Foreign Language Association of Northern California

President’s Message

Almost every year I spend early June in Japan. Because I recently published a book entitled “Telling Stories in Two Languages: Multiple Approaches to Understanding English-Japanese Bilingual Children’s Narratives” (http://www.infoagepub.com/products/Telling-Stories-in-Two-Languages), this summer I gave a series of lectures on the new book at prestigious universities in Japan, such as Nagoya University, Hiroshima University, and Kwansei Gakuin University (near Kobe). In additional to those lectures, of course, I enjoyed staying in Japan. I visited Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park for the first time, for example. The Peace Memorial Park, which is adjacent to the A-Bomb Dome (the skeletal ruins of the former Industrial Promotion Hall), is not only for memorializing the victims, but also for keeping the memory of nuclear horrors and advocating world peace. I also enjoyed the Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki, a Japanese savory pancake containing a variety of ingredients such as squid, octopus, and even cheese, in addition to noodles that are used as a topping with fried egg. In June, unfortunately, the majority of areas in Japan are in the midst of a rainy season, the so-called tsuyu (or baiyu), which literally means “plum rain” (because it coincides with the season of plums ripening). Hiroshima was no exception. But the dark, rainy scenery of the Seto Inland Sea and small islands that I saw through hotel windows are beautiful like Indian ink paintings.

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