~ Article & photos from JETAA Auckland ~
It has been a busy first half of the year for JETAA Vic/Tas/SA. The Vic group has been busy with many events and activities for our members. This year in May we attended the Box Hill Japan Festival and manned a stall to promote the JET Programme and JETAA. We met lots of people eager to learn more about the JET Programme, and also people who shared their experiences of their time on JET or who had just been to Japan on holiday.
We also attended the Pre-departure orientation session held with the Consulate-General of Japan in Melbourne and met the 30 excited new JETs who left for Japan in July. It is hard not to be envious of the new JETs! Our upcoming events include a welcome back event for the newly returned JETs, a careers and networking night, and we also have plans underway for an event to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the JET Programme later in the year.
The Tas group has also attended a Japanese festival, this time the Japanese summer festival held in March at the local dojo, and had the opportunity to chat to lots of people who were interested in the JET Programme, as well as meeting more former JET participants. In May, they had one of their bigger events, a dinner at Three Japanese to celebrate JET’s 30th anniversary. There were 14 people in attendance, including several new members. In September they will be going out of the city to enjoy a meal at Masaaki’s Sushi in Geeveston. Joining them will be several members of the local chapter of the Australia Japan Society, as well as their local Japanese Language Meetup group. A Hanami picnic and summer BBQ will be their final events for the year.
The SA group had a big planning session in June to set up their events for the rest of the year. They held a very successful farewell dinner for their recently departed JETs at a Japanese restaurant in Adelaide. Their fortnightly kaiwa sessions have also allowed 
them to engage with people interested in Japan and the Japanese language outside of the JETAA community. For the remainder of the year, the SA group is looking forward to having a welcome back brunch with the returning JETs later in September and also celebrating 30 years of the JET Programme at their banquet dinner in October.
And finally, all three groups in our chapter got together separately this month to take a group photo that was submitted as our chapter’s ‘Arigato campaign’ thank you message.