Nikkei Community Internship 2010

Week 7: Media and Communication

2010-08-06T12:42:00.001-07:00

We started off this week with a visit to NBC Bay Area (KNTV) where we met up with good friend Mike Inouye and Robert Mayeda. Mike gave us a tour around the studio where we got a sense of what goes on at the station. It was amazing to see how much everyone does and their ability to multitask on so many levels. One of the highlights of the tour was that we actually got to sit in the studio for a front row live showing of their recording and even be on air for a few seconds!! While we were there, a boy scout troop was also visiting so we got the chance to listen to Mike, of course with his sense of humor, show the boys what he does on a day to day basis. What impresses me the most is how the crew manages to get to the studio so early in the morning, everyday!! Mike especially who juggles having two young kids and getting to work at 4am, still manages to stay involved the community!

We also had the chance to talk to Barbara Hiura who works at Wesley United Methodist Church. She used to be a freelance reporter with the Hokubei Mainichi before it became an online only news source. We learned how struggling the newspaper industry has been as times are turning to more of the technological advancements such as the Internet. Both Sami and I were unaware that the Hokubei no longer prints hard copies and I think that this is an issue that a lot of newspapers are going to be facing in the near future.

Tuesday we went over to KTVU Fox 2 and met with Robert Handa who talked to us about what he does there on a typical day. When he first started working with the news, he was one of the few Asian Americans in the field. He decided to take the opportunity as a challenge to be one of the first rather, than looking at the negative side that they all failed. Robert also gave us advice on life skills that he learned through his experiences, like being able to work on our weaknesses in order to become an all around better person. He also talked about finding a way to get your foot in the door, to stand out so that you have something to offer that others don’t have.

Also on Tuesday we visited CreaTV, which is a local access station here in San Jose. Sarah, one of their interns gave us a tour of their studio and explained to us what kinds of things go on there. CreaTV offers different film and media classes for their members as well as gives them access to their equipment so they can do public service announcements and film their own shows and programs. After visiting there, we went to DeBug Community Center where Adrian showed us around. At DeBug they have space for video production, photography, painting, and silk screening. Their biggest project is probably the production of their bimonthly, bilingual magazine. They focus on stories with minority issuesor with those who aren’t recognized in the larger scope of the media. At DeBug, they use artwork, writing, and video to collectively portray their experiences through their own point of view. It was really interesting to visit their center because there really is nothing like it, and I think that it’s something that is much needed in the community.

Wednesday we focused our interviews and tours on the San Jose Mercury News. First we talked with Michelle Lew who is the president of AACI and also the community representative for the editorial board of the Mercury. She works to advise them on certain issues or stories that she thinks may be prevalent to write about. We also met with another familiar face, Dennis Akizuki who is an editor at the Mercury News. Mr. Akizuki gave us a tour of their facilities including the huge printing press rooms and the library clip files. He also talked about the challenges that the newspaper is having with the changing times and everything being online nowadays. Because of economic reasons the company went from having around 400 employees to only a little over 100. Even their work and office space is now only half the size of what it used to be. Although they are struggling, news and the San Jose Mercury in particular are something that probably will never face elimination altogether, however I think that they will have to adapt to what the world wants to see and how they want to read it.

Week 6: Governance & Advocacy continued

2010-08-01T14:14:00.000-07:00

Just a short recap on the rest of the week:

THURSDAY

Intern day in the city!!

-Lunch with Paul Osaki, Executive Director of JCCCNC

-Went over to Nancy Pelosi’s Office and talked with Harriet Ishimoto, Congressional Staffer

-Met with Masao’s dad, Dean Ito Taylor, Executive Director of API Legal Outreach (seems like they do what the Asian Law Alliance does here in San Jose)

FRIDAY

-We had the opportunity to sit in on Herb Ohta Jr.’s ‘ukulele concert that he performed for Yu Ai-Kai.

-He is an amazing musician with a great sense of humor, putting up with all the “aunties” requests. He even stayed after to take pictures and sign CDs that were being sold.

It’s people like Herb, who play these concerts for the seniors, free of charge, that we need in the community. Hopefully he’ll be able to come back and perform again soon.

