ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS May—June

Tobis Matsumura $ 38.44 (United Way) Sonoe Koyasu 300 Isamu Murakami 30 Sumiko Ida Fujimoto (In memory of Masao & Masato Fujimoto) 50 Keiro Senior Healthcare 100 M/M Clifford Tanamachi 50 Anonymous 120 N Asao 25 M/M Otamura 20 M/M Ernest Ikuta (In memory of Shizue “Susie” Ikuta) 100 M/M June Sutherland 136.56 Edison International 136.56 T Iwata 250 M/M Paul Yonezawa 30 M/M George Kawamura 30 M/M Richard Hanki 100 Marie Otsuka 80 Thank you for your kind generosity and continuing support.

友

達

Southeast Japanese School & Community Center 14615 Gridley Rd. Norwalk CA 90651-0434 Website: www.SEJSCC.org 562.863.5996

Since publishing our form to “go green” in our May Tomodachi, many of our read-

Tomodachi

Hi Everyone! I would like to thank Senior Karaoke for donating a new microwave oven to the Center. The seniors previously met on Friday nights but recently disbanded due to declining membership. Come join us for our Ondo practice on Mondays and Thursdays starting July 5th. Practice will be from 7:30 to 8:30 pm at the Center and everyone is welcome to join in the fun, learn the dances and get some exercise and follow Kathy Nishimoto who has been our kind and friendly instructor for many years. The dates for our carnival are Saturday July 24 beginning at 3 pm and Sunday July 25, at 2 pm. There will be plenty of good food, games and demonstrations by Kendo, Judo and Karate. Entertainment will include our NaWahine ‘O Kawena Hawaiian Hula and Kamaki’s Maika’I Jammers , classical dances and guitar presentations in the gym. Appearing on the outdoor stage will be the Hawaiian Delites, Hikari Taiko drummers and Japanese singing by our Karaoke club. Bingo will be played in the gym. Carnival is a good time to meet with old friends and enjoy delicious food. Don’t forget to buy and turn in your raffle tickets mailed in May. During the carnival, parking is a problem at the Center. When working the carnival on Saturday and Sunday, we request that all the workers park outside on the street. We would like to have plenty of parking for the handicapped, the elderly, visitors and honored guests so they won’t have to walk as far. Thank you for your cooperation. After the carnival, there will be Center clean up on Monday July 26 from 6-9 pm. We will be cleaning the kitchen, classrooms and hallways. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Just a reminder, the gym will be closed from Tuesday July 27 through Sunday August 8th. The gym will be available for use on Aug. 9th. Richard Shinomoto

Tomodachi

P R E S I D E N T ’ S M E S S A G E

Volume 16, Issue 4 Ju ly 2010 Newsletter

Southeast Japanese School & Community Center 14615 S. Gridley Rd. Norwalk CA 90651-0434 Website: www.SEJSCC.org 562.863.5996

TA S T Y C A R N I V A L F O O D S

Our biggest event is fast approaching and you’ll not want to miss it. It’s a time when we all work hard to convert our Center to a place of fun, social interaction, feasting on good foods, observing and learning from demonstra-tions and presentations, to try your skill at games, join the ONDO and to en-joy!! We have been practicing Ondo dances on Mondays and Thursdays from 7:30 pm, come join us and follow sensei Kathy Nishimoto under the balmy summer sky. Also Julie Koga teaches the energetic Soran Bushi dance!

JULY 24—25

N E W S C H O O L Y E A R S O U T H E A S T J A P A N E S E L A N G U A G E S C H O O L

Starts September 12, 2010

Registration on July 17th at Center and during Carnival July 24 and 25.

Our organizations work hard to offer choice entrees at the carnival. Regulars to our monthly Bingo games will attest that Kendo ladies do up a great dinner and Judo has chef Johnson Long who stirs up the best concoctions using the wok! Be sure to pick up a program at the Carnival which lists all the foods that will be sold there and purchase some to take home. Busy parents will ap-preciate that convenience. There will be many combination plates: Kendo will offer Teriyaki Chicken Plate, Teriyaki Beef Plate, and Yakisoba Plate. Judo has some unique foods including BBQ ribs plate, Hawaiian salmon plate, orange chicken plate, Kalua Pork plate, sweet shrimp plate, finger foods and a variety of individual portions of vegetable egg rolls, fried rice, cucumber salad, cold somen, somen salad, spam musubi, desserts i.e. deep fried chocolate candy and drinks. Norwalk Youth Sports will be frying wontons and Okinawa dangos, serving refreshing shaved ice and drinks. Char Siu Baos can be ordered now for pick up at the Carnival—the form is found on page 5 or limited amount will be available to purchased at their booth. Our Japanese school will have sushi, chirashi, udon, corn and drinks available at the pass through window in the gym. Plan to see your friends and enjoy an early dinner on July 24 and/or 25th.

