Japanese Cultural Association of Manitoba

As mentioned in my last post, we traveled out to Winnipeg, Manitoba to meet with representatives from the Japanese Consulate at Calgary to finalize our kids' Japanese passports. The kids are traveling to Japan this summer but COVID-19 restrictions, while slowly loosening up, are still quite stringent in Japan. If the kids traveled on their Canadian passports, they would definitely be faced with more bureaucracy and headaches at the airport.

Luckily for us, the Consulate occasionally sends its representatives to the major cities in the prairie region. They were in Saskatchewan back in January but we missed them then. Winnipeg is the next closest place to travel (still around 5 hours away by car but much closer than driving all the way to Calgary). The Consular officials set up shop at the facility of the Japanese Cultural Association of Manitoba. What a great facility this is!

I wasn't sure what to expect, either from the Consular officials or the JCAM facilities. I was pleasantly surprised by both. The visit with the folks from the Consulate was quick. Within about 15 mins, the kids had their passports. Mission accomplished! What was even more fun though was the JCAM facility and the lady there that we chatted with (along with a lovely golden retriever that was recovering from surgery).

We had a lot of fun looking around the facility and the golden retriever turned out to be the star attraction. The poor guy was recovering from surgery near his right leg. Apparently some tumors had been found there and had to be removed. This dog is eight years old and is a retired assistance dog. He had the best manners / behaviour of any dog that I've ever met. He loved for us to pet him. At one point, when I stopped petting him, he put his paw up on my arm in an attempt to say, "Please pet me more!"

The JCAM facility is quite large, well maintained, and full of Japanese memorabilia and some tributes to the treatment that Japanese Canadians suffered during World War II. I am so impressed that Winnipeg has such a vibrant Japanese community with the resources to fund a facility like this. If only we had enough people and resources to have something like this in Regina. Perhaps someday.