Embassy of Japan in Canada

After all the fun, it was time for clean-up! 🧹✨ Everyone pitched in and split up the tasks — picking up trash, tidying up, and the place ended up looking spotless! 🗑️A huge thank you to all the parents for your hard work today! You all did an amazing job!

🏃‍♂️ Ottawa Hoshuko Japanese School Sports Day 2026! 🏆
The Ottawa Hoshuko Japanese School students gathered for their annual Sports Day on May 30, featuring exciting events including relay races, bun biting race, tug-of-war, and traditional Japanese games. It was a wonderful day full of energy, teamwork, and smiles! - A/Amb.Ishii

Art of the "Complicated Heart" - an exhibition by Judy Nakagawa now at City Hall Art Gallery! Mr. ISHII Hideaki, Chargé d’Affaires, enjoyed last opening ceremony last Thursday as well as the incredible artwork and stunning performance by Takako Segawa. Everyone left with a very "soft heart"! ❤️

https://ottawa.ca/en/arts-heritage-and-events/art-centres-galleries-and-exhibition-spaces/galleries-and-exhibition-spaces/city-hall-art-gallery/city-hall-art-gallery-2026-exhibitions/judy-nakagawa-complicated-heart

💎Japan Gems 11-Miyazaki7️⃣💎
Today, we will introduce Ryan, who has been living in Miyazaki City for about 5 years through the JET Program. We asked Ryan for his recommendations about Miyazaki.
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Hi my name is Ryan and I’m from Toronto. I am placed in Miyazaki City, Miyazaki Prefecture and I have been living here for about 5 years.

I applied to the JET Programme looking for a new experience, I heard a lot of positive things about it, and so I decided to take it on and use it as a way to challenge myself and broaden my horizons. My main placements are a high school and a special needs school, both schools gave me many new perspectives on life that I couldn’t have experienced if I had stayed back in Canada.
Miyazaki is such a contrast compared to a big city like Toronto, but Miyazaki definitely became my favourite place in Japan. The beautiful scenery, the quiet and laid back atmosphere of the city really gives off a peaceful and relaxing way of living. The city being small really makes it seem like you know everyone which makes it feel like a real community.

My recommendations:
1. Aoshima Beach/Devil’s washboard: Miyazaki is filled with amazing beachside scenery, one of the most famous places in Miyazaki is Aoshima Beach. The beach has beautiful white sand and a very unique rock formation that does indeed look like a traditional washboard (hence the name). Every summer the beach is visited by locals and tourists looking to enjoy the amazing view and the delicious food spots nearby.

2. Chicken Nanban: Chicken Nanban has become my all-time favourite Japanese dish! It is a very unique dish that at first glance doesn’t even seem Japanese! What won me over was the amazing contrast in flavours from combining fried chicken and tartar sauce. Chicken nanban is one of Miyazaki’s traditional foods and can be found at any local restaurant or izakaya, with their own different take on it, I DEFINITELY RECOMMEND!

3. Miyazaki Fireworks Festival: Every summer, the city hosts its biggest fireworks festival of the year. What makes this festival so special is that it is hosted along the riverside of the biggest river in the city! Watchers can find a nice comfy spot on the riverside along with all the delicious food stalls to enjoy the beautiful scenery of the fireworks and the river.

4. Takachiho Gorge: Not just beachside scenery, Miyazaki also has amazing mountain forestry. While being a 2 hour long drive from the city center, visiting Takachiho Gorge is worth the trip. The gorge offers a gorgeous view of a mountainside river flowing down into the gorge and words really can’t explain how beautiful this scenery is. The best thing about this is that visitors are allowed to ride a small row boat at the bottom of the gorge and see the view from bottom up.

5. Miyazaki JET Dodgeball Tournament: One unique experience that I wanted to share was my involvement in organizing a dodgeball tournament for the JETs and locals in Miyazaki. I am a member of the Miyazaki Associations of JETs (MAJET) and we were looking for a fun fundraising event to bring together both JETs and the local community members in Miyazaki. If you didn’t know, North American Dodgeball is a lot different than Japanese Dodgeball so I thought it would have been an amazing opportunity to organize a dodgeball tournament and introduce a new cultural experience to the people here. Needless to say, the event was a huge success with over 60 participants!

June is the beginning of the rainy season in Japan, known as 梅雨 or “Tsuyu” (ume rain/plum rain). 🌧️🌂 The rainy season lasts until mid-July in most of Japan, except Hokkaido which has no defined rainy season and Okinawa whose rainy season is a month earlier. While many people prefer to travel when it’s not raining, beauty can be found in the rainy landscapes and certain sights are particularly attractive in the rain – shrines, temples, gardens and forests with lush green vegetation. 🍃

Have you ever been to Japan during the rainy season? How was your experience? ☔

📷: PhotoAC, Raxpixels, Unsplash

Do you know about Ikebana, the art of Japanese traditional flower arrangement? 💐

In collaboration with Ikebana International Ottawa Centennial Chapter, the Embassy of Japan in Canada visited Gloucester High School, to introduce this flowers-based art form! 🌹

Students learned about the rules of Ikebana from a skilled teacher and even got to create their very own arrangements! 🌼

The special workshop was held as part of our School Visit Program. Interested in having Embassy of Japan representatives visit your school? For more information about our School Visit Program, consult our website: 🔗https://www.ca.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_en/school-visit.html 🔗

Connaissez-vous l’ikebana, l’art traditionnel japonais de la composition florale ? 💐

En collaboration avec la section d’Ottawa d’Ikebana International, l’ambassade du Japon au Canada a fait une visite dans l’école secondaire de Gloucester afin de faire découvrir cette forme d’art floral. 🌹

Les élèves ont eu l’occasion d’apprendre les règles d'ikebana grâce à une enseignante expérimentée et même créer leur propre composition ! 🌼

Cet atelier spécial a été présenté dans le cadre du Programme de visites scolaires. Êtes-vous intéressé(e) à ce qu’un(e) représentant(e) de l’ambassade du Japon visite votre école ? Consultez notre site Web pour plus d’informations sur notre Programme de visites scolaires : https://www.ca.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_fr/visites-scolaires.html

🎻🎹FREE CONCERT in Ottawa 🇨🇦
Our families, Marie Utsui Yamada and Kana Imai, are delighted to invite you to their third — and final — free community concert featuring a violin and piano ensemble.
Families, children, and friends are all warmly welcome! No registration needed.
We would be truly happy to celebrate this special afternoon with many of you.

