summer 2002
Volume 8. Number 2
The JET Quarterly Update The newsletter for the Japan Exchange and Teaching Alumni Association of British Columbia
iN THIS ISSUE Alumni 1-2 Featured Yvonne Blomer
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JETAABC Announcements
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“The Japanophile” Event Photos
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Consulate Announcements
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Poem by Yvonne Blomer More JETAABC Announcments
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About Us
Featured Alumni - Writer Yvonne Blomer on her book “Small Japan” It’s early on a Thursday morning and I can’t sleep. As I drag myself out of bed I spy the clock…4:30 am…as good a time as any to formulate some interview questions for this edition’s featured alumni. Yvonne Blomer, is a Victoria based writer and JET alumni who has just completed a book of poems entitled “Small Japan”. Here, Yvonne talks about the JET Programme, Writing, Cycling and a few other favourite things. What path brought you to the JET Programme? I was teaching ESL and wanted to go abroad and Rupert was studying to be a teacher so we applied to JET and got in. I had studied Japanese in College but really we wanted to go somewhere different and JET came through. What have you been doing in the way of occupations since coming back from Japan? I have been teaching on and off for the last three years. I have also been writing. Those are the two main things. I understand you were born in Africa and have been travelling ever since...what countries have you been to? And which were the most memorable? I’ve travelled around Europe (Spain, England, Holland, France) Japan, Thailand (3x) Vietnam, Malaysia and Laos and most recently Mexico.
Yvonne with husband Rupert - Fukuoka-ken 97-99
I love Asia, the weather, the people and the cycling are great. I found Vietnam hard, but would go there again. I loved Laos and would love to see more of it - the people are great and the countries are beautiful. What is your favourite mode of transportation? Cycling! I was not a cyclist as a child but rather clumsy and awkward and timid but Rupert got me into cycling (we met at university) and then I pulled him into the whole tourism thing. A (JET) friend in Japan and I went on a cycling trip for only 10 days in Thailand (that’s Tamar) and there has been no looking back since. It’s slow and I’m accessible to people when I’m on my bike which is great and which makes it such a wonderful way to travel. Cycling has taken me to many countries as well as around B.C. a little. But it has opened up this door of travel writing and of meeting wonderful people. Just last week a group of arborists were in Victoria on a cycle tour called the “Tour des Trees” and I went to Butchart Gardens to meet them - they were all so great and interesting and I sat with one older man (in his 70’s) who was so excited about the column I had written (ed note: “Spoke ’n’ Word” Victoria Times colonist). It was such a yes moment - it reinforced that all the choices I’ve made and that things I’ve fallen into have happened for a