S E J S C C BOARD MEMBERS If you wish to contact any of the board members, please call the Center and leave a message. Jim Niiro George Kato Linda Kusuda Mary Iwami Kimie Matsumoto Fred Matsumoto Mas Onoda Richard Shinomoto Hy Shishino Toshi Teramoto Bob Yamada

N O R W A L K K A R A O K E C L U B Continuing to feature individual members, Kiyoko Tanaka joined the Karaoke Club in August 1999. She was born in Los Angeles and moved to Cypress and then to Norwalk. She was later interned at Santa Anita, California; Rohr, Arkansas; Jerome, Arkansas and Gila Bend, Arizona. Returning to California, her family lived with an uncle in his garage in Selma, California where she learned how to pick grapes. She was a farmer’s daughter and for a sansei, she’s very fluent in Japanese. After completing high school, she graduated from the Fresno Gen-eral Hospital School of Nursing. She worked a the Children’s Hospi-tal in Los Angeles, California and in the Montebello Unified School

G A K U E N N E W S Kimie Matsumoto

We are fast approaching the end of the school year. Our new stu-dent registration was held June 5th and 12th. We still have room for new students if you know of someone interested in enrolling. Our preschool class is for 4 and 5 year olds. Call the school or come in on any Saturday before our school ends on Carnival day July 25th. Our monthly cultural event for July featured “Tanabata”, the Star Festival. Students wrote their wishes and tied them to the bamboo limbs. The students heard the story of “Tanabata” told by Mrs. Matsumoto. Everyone decorated the bamboo and made their wishes. Final examination is scheduled for June 26th with report cards going home on July 17th. July 17th is the awards assembly and the last day of school. Students with perfect and near perfect at-tendance for the year will receive awards and a gift from the PTA. During the last hour of school, students will clean their classrooms and will be treated to a pizza party by the PTA. Have a great sum-mer and see you in September. School will start on September 11th. If you have not already paid your registration for the fall, please do so ASAP.

Tomodachi

“Tomodachi”, P. O. Box 434, Norwalk CA 90651-0434. Tel: 562,863-5996. Published 6 times annually by the Southeast Japanese School and Community Center, 14615 Gridley Rd, Norwalk CA 90650. A no charge newsletter informing all participants of activities on a one per household basis. Bulk Mail Postage Paid at Norwalk, CA. Editor: Mary Iwami; Advertising & Mailing: Mary Iwami, George Kato, Hy Shishino, Mas Onoda, and Norwalk Nikkei Seniors.

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District as a school nurse. She retired after working for 18 years in the school district. She met her husband, Carl, at the Gene Parker Dance studio, was married and has two children—a son and a daugh-ter and one granddaughter. Kiyoko is a very active member at the Japanese Free Methodist Church and is involved in the Stewards Committee and Growth Group. Her hobbies include karaoke, taiko, ikenobo, card stamping, pool aerobics and she says she “loves to eat”. Her favorite food is Shabu Shabu. She also dabbled in ceram-ics and water color painting. As a very active member of karaoke, she has volunteered to serve as chair on a rotational basis for the SEJSCC Operating Board meetings held each month. All of her activi-ties keep her very happy and busy in her retirement years.

Essays from our Gakuen students who just returned from a visit to Japan.

Four students from the Gakuen went to Japan June 21 to July 5th with 22 students from Los Alamitos High School. They partici-pated in a homestay and went to Numazu Chuo High School for one week. (The group is pictured above-right.) This is the third time Gakuen students, accompanied by Mrs. Kimie Matsumoto, went to Japan. It was a very educational experience and all en-joyed their stay. The Gakuen students did a presentation in Japa-nese about our school and community center. The Numazu stu-dents will visit us in December. They each wrote an essay reflect-ing on their experience in Japan.