📍 Sunday, June 21, 2026
🕑 2:00 PM (Doors open at 1:30 PM)
📍 Southminster United Church, 15 Aylmer Avenue at Bank Street, Ottawa https://maps.app.goo.gl/CuZWWStXmXJZmFqD9
🎻 Kana Imai – Violin
🎹 Marie Yamada – Piano

☕ Coffee & cookies will be served after the concert.

🎥 You can also discover highlights from our previous concerts here:
https://youtube.com/?si=31w4K1He7MmfOrQ8

The annual Sogetsu Ikebana exhibition is taking place NEXT WEEKEND! Come admire the beauty of Japanese flower arrangements at the Embassy of Japan on June 6 and 7.

📆: Sat. June 6 (10am-4pm) and Sun. June 7 (10am-3pm)
📍: Embassy of Japan (255 Sussex Drive)
💴: Free!
ℹ️: https://www.ca.emb-japan.go.jp/2026_shared_images/Sogetsu-flyer-2026-EN.png

VALKEEN (The Whistle that Keeps Order on the Pitch)

Have you heard of VALKEEN? It is a whistle that cries with the sharpness of a hawk seizing its prey. As its name suggests — a combination of the Dutch word VALK (hawk) and the English word KEEN (sharp)—it is the world’s first whistle created specifically for the sport of soccer.

Japan, in fact, is a country with a deep cultural connection to flutes. The ryūteki of gagaku court music, the nohkan of Noh theater, and the shinobue of festival ensembles — each is a specialized instrument, refined for a particular space and purpose. The ryūteki resonates within the elegance of the imperial court; the nohkan shapes the ethereal world of Noh; the shinobue cuts through the lively atmosphere of festivals. None of these are “all-purpose” flutes usable anywhere — they were born as instruments dedicated to a specific setting. From such cultural soil, perhaps it was only natural that a whistle dedicated solely to soccer would emerge.

A referee’s whistle governs the match. One powerful yet composed blast signals the beginning and end of play. In contrast, a sharp, piercing blast instantly halts dangerous action. These two sounds preserve order on the pitch. In a sport defined by constant contact, dangerous plays must be stopped in an instant. Even a fraction of a second’s delay in sound transmission can allow the game to move beyond recovery. What is required is a tone with immediate impact, one that rises instantly and carries across the entire pitch and even the entire stadium: strong, full, and razor-sharp.

Why, then, had there never been a whistle designed specifically for soccer? Until then, whistles had been produced under the assumption that the same model could serve every sport. But is it truly natural for basketball, played in indoor arenas and gymnasiums, and soccer, staged in vast outdoor stadiums, to rely on the same whistle? This simple question marked the starting point of development.

The envisioned stage was the South Africa World Cup, where the final would be held in a stadium of 100,000 spectators. What kind of sound could pierce through that immense roar and reach the entire pitch? In pursuit of the answer, more than one hundred prototypes were created, and development continued over two years.

The true test came in the form of the vuvuzelas, the iconic instruments of the South Africa tournament. Even amid the overwhelming roar that filled the stadium, the sound of VALKEEN carried through. Gaining recognition as the whistle that could not be drowned out by vuvuzelas, VALKEEN went on to be used in more than 30 of the 64 matches at the Russia World Cup eight years later.

It may sound somewhat grand, but one cannot help drawing parallels between this product and the long history of Japanese flutes. The nohkan, for instance, contains a deliberate design feature called the nodo, which intentionally destabilizes pitch. By rational standards alone, such “imperfection” ought to be eliminated — yet it is precisely this element that produces the uniquely profound and mysterious soundscape of Noh. VALKEEN, too, abandoned universality and focused exclusively on soccer, thereby achieving a sound attainable only through specialization. Beauty residing not in perfect generality, but in imperfect dedication. Is this not a sensibility long cherished in Japanese craftsmanship?

Soon, the world’s greatest soccer festival, the World Cup, will begin. Players step onto the pitch, spectators fill the stands, and the referee raises VALKEEN to their lips. The thrill of waiting for that moment never fades. When the whistle sounds to start the match, it is not merely a signal. Like the festival shinobue, it is a celebratory sound — one that makes hearts tremble together as one.

Today is the Day of Konnyaku (Konjac) in Japan. Made from the bulb of the konjac plant by mixing konjac flour with water and limewater, it has a firm, slightly chewy texture. Because it's nearly flavourless, it is valued more for its texture than flavour. It's nearly calorie-free, packed with dietary fibre (glucomannan), and has been a staple of Japanese cooking for over 1,000 years! Konjac is processed into various shapes, and can be found in thin noodle form as shirataki, threaded through skewers at a festival stall, simmered in oden in winter, served in vegetable dishes

📍 Fun fact: Gunma Prefecture produces roughly 90% of Japan's konnyaku! You can even take a factory tour at Konnyaku Park in Tomioka.

📷: PhotoAC