Do you know JET programme? I did not know it until recently. Here is the information.
The JET Programme--Official Homepage of The Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme
The Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme, now in its 21st year, is aimed at promoting grass-roots international exchange between Japan and other nations. The number of countries sending participants has risen over the years, as has the number of participants. In 2007, the Programme has welcomed 5,119 participants from 41 countries.
It seems like lots of non-Japanese people has come and are coming to every 47 prefectures in Japan. Yesterday, I found two blog entries about the culture event including shogi for JET participants in Aomori City. Here are the links.
Crunky Japan! - I am being paid to have fun!
"My second workshop was on the rules of shogi. It was fairly interesting but DIFFICULT. It is a game of strategy, much like western chess. It was hard to remember all ways you can move each piece and I have the sinking feeling that I would not even be aware when I actually had a tsumi and could win (tsumi is like checkmate). Learned about the pro league of shogi and how much money they are raking in. There can be only one dragon king (the ultimate winner) at a time and he makes around 500,000 dollars for winning. The dragon king sounds too much like the grand dragon of the KKK for me. "
Culture Day, Part 1 « Pacificloons
"After lunch I attended sessions on shogi (Japanese chess), taiko (traditional drumming), and karate. Taiko was my favorite of the three. I hope to have a longer post dedicated to it in the near future that will involve a popular arcade game. Shogi was interesting, but I still prefer Go. I spent most of my time in the karate session reminiscing about my two years in taekwondo when I was in elementary school."
I think it is good to use shogi to be used to promote grass-roots international exchange between Japan and other nations.
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