Japan-in-Houston Events Calendar

November of 2009

November 1	The Japanese Association of Greater Houston organizes a luncheon concert at 1:00 pm at the Hotel Granduca, 1080 Uptown Park Boulevard, 713-418-1000, by Eriko and Miki Minami. This couple's CDs contain mostly rather relaxing classical and light Jazz songs. A few of those songs have some relation to Japan. Contact the Japanese Association of Greater Houston for more information.
1	Last day of the Oni-Con anime convention (two day event).
2	The metal rock band Dir en Grey performs in Houston at Warehouse Live. Note that this band generally performs in rather intelligible Japanese.
3	Sushi Club of Houston is scheduled to meet at 6:30 pm at RA Sushi. An RSVP is absolutely required.
3	A Sake tasting event, organized by JETRO-Houston with the support of Akita Prefecture, Consulate-General of Japan, and Japan-American Society of Houston, will be held with Sommelier Yuji Matsumoto. Contact JETRO-Houston for further information.
4	The Houston Bonsai Society holds their monthly general membership meeting.
4	Cooking class SUSHI 101 will be taught at Central Market (Westheimer at Weslayan), 6:30 - 9:00 pm, by Chris Nemoto. Call 713-993-9860 for more information.
7	Class "Sushi & Sashimi" is taught at 3 pm to 6 pm at Leisure Learning as class no. S4100K. Call 713-529-4414 for more information.
8	The female rock band Shonen Knife appears at Mango's Cafe, 403 Westheimer, at about 8 pm. If the reviews are correct, this will be performed mostly in badly mispronounced English, not in Japanese, but surely a band who could create a song about banana chips must have something to say.
9	The Japanese "noise rock" band Melt Banana plays at Walter's on Washington. Judging from this band's videos on Youtube, they seem to sing most songs entirely in unintelligible English, not in Japanese.
10	The Houston Japanese Conversation Group meets at 7:00 pm at La Madeleine at 6500 Woodway. This is a great opportunity for students and native speakers to socialize and speak Japanese in a casual setting. Like other MeetUp events, this is organized using the MeetUp WWW site.
13	From noon to 1 pm at the Gilruth Center Lone Star Room at the second floor of Gilruth Center (accessed through Gate 5 off Space Center Boulevard), the AIAA Houston Section Astrodynamics Technical Committee presents a talk on the Japanese Hayabusa spacecraft and the sample return from asteroid Itokawa, by Paul Abell of the Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, AZ. The sample is scheduled to land in Woomera, Australia in June of 2010. Contact the AIAA for further information.
14	The Houston Japanese Conversation Group meets at Sushi Jin at 6:30 pm for a Saturday night Japanese karaoke party. Like other MeetUp events, this is organized using the MeetUp WWW site.
14	Sushi Club of Houston is scheduled to meet at 5:30 pm at RA Sushi. An RSVP is absolutely required.
14	Kaminari Taiko performs at the 14th Annual Children's Festival at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion at about 3:45 pm.
14	Interac Co., Ltd. conducts interviews in Houston for Assistant Language Teachers to teach English in Japanese schools.
15	537th Texas-Kai Golf Tournament and Japan Consul General Cup will be held by the Japanese Association of Greater Houston and the Japan Business Association of Houston, starting at 7:30 am. Note that the last day for registration was November 2nd.
18	A presentation on the art of Kodo (Japanese incense) will take place at the Hilton Houston Post Oak, 2001 Post Oak Blvd., from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm. The president of Shoyeido [sic] (standard Romanization = "Shōeidō", 松栄堂), founded in 1705, will provide a lecture and demonstration. Note that this company's products largely comprise directly burnt incense, not the indirectly heated incense (香木) of traditional Kōdō gatherings such as the Genjikō referring to Genji Monogatari. An RSVP and reservation are absolutely required. Contact the Japan-American Society of Houston for more information, 713-963-0121, or look at the Shoyeido WWW site.
24	The Language Culture Kai of the Japan-American Society of Houston visits Bayou Bend from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm. Payment and an RSVP by November 19th is required.
November 27	From 5 pm to 7 pm, Taylor Chapman, a former JET (Kumamoto) will participate in a book signing at the River Oaks Bookstore, 3270 Westheimer. This author's book is a compilation of photographs of Japanese society as viewed through occupations.

Do you know of an event that is missing? Write to the Japan-Houston mailing list, which provides timely notification of these events. Also see Useful Japan-related Links for the Houston Area.