About us

The mothers were in charge of everything from Japanese language study to ideas for crafts and snacks to be provided.

The Sports Day and Mochitsuki (rice cake pounding) events that began back then are still very popular events that represent KJLS.

We also created opportunities for people outside of the parent community to share with the children — for example tea ceremony, taiko drumming, and pumpkin harvesting for Halloween. There are so many contributions from the community that I cannot write about here, and we have come to feel that our heritage language community is growing under the watchful eye of the wider Japanese community, and that the community includes people regardless of whether or not they have children in the program.

We were often surprised by the versatility of the Japanese people living in Kelowna in many different fields. At the time, there was not a lot of information for Japanese people living in Kelowna to communicate with each other and we thought that if there were more opportunities to do so the community would grow even more.

Around this time, we often talked about how it would be great if the Japanese language school could be like a neighborhood association for Japanese people living in Kelowna. Our activities developed into a Japanese community living in Kelowna with heritage language education as the foundation.

Meanwhile, as our activities became better known, we began to receive invitations from various organizations to participate in events in the Kelowna area to introduce Japanese culture.

We started with singing children’s songs in yukata (light cotton kimono) to support the recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake.

Later we even performed songs in Japanese Sign Language. In 2017, we invited a shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute) artist to perform on stage.

At the Bon Odori and Awa Odori dance festival, we challenged ourselves to create something that parents and children could work on together, which led to the establishment of the Awa Odori dance company Sui Ryu Ren by volunteers. Today, Sui Ryu Ren is open to both parents and children, and is not limited to Japanese members. (Read more about Sui Ryu Ren)

The group now participates in numerous community events in the Okanagan every year, and introduces and promotes Japanese culture in a variety of ways, including craft tables (origami, calligraphy, etc.), Japanese food, and the Awa Odori dance performed by the Sui Ryu Ren.

In this way, the organization’s activities naturally expanded beyond teaching the Japanese language as a heritage language to contributing to multicultural exchange in the Kelowna area. (Read more about Community Engagement Programs)