Week 6: Governance & Advocacy

2010-07-28T15:39:00.001-07:00

Our first interview for this week was over at City Hall with Councilmember Sam Liccardo. Sam is on council for District 3, the part of San Jose that includes Japantown. I was really impressed on how much that Sam knew about Japantown and the culture. Since coming into office, the two things that he had been working on were public improvements and redevelopments to increase foot traffic, as well as the Corp. yard project which is now a temporary parking lot. Another thing that is of concern is the challenge of preservation and being able to sustain Japantown, something that has remained prevalent throughout these past 6 weeks. In the long term, Sam believes strongly that we need the housing density in order to sustain the retail shops, and hopefully when the economy gets better we will be able to do something about it with the Corp. yard. Also, the marketing and signage could be improved to make outsiders more aware that there is a Japantown here in San Jose. Lastly, we need to new concepts to the generational changes that are occurring. We find that there is a conflict with trying to preserve the historical aspects as well as keep up with the changing wants and needs of the new generation. In all, I enjoyed meeting with Sam, he’s a very entertaining guy and hopefully we’ll get the chance to work with him again.

On Monday night we attended the monthly API Justice Coalition meeting where we had 3 major presentations. The first was on a new film produced by Andrew Byrnes called The Power of Two. This documentary is about half-Japanese twin sisters who have battled Cystic Fibrosis all their lives. It focuses on the miracle of their double lung transplants and their journey growing up. It seems especially touching for producer Byrnes whose wife is Isabel, one of the sisters. The next presentation was on the Mobilize the Immigrant Vote Campaign which works to help strengthen the immigrant community who have become citizens by helping them gain access to voter guides and getting them more active in the political sphere. The last presentation was by Glen Wong who is working for the Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs Association (APAPA) with the Education Equality UC Admissions Policy Project. The new freshman UC admissions policy starting in 2012 will eliminate the SAT II Subject Tests for students. Therefore, UC admissions will rely on the SAT reasoning test. After a series of three simulations, they have found that by removing the subject tests results in an overall reduction in guaranteed admissions, especially for ethnic minorities. In particular Asian American admissions would have dropped 12%. The API coalition took a stand against the elimination and will be working to do what they can to help rescind this new freshman policy. This is one issue that is relevant to our generation because without the SAT II subject tests, a lot of us probably wouldn’t have gotten into the schools we are at now.

On Tuesday we went over to AACI and had the chance to interview Anne Im, Director of Community Programs and Advocacy. Although she first started out in public policy, she now works with advocacy efforts and oversees the community programs and direct services at AACI. She is also very active in the API Justice Coalition, which just celebrated its fourth year in June. The coalition began with AACI, the Asian Pacific Bar Association, the Asian Law Alliance, and JACL and has now grown to 26 member organizations. Basically, what the Asian Pacific Islander Justice Coalition does is provide a rapid response network and a venue for outside groups to present to. They hope to also be able to work with other ethnic groups such as Latino and Black in the future. Working with both APIJC and AACI, Anne gets the chance to see both the immediate and wide scale needs of the community.

Tuesday night we also had our monthly JCCSJ Board of Directors meeting. San Jose Japantown’s Community Congress is full of character and entertaining individuals which makes these meetings fun. We presented what we had so far on our available space and community calendar projects. Everyone seemed really excited about finally having a calendar together so hopefully it will be a success!!

Week 5: Business & Economic Development

2010-07-24T15:27:00.000-07:00

For our topic of business, we got to spend the week working with Kathy Sakamoto, the Executive Director of the Japanese Business Association and owner of Sak n’ Sak. Working with Kathy we had the opportunity to find out what a busy job she has dealing with all the different aspects of the business world here in Japantown. One of the things we learned about from Kathy was what a Business Improvement District, or BID is. BIDs work with the beautification, safety, marketing, as a government liaison, with community support and coordination. We also had our daily workout everyday by helping Kathy clean up her office by moving filing cabinets, bookshelves, and organization. It was really interesting to see all the important documents that she had and the stories that go along with the various projects and events that she has worked on. Thank you Kathy for treating us to lunch this whole week!!!

