Meeting held in the Longwood Brew Pub upstairs, chaired by President Lee Mason.

 

 

                                                                                                                                                   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We enjoyed having Saeko Yabe join un this evening. Also a good chuckle was had as our Bob Moss entered the room and Pres Lee said"Our rolling stone has arrived, cause he gathers no "moss".  It was also great to see Rick Stevenson this evening.

 

Thanks to Colin for the sharing with us all about Rotary Foundations Matching Grants.  So interesting stats are that there have been over 25,000 projects in 122 countries to a total of over $198 million dollars.  Very awesome!

 

 

Big thanks to Jim and Ed for clearing out the locker at the Kiwanis Hall.  

 

Jim Turley thanked Don, Craig, Lee and Toni for helping out on the night of the Beer and Burger which brought in about $2280!! Jim says it almost made budget, so great work!

 

Next weeks United Way Service Project in helping out with the Survey for the homeless is now happening thru the day so there will be a pub night at Carlos O'Bryan's beginning at 6.  The address is 1724 Stewart Ave. See you there Feb 9th!

 

Paul Harris Celebration coming up on Feb 23rd at Lucky's!  Invitations have gone out and have just gone out to the other Nanaimo Clubs.  Will be a fun and interesting evening!  Its $25 and you will have some wine tasting and Cheese and Bread.  So having a snack before would be a good idea. I know that numberous have already signed up and seating is limited, so let Audrey know if you and a friend or spouse would like to attend.

 

A big thanks from Ed to the Walmart 50/50 Draw Volunteers last sunday!  Sounds like it was very successful and also lots of fun. 

 

We enjoyed a wonderful presentation from Saeko one of this year's in bound students from Odawara, Japan.  Saeko is being hosted by the Lantzville Club.  She started off showing us some of the major cities of Japan and what they have to offer a Tourist and mentioned that Odawara is close to Tokyo.  She has two younger brothers, her mom and dad and a very cute cat named Melon.  In Japan school goes from April to March and the days are very long.  School goes from 8:45 to 4 and then a break and then back to school in the evening to study for the entrance exam for university.  

Saeko shared some fascinating information about the Japanese language and the fact that its made up of three sets of characters. 1)Hiragana which is 50 sounds 2) Katakana which is 50 sounds and 3) Kanji.  Its totally different than English and looks very artistic.  

Some very cool facts about Japan are that its a very safe country and Japan is called "the land without guns"! Also everywhere is very clean and even at school they don't have cleaners as the expectation is that everyone helps to clean. Tipping is not required there, even when the service is excellent.  Saeko and I were also speaking of the difference in food from canada to there and they have rice at every meal in Japan, which I thought was interesting.  Breakfast would be rice and fried fish, instead of cereal!  Sounds good.  

Three things to do when visiting would be 1)The hot springs, and the monkeys love this too.  2) The Bullet Train and 3) Go to the Food shops under the department stores!  This was such an interesting talk and it certainly peaked our interest to visit Japan!  A big Rotary thanks to Saeko for sharing!!! 

 

 

Congrats to Perry and Rhonda for 35 years on February 14th!!!!

 

Lee 4 years

Rick 2 years

Derrick 3 years

 

The quote from the Minions:  " Doctors say to drink 8 glasses of water a day helps your skin look younger. My Advice?  Drink 8 glasses of wine a day and you won't give a damn how you look!" Thanks Lee!!!!!