My Experience in Japan By Katie Sunahara

As I depart from a world imbued with fantasy, technology, and squat-ting toilets, I look back on my time in Japan. In my two weeks in Ja-pan, I noticed various oddities that one can only get the most out of experiencing first hand rather than learning about them from a text-book. I spent a large amount of my time commuting to one place or an-other, most times with my homestay buddy. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Since Japan is a country to emphasize environ-mental friendliness, most people traveling about town do not take cars. Public transportation, biking, or walking are all healthy, popu-lar alternatives. Within the chosen means of travel is a distinctive manner in which t he people go from their home to their workplace. In stark contrast with America, the people are generally quiet and organized, all with a destination in mind. One of the most surprising discoveries was the amount of elementary students that walk to school alone. Japan is obviously much safer than America. Adding onto the emphasis on environmental conservation, a specific trash division system is set. Plastic bottles are to be separate from the milk cartons and the burnable trash is to be separate from the non-burnable trash. For the most part, the Japanese do not produce a lot of trash. The trash bins are notably small and reusable items are far more popular than throw-away-ables. Paper towels are scarce in every restroom and house. Schools promote cleanliness as well. At the end of the day, the students clean hallways and classrooms. Clean shoes are to be worn inside of the school build-ing, no exceptions. However, students are allowed to eat lunch in-side of the classrooms. This trip has given me a better perspective concerning the environ-ment and the Japanese culture. In America, I will miss the cleanli-ness of Japan.

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N O R W A L K Y O U T H S P O R T S Carrie Nakatani

Well, the summer has begun and our NYS teams are gearing up for “tournament season”. The beginning of the “tournament frenzy” will be the weekend after our carnival. Many of our teams will be in-volved in the following tournaments ~ Jets/Jetts (July 31st & August 1st), Hollywood Dodgers (August 14 & 15 in Las Vegas), Nikkei Games 3 on 3 (August 21st and 22nd) and Pasadena Bruins (August 27th, 28th & 29th). Phew! That’s a lot of basketball! BUT, before we begin our basketball tournament mania, we will all be participating in our annual community center Carnival and Ondo (July 24th & 25th). Please come out and support our wonderful community center. NYS will be serving crispy, tasty won ton, our popular sweet, yummy dango, cool, refreshing snow cones & those ever delicious char siu baos. If you haven’t done so, please take advantage of our char siu bao pre-order offer. The NYS kids will be doing their part by working the game booths and busing tables so that everyone will have a clean place to eat and visit with friends. The NYS group wishes eve-ryone a safe and fun summer.

N O R W A L K K E N D O D O J O On June 6, Norwalk Kendo Dojo hosted the AUSKF Junior National practice from 8 am to 12 pm in preparation for the AUSKF Junior National Tournament that is to be held in San Jose on July 25, 2010. Junior Kenshi’s from different SCKF dojos participated in conditioning and testing each others’ skills through shiai geiko. We have 7 of our own members participating in the tournament; Esther Kim, Courtney Yoon, Danielle Hahn, Jeffrey Nagasawa, Pat-rick Kim, Alex Chung and John Kim. We would like to thank the Senseis and all the volunteers that helped to train and hydrate our junior members. On June 27, Norwalk Kendo Dojo members participated in the SCKF Individual Championship held at the Wilson Park in Torrance. Participants included Matsuda Kane (0-6 kyu); Kim Esther, Yoon Courtney, Hahn Danielle (5-4 kyu); Kim John, Makino Kentaro, Yang Jeanwon, Azama Eric, Huang Michael, Toh Shauna, Balaca-nao Darryl (adult kyu 16 over); Yang Jeanwon, Toh Shawna, Chi Joyce (women’s kyu); Chu Michael, Takanashi Robert, Hahn Rex, Yoon Brian, Nguyen Emil, Chung Alex, Kariya Yoshijiro ((Yudansha);