In addition to working with Kathy we also had the chance to interview Helen Hayashi who is part of the San Jose Downtown Association and the membership outreach coordinator. Helen is very involved in the community including being a founding member of the JCCSJ, empowering woman of the YWCA, and a city council member for the Evergreen Valley district. She was also a part of the 1978 campaign for Norman Mineta. One of thing we talked about with Helen was “How do we define what Japanese American is?” The issue arose when they were discussing the implementation of a gateway or traditional Japanese “tori” on Taylor Street here in San Jose Japantown. They ended up deciding against that idea because San Jose’s Japantown is a Japanese American place not traditionally Japanese. Instead we have the plum blossom icon that represents J-town here. It can be found on the banners that line the streets throughout Japantown, giving our community more of a JA feel.

We also met with Arlene Damron who owns the Nichi Bei Bussan, a retail business that has remained in her family for over 100 years!!! It started with her Grandpa Tatsuno in 1902 who owned a shop in San Francisco. It was there where the immigrants would come in dressed in their kimonos and leave wearing western clothes. In 1948 they opened in San Jose’s Japantown and started as NB department store, standing for “name brands.” They specialized in short sizes for all of us Japanese Americans. Today it has transformed to vintage sales on consignment, traditional Japanese clothing and accessories, home décor, fabrics, martial arts equipment, books, and various Japanese American goods.With the ups and downs of the economy Arlene tells us that it is hard at times. Being a family business she feels that the future of Japantown will be with blended families, hers being multiracial itself. In order to sustain it, we must respond to what the customers want and adapt on that, while remaining a unique place to visit and shop.

On Thursday we had another intern day up in San Francisco. We met with Bob Hamaguchi of the Japantown Task Force and a major head in the Better Neighborhoods plan. We helped him get some idea of the youths’ perspective in this project as he asked us questions on his survey, which we discussed as a group. We also had a tour of San Francisco Japantown led by our very own NJAHS interns Stephen and Devin. One of really interesting spot that we got to see was the building that still had the spray painted words “Japs Keep Out.”

They say that the homeowners didn’t know that it was there when the first bought the house. Although the writing is faint, it still reminds us of the hatred and racism that Japanese Americans faced during the war.

We also stopped by at New People, a retro looking new café, cinema, shop, and art gallery.

Maybe this could be one of the new hangout places that we, as future leaders of the JA community wanted to put in for those of our generation…

Lastly for our intern day we had a workshop with Aya about communication and teamwork. We used a lego building activity that forced us to work together and efficiently to get the job done. We ended the day with a practice run of the Yaki Onigiri that we are making for the street fair next month and some good ole intern bonding over at Sundance Kitchen.

Our third interview this week was with Heidi Shigematsu of Famers’ Insurance Group. She lives and works here in Jtown and has the cutest little son ever. Living in Japantown she finds that there are many connections within the residential neighborhood, however her customer base comes from everywhere. Heidi emphasized the sense of community she finds while both living and working in Japantown, especially for her son Trenton who will be able to experience growing up in this community setting. As well as being a business owner, Heidi is very involved in the Kiwanis Club, Christmas in the Park, Japanese American Chamber of Commerce, and a Farmers Market Volunteer. One word of advice that she gave for future business owners is to gather customers through networking, which will help to grow your business. Networking has definitely been one of the major skills that all of us interns have been working on this summer. After visiting Heidi we stopped off at Sak n’ Sak, the tote bag business that Kathy runs with Lydia Uchida-Sakai, Yosh’s daughter. At Sak n’ Sak they recycle the old Jtown banners and make them into bags, purses, clutches, etc. They have even made their first appearance at the San Jose Mineta Airport. We talked to Lydia a little bit about the business as well as what it is like to be Yosh Uchida’s daughter.

For me this subject this week was intriguing, being a business major, I had the chance to learn firsthand what it is like to run a business in the Nikkei Community. I have found that although many of the businesses here in San Jose Jtown are family operated, we are getting to the generation where maybe there is no one willing to take on the family business. In order to sustain this feel of community based and family oriented Japantown I think that these businesses are vital to keep around. They may have to adapt to the changing outside community and people but I believe we should strive to keep this feeling of a family run town and character.

Week 4: Arts, Culture, & Spirituality Cont.

