December 31, 2023

Happy New Year: Our 2024 Album

Welcome to the Year of the Dragon, 2024. Art by Stuart Ayre.

New Year's Day, pre-dawn fisherman, Lake Chabot, California (Pamela Pasti)

New Year’s Day sunrise, Lake Chabot, California (Pamela Pasti)

New Year’s Day sunrise, Lake Chabot, California (Pamela Pasti)

Kotai Jingu in Fujisawa, early New Year's Eve 2023 (Marian Kinoshita)

Mt. Fuji and the moon on New Year's Day 2023 from my veranda (Marian Kinoshita)

Rainbow off the Normandy coast on New Year’s Eve, France. (Olivia Boissel)

Sunset view of Mt. Mt. Fuji from 6th floor of National Medical Center in Komazawa (Mark Schreiber)

Former Chikurin Temple, Sakamoto, Shiga prefecture, at the foot of Mt. Hiei. The illuminated garden is reflected on a large polished wooden table (Jeanette Fukao)

Frank Baldwin and son on the picket line for the Hollywood Writers strike, May 2023.

Kitaguchi Hongu Sengen Jinja, Mt. Fuji (Lisa Wilcut)

SWET members are scattered around Japan and the globe, everywhere that Japan-related wordsmithing is part of their lives and work. We are pleased to mark the 44th year since our founding as a community for mutual networking and support. Through more than four decades, members have supported each other in the challenges of bridging cultural divides, learning new technologies, and advancing their professional capacities. We look forward to a new calendar of mainly online events and interchange in the months ahead.

We invite you to contribute to our 2024 New Year's photo album. Send images with caption and/or message by January 31 to SWET. See also our 2022 and 2023 albums.

Thanks to Stuart Ayre for sharing his artwork for the Year of the Dragon to start off our album.

Pamela Pasti writes from San Leandro, California:

Thank you, SWET, for the inspiration to witness the sunrise each New Year’s Day, as it never disappoints!  This New Year’s Day I found myself hiking in the pre-dawn dark by flashlight, compass in hand, along the shore of Lake Chabot, California, looking for a suitable sunrise spot (the sun was to rise at 119° SW). 

The glow didn’t last long as the news of the devastating Noto Pensinsula earthquake reached us later that morning, followed not long after by the JAL tragedy/miracle--what emotional whiplash!  My heart goes out to all those affected by either event, and I do hope all SWETers and their families are safe and sound.

I am planning to visit Japan this year, after an absence of far too many years, and hope to reconnect with old friends and SWETers.  In the meantime, here’s wishing all a healthy, peaceful 2024!

Marian Kinoshita sends photos from Fujisawa, Kanagawa prefecture (see above).

Olivia Boissel writes “2023 in Retrospect” with a photo taken on her visit back home in France:

2023 was a year of trying new things. Thanks to SWET this year I participated in eJuku and the new mentorship program, which taught me a lot and reignited my passion for translation and writing. I built confidence and found new great clients in Japan. The power of a community doesn’t show at once. Rather, it infuses slowly until one day I find myself realizing that most things I appreciate around me were made possible by kind and generous people. To more of these connections in 2024!

Mark Schreiber shares a sunset with Mt. Fuji in the distance seen from a high building in Tokyo.

Jeanette Fukao shares a photo from Sakamoto, Shiga prefecture, and sends best wishes to all for the coming year!

Frank Baldwin sent an image from his activities in California in 2023.

Lisa Wilcut captured snow-blanketed Fuji from its northern perspective.