Henmi sensei, Yamaguchi sensei, Koh sensei (shinpan). Congratula-tions to our trophy winners 5-4 kyu: Kim Esther kantosho, Hahn Dan-ielle kantosho; women’s kyu; Yang Jeanwon 1st place; adult kyu; Kim John 2nd place. As previsouly mentioned, November 7th we will be celebrating Norwalk Kendo Dojo’s 45th Anniversary. We are calling on all dojo members to help put on this major event. Past dojo members: there is plenty of time to re-enlist, get back into kendo, and be part of the festivities! Please see the dojo news page (http://www.eanet.com/norwalk/news) for information, as well s details on past and future events. Norwalk Kendo Dojo practices Mondays from 7:00 to 8:30 pm and Fridays from 7:30to 10:00 pm. New members are welcome; begin-ners are accepted on the first Friday practice of each odd month. The iaido grup practices from 9 to 10 pm on Mondays; iaido beginners are accepted in January, April, and July. For information about Norwalk Dojo, including pcoming andpast events as well as how to join, please see the dojo website at http://www.eanet.com/norwalk or send email to norwalkkendo@gmail.com.

Champions! Here the 3rd grade Hornets team celebrate their win in the FOR Tournament in early May. This is their first season after Rascals.

My Experience in Japan By Alex Hernandez

Before coming to Japan the only etiquette I knew was learned from the culture notes in our textbooks. Watching these customs firsthand was eye opening and allowed me to come to my own conclusions about customs throughout Japanese society. In the Japanese household I noticed that the mother worked strenu-ous hours of continuous chores without asking for the help of family members. She found it her duty to help the family in as many ways as possible. Surprisingly I found that my host family openly embraced that they were not extremely intelligent. In fact they laughed as they called each other “baka”. In the household the grandfather was al-ways treated with respect even though he was deaf and could not understand. My family became very attached to me and repeatedly told me how much they loved me. The sisters d id not enjoy working at their jobs but found happiness knowing that I would be home to greet them with the familiar “okaeri”. At school I was startled to see how rambunctious the students were. None of the students had ever heard of mathematics above Algebra II and Math Analysis. in fact, only two students ever made it into the chemistry class. The students were noisy and did not have the re-spect I thought they would have for their instructors. Contact such as hugging was off limits even to most couples. As I asked around,

couples rarely hugged or showed public affection towards each other at any time. Most couples did not even look each other in the eye. The streets in Japan were filled with vending machines just like it was stated in t he textbook. Cars obviously drive on the left side, and are actually installed with rain blockers on the windows. Every family has at least one bicycle. The tires on the bicycles are only one inch thick and most students use it as their main transportation. The Japanese language has been shortened substantially; almost to the point of only using the root word and a connection of some sort. The Japanese youth speak just as Americans do, fast, and with many abbreviations to sound different from the parents or teachers. Japanese cooking was very interesting as it used a substantial amount of mayonnaise. Eggs were eaten with soy sauce or may-onnaise and rice was served with most meals. As stated before, the mother does all the cooking, including obento which is the equivalent to an American sack lunch. I had the most fantastic experience that I will never forget.

and talented group for their easy going Hawaiian entertainment and thank president Toby Fusao for arranging this presentation. Some of our seniors joined the Long Beach community center group in June for a trip to Vegas. They may be going again in August. On Tuesday July 13th, Marie and Eunice will be demonstrating how to make mochi using the microwave about 10 am. This will be prior to our lunch meeting, bingo games and the prepa-ration of this July newsletter for mailing. Members are asked to bring boutique items they’ve made to the next meeting so pricing can begin. Any new or unused items are also welcome for our boutique sales tables.

N O R W A L K D A N C E C L U B Rosie San Miguel Tomodachi Page 4

South of the Border Social—May 22 The theme for May befits the celebrations that were ongoing with many Cinco de Mayo events. Playing a good role were Senor DJ Yuso Kurihara wearing his Mexican sombrero and the senoras and senoritas donning their Mexican flaired skirts and pretty ruffled blouses. Among the 85 guests were members of the dancing clubs of Em Yamada, Prudy Gin, Masa Morimoto, Gardena Valley Nisei Club, Jim and Hideko Ikehara and our own faithful Norwalk Dance Club members and friends. Prepared for the evening’s refreshments were senoras Helen Hikiji and Karen Chow. Lending a hand in the cocina were George Ishi-kawa, Geoff Chow, and Ben and Rosie San Miguel. The servings for intermission consisted of warm taquitos with dollops of guacamole which did a lot to enhance each bite, tortilla chips with a medium spiced salsa dip and healthy carrot and celery sticks. A choice of a refreshing lime or strawberry jello with fruit cocktail cooled the tastes of spices, thanks to Helen who always take the extra time to make special treats. Edna Kurihara led the line dances called The Mambo and Maria Cha Cha. While the line dancers were enjoying doing their mambo and cha cha steps, others at their seats relaxed with the down time to sit and chat. The Center’s monthly dance is a casual and friendly place. It is not surprising to see it remain as popular place to so-cialize.