2010-07-16T14:32:00.000-07:00

On Thursday Sami and I drove up to the city for our second intern day. It’s always fun to be together spend the day working with all the other Norcal interns. First we sat down with Jon Osaki, Executive Director of the Japanese Community Youth Council, or JCYC. He showed us videos of the group and how it has grown and changed over the past four decades. JCYC is actually celebrating its 40^th anniversary, as it is the second oldest Japanese American based organization following JACL. What surprised me the most about the JCYC was how many different programs that it works with and how it has grown to encompass many other multicultural backgrounds and diverse groups of people. It was also amazing to see that this group was formed 40 years ago by youth just like us who wanted a place to hang out with other JA’s and has now expanded to such a successful and powerful organization. We also discussed a lot about the future of the JA community and what it is going to take to keep the young people involved with it. It hit me that it is us interns and our leadership that really is going to have to be the foundation for the future. It seems like we have a lot of work cut out ahead of us if we’re going to do so!!! After speaking with Mr. Osaki, we had a workshop with Aya back at the JCCCNC. Our job was to go around in pairs to the different malls among San Francisco Japantown and speak with the merchants about how to improve Japantown and the surrounding areas, along with the Better Neighborhoods Plan. What we found was that most of the businesses are hurting for customers, especially with the high rent and competition between restaurants. Some favored reconstruction and others thought that it would just skyrocket prices even higher.

In all, most wanted to find a way to bring about more business and foot traffic but didn’t know how. Lucky me I was partnered with Casey, who got sucked into eating a full meal at one of the restaurants where we interviewed the owner. So unfortunately, we didn’t win the prize for talking to the most businesses but it was a good experience as a way to take direct action in the community. We concluded our intern day with discussions and planning for our closing retreat and food booth for the Nihonmachi Street Fair. It was a long day in San Francisco, but definitely worth the commute.

For Friday we focused on more of the spirituality aspect by meeting with Reverend Keith Inouye of Wesley United Methodist Church. Being raised Buddhist; I wasn’t too familiar with the religion. Rev. Inouye explained to us about the origins of this offshoot of Christianity with founder John Wesley who was really concerned with more of the social issues like education and poverty. Him and his followers were named “Methodists,” a derogatory term at the time, for being so methodical in their work and I guess this name just stuck as they began to refer to themselves at Methodists. Racism was probably the biggest factor in bringing the JAs together to this historical Japanese American church over 100 years ago, and today they attract members through other ways. Due to the growing number of intermarriages about half of the youth are biracial and they get many others from outside the community as well, expanding in the diversity of their membership. One interesting thing about Wesley United is that they have Japanese language services and their very own Japanese language minister, one of the only three left. They also keep the youth involved with programs such as their vacation bible school, which Rev. Keith was preparing for next week.

We then went to San Jose Buddhist Temple Betsuin and sat in on the Lotus Preschool service that Rinban Ken Fujimoto performs for them every morning. It was so cute seeing all the preschool students shout “good morning Sensei!!!” and listen to them recite along with the chanting and sing “Buddha Loves You.” This was a familiar scene for me and it was a nice refresher to hear Rinban Fujimoto share his thoughts on Buddhism. One thing that caught my attention was how much of an influence western thoughts and ideas have had on the Buddhist Temple. Services came to be held on Sundays because all the other religions held theirs on that day. The idea of pews originated from the western religions and the title of “temple” came to be known as “Buddhist Church” instead. However it was different than many other churches because it served more of social center for Japanese Americans rather than just a place of worship. It also has become a sort of community and I still have that feeling of my home temple nowadays. As Buddhism has come from Japan it has transformed and adjusted to the different American ideals. Still today the values within the Buddhist temple are adjusted as well, whether through chanting styles or etiquette. Rev. Fujimoto spoke on change and although he believes in keeping many of the Buddhist traditions the same, he feels that augmentation and change can be good, as long as you know what you are changing and why it is necessary. I believe that this idea is very important, especially when people talk about the future of the youth in Japantown organizations. In order to sustain our culture, we must also be open to change some of the traditional ways of how things used to be, which might actually help to preserve it and get the younger generations involved.

Lastly for our week on arts, culture, and spirituality we met Dr. Jerry Hiura for lunch at Kubota restaurant. Thank you again for treating us Reiko!!!! Dr. Hiura is one of the founders of the Contemporary Asian Theater Scene, CATS, which started 15 years ago. He is also a member of the California Arts Council and involved in the J-town scene having his dental practice right on Taylor Street.

