Colin and Chieko Jones cultural ties that bind

text courtesy of Colin Jones

II still recall the day when my primary school teacher asked members of my class to make a small flag of Australia.

Lucky for most of us, the teacher supplied the materials for the assignment because items of that nature were a luxury few could afford in those unforgettable days of depression. When I finished my "work of art", I added the phrase seen on everything that was deemed affordable at that time: Made in Japan.

I do not remember (or perhaps I prefer to forget) the teacher's reaction to this, but Japan had already made a lasting impression on my six-year-old mind. As years went by, I began to take a deep interest in Japanese culture and language. Although Japanese was not taught at the time I attended Fort Street Boys High School in Sydney, there were some Japanese grammar books and readers among old books that were being sent off for recycling. I managed to get a few of them. Later, I joined the Australia-Japan Society and studied Japanese at the University of NSW.

I was, and still am, a keen photographer, researcher and writer and I also like to dabble in art. All of these pastimes came together when I entered the advertising and marketing profession after being awarded the Goldberg Cup at the School of Advertising. During this phrase of my life I wrote and produced educational booklets for distribution to schools across Australia.

Meanwhile, up in the northern hemisphere, a young Japanese girl named Chieko Fujisaki was learning English in junior high school. She had a pen-friend in Canberra who told her so much about Australia that it whetted her appetite to see it for herself one day.

While I was dreaming of the day when I might travel to Japan, Chieko longed to visit Australia. In the 1970s, our dreams became reality. By then, Chieko was a well-established school teacher who, in 1976, was despatched by Japan's Ministry of Education to a three-year teaching job at the Sydney Japanese School in the Sydney suburb of Terrey Hills.

Two weeks after her arrival in Sydney, Chieko was invited to attend a meeting of the Australia-Japan Society. That was where we first met. We met again, briefly, later that year when I joined other society members in helping out at the school fete.

In the two years that followed, I travelled the length and breadth of Japan while Chieko took in much of Australia during her school vacations. We met again in 1978 at a musical evening, once again arranged by the Australia-Japan Society. That chance meeting was the beginning of what has proved to be a lasting relationship. We were married early in 1979, postponing our honeymoon in Bali, Hong Kong and Macao until Chieko's return to Japan - where a Japanese-style wedding reception had been arranged for us.
Back in Australia, Chieko was invited to return to the Sydney Japanese School. She eagerly accepted and, after a record 30 years at that school, retired last July. During her teaching career, Chieko was often called on to attend seminars and workshops for teachers to demonstrate how Japanese culture could be integrated into language classes.

In 2003, the Association of Independent Schools of NSW commissioned Chieko and I to produce a "Japanese Culture Kit" covering everyday Japanese life and seasonal festivities. This was published in 2004 with the aid of the Japan Foundation.

With both of us now retired and living in Sydney's northern suburb of St Ives, we are developing more teaching materials and exploring new ways to increase student awareness of Japanese culture in order to strengthen the ties that exist between our two nations.

As frequent visitors to Nara in Japan, we were also appointed Goodwill Ambassadors for Nara-Mahoroba last year by the Governor of Nara Prefecture. This is part of the lead-up to 2010, when the 1300th anniversary of the founding of Japan's first capital of any permanence will be celebrated.

Retirement promises to be extremely busy for both of us - but interesting and rewarding.