NDC Summer Social—June 26 Evidently, June gloom was not part of the agenda for the social as nearly 80 dancers came to enjoy the summer social. With their close friends ready to assist in the kitchen, Helen Hikiji and Karen Chow, co-chairs for the evening’s refreshment did a great job. Gloria Sa-koda and Yuri Fong were at ease lending a happy hand to serve freshly prepared turkey pinwheels, a garden salad, potato chips and the sweet cool taste of lime jello with crushed pineapple. During intermission, Edna Kurihara an expert in teaching line dances chose to introduce a new line dance, Lil Sheba. The second choice for the evening was the easier and flowing Circle Waltz. There are many who love this segment of the evening and will not hesitate to participate. Often times there are valid reasons to take some time off from at-tending the socials and on this particular evening, it was a welcoming sight to see NDC members Gloria and Herb Hoey. We are happy Herb is doing well. We thank Connie Ciranna for doing good job as MC and once again, a big hand for the music provided by DJ Yuso Kuri-hara. Please mark your calendar for the Hawaiian social August 28th. You don’t want to miss the performance by the hula dancers, the Na Wahine ‘O Kawena led by Karen Toyoshiba.

N O R W A L K N I K K E I S E N I O R S Mother’s Day was celebrated on May 18th with bentos from Sangos restaurant and bingo. Sometimes it’s just nice to socialize instead of scheduled stress games! Some of the ladies are working on items for the carnival boutique as is Dave Fusato who has volunteered to make “whirligigs” that George Ishii made for years. George retired from that effort after making hundreds generating many dollars. These funds from boutique sales ultimately were donated to the Center. Dave is giving his personal slant to these “whirligigs” (which have been popular items that you hang on fruit trees to scare away birds) by decorating them with stickers and finished with paint. Mary Iwami expresses her appreciation to the ladies who are contrib-uting toward the boutique, and in particular to Marie Chikami, Eunice Kusunoki, Joan Oshiro and Miyuki Kojo for helping sew hapi coats. Some 60 seniors attended Father’s Day luncheon at the Center en-joying a Mexican buffet from Tacos Chihuahua of Norwalk after a long wait. Due to miscommunication about our catering order, our seniors had to wait over an hour so the entertainment was presented first while pleasing our palates was placed on hold. An enjoyable musical show ensued with hula dancing, ukulele strumming and singing performed by the Puniwai’s Ohana. We thank the friendly

Seniors entertained by Puniwai’s Ohana

Four of our Gakuen students who visited Japan for two weeks with Mrs. Kimie Matsumoto, our Gakuen Director, and 22 Los Alamitos High School students are pictured here L-R: Alex Hernandez, Akira Nakada, Jarred Banuelo (LAHS student), Makoto Kushi and Katie Sunahara. Photo taken at Numazu Bay. Our students wrote essays expressing their views and reflections on their ex-perience, two of them are published in this issue on pages 2 and 3. We could not print all of them but Makoto tells of his visit to the onsen that “it was totally new to me. I realize then that Japanese are really relaxed about privacy. It’s something that would never work in the U.S.” And his observation that there is real pressure getting into a good high school for the young students and that they need to test well. He also says “liked the general rule of standing on the left side of the escalators and leaving the right side for those in a hurry”.

