiday season. If you missed the webinar, here is your chance to watch Mayuko’s presentation at the link below.

In collaboration with Amazon Crossing, The Japan Foundation, Los Angeles invites you to watch the vido presentation program "World of Kamusari Series: Discussion with Shion Miura".

As the prologue, there is a video introducing the town of Misugi, Mie Prefecture, where both novels are set and movie "Wood Job" based on "The Easy Life in Kamusari", which was film there, and interviews with people who live in Misugi like Yuki or Yoki in the novels. Following these, in the feature program, the award-winning author of "The Great Passage", Shion Miura is joined by translator Juliet Winters Carpenter to discuss her rapturous novels, Kamusari series (The Easy Life in Kamusari / Kamusari Tales Told at Night) where the contemporary and the traditional meet amid the splendor of Japan’s mountain way of life to English readers. The discussion is moderated by Allison Markin Powell, award-winning translator and member of PEN America’s Translation Committee.

The Japan Foundation, Los Angeles co-organized the Onigiri Action Workshop presented by TABLE FOR TWO USA (TFT) and JETRO Los Angeles. Onigiri Action is an annual social good campaign that aims to provide 1 million school meals to children around the world. 

In this event, you will learn about onigiri (rice ball) through an online presentation by instructors from TFT. They will teach you simple steps to make a traditional onigiri (Free Onigiri kits will be provided to selected participants). 

Learning Kanji seems challenging but it is actually very interesting and fun! In this workshop, you will gain Kanji learning tips as we introduce types of how kanji is formed, the concept of radicals, and lastly, you will make your own Kanji based on these basic rules.

In this program, we invite students studying Japanese from around ten countries around the world to carry out an interactive program in Japan. We would like to continue to provide opportunities to realize coexistence with different cultures even in situations where it is difficult to travel overseas. In order to secure opportunities for exchange, we will introduce and implement a hybrid-type program that allows online exchange in addition to the conventional face-to-face content.

For more information, please check out the link below after January 6th. There are two components of the program so make sure you can fulfill that before applying. Please contact JFLA if you have any questions.

The initial Lead Teacher (LT)/Host Organization application period for the Japanese Language Education Assistant Program (J-LEAP) has ended, and now the Laurasian Institution and the Japan Foundation will now select the best candidates from those who applied to move forward.

This month, we would like to welcome Nozomi Ogata, who is currently at Santa Monica High School in California! You can read about her experiences in the program thus far at the link above.

Deadline: 2 months before the project start date

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If your Japanese language program is in danger of being cut due to COVID-19, we will send a support letter to stakeholders (Superintendent, Principal, Dean, etc.).

Please contact us for details.