Our question for this week was what role does the arts and spirituality play in our community? I believe that it is really important that we have these places available in Japantown because otherwise the only form of culture that is shared with the community is Japanese food. It is really great that we have places like Ken Matsumoto's Art Gallery, Kika’s Ikebana Arts, the San Jose Buddhist Temple Betsuin, and the Wesley United Method Church. I feel like it gives Japantown a greater sense of culture and community that unites us and that we can share with others.

Week 4: Arts, Culture, & Spirituality

2010-07-14T11:32:00.000-07:00

We began another busy week focusing on the arts and culture with an interview with Roy Hirabayashi, co-founder and managing director of San Jose Taiko. I grew up playing taiko for fun and as more of a leisure activity at the Mountain Buddhist Temple so it was very interesting to see how the San Jose group had formed and has become such a strong and powerful group. It was the 3^rd American taiko group to form in 1973 after groups had been created in San Francisco by Seiichi Tanaka and at the Senshin Temple in LA by Reverend Mas Kodani. Reverend Abiko, was actually at San Jose Betsuin at the time and wanted to start something like Rev. Kodani had done in LA. Roy was studying over at San Jose State and also was pretty active in the community. Although he had never played taiko before he thought that it would be a good way to organize the youth in the community and share this culture as well. Together with the YBA, San Jose State students, and other community members, they were able to start it up. Today San Jose Taiko has grown and expanded to provide for youth programs, workshops, and even goes on tours. They have a collective leadership style to create their songs but were criticized for their creativity by traditionalists. Because they used more of a Japanese American style and used wine barrels to make drums, it was very different then the traditional Japanese style of taiko. However, although they have Americanized this art quite a bit, they do have a concern of taiko groups starting without a basis of the origin and understanding of the roots. Therefore, Roy says that San Jose Taiko makes sure to talk about taiko and show the community a little about their culture at every performance. One of the main barriers they face over the years is the generational challenge, and because it is such a collectively based effort, having people step up for leadership positions. Another new big project is their planned purchase of Okida Hall. Roy says that they would like to really keep their ties with the JA community and being able to own the building, which was once a theater and performance venue, will be a great way to try and bring back that historical and communal significance. San Jose Taiko continues to remain a big part of the arts and cultural aspect of the community with its growing popularity as a “high-level music performing ensemble.”

On Tuesday we went over Ikebana Arts, located at the new Miraido Village over on 6^th street to meet with Kika Shibata. Not only is she a successful businesswoman, but a renowned Sogetsu instructor. Having been teaching in the United States for 44 years, this will be her 11^th year here in San Jose’s Japantown after opening Ikebana arts. She told us how this tradition is passed down from generation to generation and how she first had learned from her mother. Although this art form had originated in Japan, living in American Mrs. Shibata says that she may have a little bit of a different way to express her free style ideas seeing and experiencing it in a different cultural setting.

Next Reiko treated us to lunch with Yosh Uchida, whom they call the “Godfather of Japantown.” Mr. Uchida has done so much for the community and is also very well known, being the first Asian faculty member hired at San Jose State University and for his building of the new Miraido apartment complex. Another major accomplishment is being an Olympic Judo Coach and his work to successfully bring Judo to the Olympics in the first place. He also worked with American Airlines to bring the first flight to Japan and his face can be found in the Hall the Fame at the HP Pavilion. During lunch Yosh had so many interesting stories to tell us about growing up, the wartime, resettlement, and the hardships that he faced while working in the medical field. We also found out that he loves In-N-Out burger. I wish we had a little more time to just sit down and talk with him because it seems like he has done so much and is still looking good!!

After lunch we drove over to the Mexican Heritage Plaza and met with Elisa Echeverria, the transition manager at the plaza. She showed us their beautiful facility and theater that they rent out to the public but are really trying to create an arts and cultural school for children. Their vision is to have a place for kids to go after school that will be open to the community so the youth can have a place to further their learning in the arts and cultural fields. They will be housing some classes from the Alum Rock school district while their campus goes under construction in the meantime and hopefully they will be able to open up their center shortly after that. Seeing the Mexican Heritage Plaza, which is also owned by the city, can give us an idea of what may possibly be able to be created over on the 6^th street lot here in Japantown. A place where we can get the youth more involved as well as fostering the Japanese arts and culture could be a good idea to look at, especially as we are trying to preserve the important ideals of San Jose’s J-town.