G A K U E N N E W S C O N T ’ D

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BINGO Hosted by Hikari Taiko Aug 7—6:30 pm Serving: Lasagna Dinner and refreshments Come join us in the Dojo! at 6:00 pm

RASCALS Basketball 2nd Session for 5-7 yr. old boys and girls—Call Roger 714-521-4760

Gym Closed from After Carnival to Aug 8

Reopens Aug 9th

Southeast Japanese School & Community Center Activities List If you are interested in any of the activities at the Center, please contact the person listed below

Southeast Gakuen: Kimie Matsumoto 562 926-2536 Hikari Taiko: Mary Jane Mayeda 562 924.1454 Shuji (Calligraphy): Matsumoto Sensei 714 827.1062 Norwalk Nikkei Seniors: Toby Fusato 562 860.7368 Ikebana (Flower Arrgmt): Ogawa Sensei 714 893.1245 Norwalk Dance Club: Edna Kurihara 714 847.1173 Guitar Class: Yuji Hata 562 695.1908 Japanese Classical Dance: Akemi Jensen 562 691.2764 Norwalk Youth Sports: Rich Tamaki 562 883.3383 NaWahine ‘O Kawena: Karen Toyoshiba 562 949.0203 Kendo: Jean Kodama Sensei email: norwalkkendo@gmail.com Hawaiian Karaoke Club: Leslie Goshi 323 722.7229 Karate: Brock Nishimura 714 826.9128 Ukulele Class: Kamaki Keawe Call Karen: 562 949.0203 Norwalk Karaoke Club: Ed Korin 714 870.1013 Tanden/Yoga Class: Mrs. Koyasu 562 865.9652 Judo: Jim Glick 714.315.8503

This photo was taken at our April 17 Recognition Dinner and Awards night. Tokuishi Sensei who has taught our Monday night Karaoke class for many years has a wonderful voice and has maintained a cohesive group of sing-ers who’s been with him since he began teaching here. Often photos do not get published due to lack of space but we’d like to include him in this issue and we had this nice spot.

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Coming this month ….. our SEJSCC’s

47th Annual CARNIVAL and ONDO Sat. and Sun.

Come join us now for Ondo Dancing - see above Raffle Prizes - Grand $1000

Martial Arts Demonstrations Ikebana Flower Arrangements Boutique Japanese American National Museum

Display Hawaiian Show, Karaoke, Taiko

Presentations Plant Sale Great Foods! Carnival Games

CARNIVAL SCHEDULE Saturday Sunday 3:00 pm Carnival Begins 2:00 pm Carnival Begins 3:30 Karate Demonstration 3:30 Classical Dance 3:30 Hawaiian Delites (outdoor) 3:50 Guitar 4:00 Kendo Demonstration 4:05 Hawaiian Show 5:00 Karaoke Show (outdoor) 4:30 Karaoke Show (outdoor) 5:00 Bingo Games 5:00 Bingo Games 5:30 Judo Demonstr’tn (Dojo) 5:15 Hikari Taiko, Soran Bushi 6:00 Hikari Taiko, Soran Bushi 6:00 Ondo Dancing 7:00 Ondo Dancing 7:30 Raffle Drawings

JULY 24—25

We are now learning and practicing Ondo (folk) dancing on Monday and Thursday nights at the Center from 7:30 pm from Sensei Kathy Nishimoto and Soran Bushi dance by Julie Koga. Enjoy the exer-cise and evening air with new and old friends. Come join us!

JULY 7 Operating Bd Mtg 7:00 pm

10 Monthly Bingo 6:30 pm

14 Center Bd Mtg 6:30 pm

24-25 Carnival & Ondo

Gym Closed until Aug 9

AUGUST 4 Operating Bd Mtg 7:00 pm 7 Monthly Bingo 6:30 pm 11 Center Bd Mtg 6:30 pm

21 Hawaiian Social 7-11 pm

SEPTEMBER 1 Operating Bd Mtg 7:00 pm

8 Center Bd Mtg 6:30 pm

11 Gakuen Classes Begin

11 Monthly Bingo 6:30 pm

25 Anniversary Dinner/Dance

OCTOBER 2 Monthly Bingo 6:30 pm

6 Operating Bd Mtg 7:00 pm

9 Pancake Bkfst & Boutique

13 Center Bd Mtg 6:30 pm

23 Halloween Social 7-11 pm

CALENDAR

Southeast Japanese School & Community Center “Tomodachi” A Bimonthly Newsletter July 2010 Norwalk CA 90651-0431

NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S.Postage PAID Permit No. 109 Norwalk CA 90650

Reminder …..

Carnival and Ondo July 24-25

New Gakuen Year starts Sept 11

Registration 7/17, 7/24-25

July 2009