Dede Sophie

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, EGYPT: Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Japan today signed a Memorandum of Cooperation on a Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM) at the margins of the United Nations 27th Climate Conference (COP 27) in Egypt.  The Joint Crediting Mechanism is an emerging project-based bilateral offset crediting mechanism initiated by the Government of Japan to facilitate implementation of advanced low-carbon technologies for mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in host countries. The signing signaled the start of the two countries’ collaborative efforts to meet their respective National Determined Contributions (NDCs) commitment under the Paris Agreement in addressing the impacts of climate change. NDCs are efforts by each country to reduce national carbon emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. The Memorandum of Cooperation was signed by Papua New Guinea’s Minister for Environment, Conservation and Climate Change, Honorable Simo Kilepa and Japan’s Minister for Environment, Aki

CONGRATS TO LUCKY WINNER – CARRIE! The San Francisco Chronicle called her debut novel,  Midori by Moonlight 1 , a “terrific first novel.” Now Author Wendy Tokunaga is back with her second book, Love in Translation , which again explores the themes of Japan and Japanese culture and being a stranger in a strange land, which have played a major role in her life and writing. I now turn the stage over to Wendy, who’s here telling us all about:  Love and Songs in Translation As someone whose second novel has just come out, it may surprise you that when I was young, my dream wasn’t to be a writer; I wanted to be a rock star. The only writing I did was songwriting for the bands I put together on my quest to become the next Joan Jett, Blondie or Pat Benatar. At the same time I’d become mad for Japan and Japanese culture and was studying the language. When I heard about something called karaoke, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. The Japanese actually invented karaoke (singing popular song