Wednesday we went over to the Art Object Gallery and talked with Ken Matsumoto, both artist and owner of the gallery. Mr. Matsumoto was first introduced to the art world attending Catholic School as a child. He said that it gave him a foundation where he first became interested in painting and soon after found his true calling in sculpture. In 1996 he opened the studio in J-town because of the great opportunity of location. In 2000 he opened the gallery, which added another aspect to his workplace. One of the challenges to having both a studio and gallery is that running the gallery takes time away from the “magic” or inspiration that could be coming to him while in the studio. He likes being able to touch a person’s life with his artwork and it is the little things that are significant because they take you back to certain memories like a time machine.

Then we went over to Notre Dame High School where Hector Armienta runs his Opera Cultura Summer Conservatory Program. There he directs middle school aged students in putting on a musical at the end of the 2-week camp. What is interesting about his program is that he tries to get kids from all different backgrounds to come together. About half the students are on full scholarships while the others pay the tuition. As a NEA grant recipient I feel that Hector has done an amazing job get these kids together and forming such a great program. We had the chance to sit in and watch part of their rehearsal and they sounded so good after only 6 days of rehearsing!!

Although she has been leading us around all week, we finally had a chance to sit down and talk to Reiko about her own specialty of Odori. Although it is a traditional dance form that has been sustained through camp life, she sees a decline in interest in today’s community. However, Bon Odori still remains a popular hit at all of the Obon festivals—Reiko being the head instructor here for San Jose. She likes that the Bon Odori features simple steps so that everyone can join in. We all had the chance to participate in this at the Obon festival last weekend.

Midsession Retreat –San Jose

2010-07-12T22:31:00.000-07:00

The midsession retreat was a busy, fun filled weekend that we got to spend with the other interns from San Francisco and Los Angeles.

FRIDAY:

We picked up the Socal interns from the airport and enjoyed breakfast at YAK
Jimi Yamaichi gave the group a little history and walking tour of Japantown. We were also joined by my good friend Trisha, Jimi’s grand-daughter. The San Jose Japantown history was a little bit of a review for Sami and me, but the other interns seemed to learn a lot from Mr. Yamaichi.
When we finished the tour Tamon gave us a quick workshop on development and fundraising. It was very useful information that will probably come in handy with future projects and trying to retain and form successful donor relations.
Lunch was served here at Yu-Ai Kai where we at with the seniors and had a chance to talk with them. I think the meal was a little too healthy for most of the interns but it was nice to have a chance to talk and hear their stories.
After lunch, John Abe from Union Bank came and talked to us about financial planning. He came armed with 3 huge packets of information for students on how to start saving and building up credit for the future. This was extremely relevant because we got the first half of our scholarship money this weekend!!
Next we did a branding activity where we had to come up with a 30 second Elevator Statement on NCI. An elevator statement would be something that you would say about your organization if you were in an elevator with someone who asked about what the organization does. I learned that branding is a useful skill to have when trying to promote a business or organization so I definitely learned a lot from this activity.
Following this, Mickie led us in a communication styles workshop where we all evaluated our personality types and categorized ourselves in either the Analytical, Amiable, Driver, or Expressive groups. We then had to perform a skit in our groups acting out the opposite personality type. I ended up being a Driver and after reading the description I found that it was pretty true. This workshop was both entertaining and eye-opening because now I am aware of certain “driver” characteristics I hold and can be more open to other communication and work styles.
The workshop portion of the day was concluded with a game of Cranium, --JA style. Mickie changed all the questions and answers so they had to do with Japanese American culture, people, places, and traditions. It was definitely a fun way to end the day.
Lastly on Friday night we attended the Collegiate Taiko party potluck for dinner. It was held at the San Jose Taiko Dojo and all the collegiate taiko groups that were performing at Obon gathered for a mixer. There was sooo much good food and I got to see some familiar faces whom I used to play with at the Mountain View Buddhist Temple taiko group back home. San Jose Taiko also taught us all the kakegoe and dance steps for the song Ejainaika which they were performing at the Obon the next day. I learned that Ekainaika translates to “isn’t it good,” such as referring to life. Eijainaika!!
After the taiko mixer, we went back to the hotel and ended the night by relaxing with some good old NCI bonding time :)

SATURDAY:

Saturday morning we went back to YAK for the last workshop of the midsession retreat. We were divided into 3 groups and told to create our own “Topia” Japantown. Each group had their own version of what we wanted our perfect Japantown to be like. They all encompassed what we like about the different J-towns now and other things that we would like to see if they had the opportunity to grow. One of the main things that we wanted to implement is something for the younger college-age generation. An Obon Club was an idea that we thought of as a bar/nightclub where people can rock out and dance to taiko and odori music. It would be like a single place where our generation can come together and hang out, possibly bringing a little bit of nightlife to the sleepy feel of the J-towns. From this final workshop I realized that it really is our group of NCI interns who will be the future leaders of the Japanese American communities and if we would like to see changes then it is up to us to make these transformations.

In all I’d have to say that this was a great weekend. A majority of the interns decided to stay an extra night in San Jose for the Obon so we had a lot of fun spending time together. Some of us went to the Great Mall to get in a couple good hours of outlet shopping in and we spend the rest of the night enjoying the Obon festival, a first time experience for many of the interns. It was nice to see everyone again at the midsession retreat, and I can’t believe we are already up to week 4 of the NCI internship, halfway through!!

Week 3: Education

2010-07-09T12:30:00.000-07:00

For our topic of education we had a nice short week due to the 4^th of July holiday and our midsession retreat on Friday. First we met with Professor Stephen Fugita, a retired Asian American and Ethnic Studies professor at Santa Clara University. Born in Chicago, Professor Fugita didn’t really have the same experience as someone growing up involved in San Jose Japantown. However, as a teacher here in the Silicon Valley he did come to face some of the same issues that many of us see in the educational atmosphere. We talked about how in most history textbooks there is very limited material on Asian American history. This may be due to the fact that Japanese Americans have a collectivist culture and strong community where they tend to be group-oriented trying to assimilate into the larger American culture. However, I feel that as a student we are missing out on learning about this subject and nowadays this topic has been given more academic credibility. At Santa Clara University there is a very small Asian student population, however Professor Fugita found diversity in many of his classes. One of the things that he would like to see is a better integration of Ethnic Studies and Asian American classes into the mainstream courses at the collegiate level. I believe that this has been improved upon because there are certain requirements such as to take a cultural diversity course at many colleges. Hopefully the subjects of Ethnic Studies and Asian American History will continue to grow in interest so students of all backgrounds can become education on different aspects of culture.

The second person we met with this week was Yuri Oda, the board president of Suzume no Gakko. Suzume is a 3 week long, half-day summer camp created so that elementary school-aged children can learn about the culture of Japan. Founded by three mothers 34 years ago, they used arts and crafts to teach the kids in an attempt to keep the Japanese culture alive. The curriculum focuses on more of the Japanese, rather than Japanese American culture, with topics ranging from internment to how rice is grown. Suzume no Gakko also remains active in the community by helping out with the Nikkei Matsuri and Spirit of Japantown festivals, as well as putting on a performance for the seniors at Yu-Ai Kai. One of the major barriers that the Suzume faces however is the popularity of the program without the available space and resources to provide for that many students. The board of directors are all volunteers so to ensure that her children get a spot Yuri felt that she should volunteer to be on the board. The program is able to somewhat adapt to the growing amount of students by having three double classes this year. However, Yuri tells us that every year there is always a waitlist and some families get turned away. I think that it is a good sign that programs such as these are so popular and it is a great way to teach the younger generations about the Japanese culture. Other programs such as Medaka no Gakko in Palo Alto and Nakayoshi Gakko in Mountain View have been created as a result of the growing popularity. I actually had the opportunity to attend Nakayoshi as a child and then also remain involved in their Sempai program, as well as teach the Undokai class last summer. Programs like these are important because from Nakayoshi I not only had fun but it was also my only source of education about Japanese culture. This is a prime example of how important it is to educate the youth so that they can continue to remain involved in the community as they grow older.

Week 2: Health and Human Services, Days 3 & 4

2010-07-02T11:34:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday we met with Curt Fukuda who told us a little about his experience with interviewing as he is completing his book about the history of Japantown. He gave us a little background of what he learned through his research and through talking to the older generations. What stuck out to me is how he described what makes San Jose Japantown unique from Los Angeles and San Francisco, a topic that ties in more to last week’s. Curt expressed how San Jose’s Japantown “has an incredibly rich history that you won’t get from looking at it,” and how this living, family-operated neighborhood is what has been preserving this community and keeping it strong.

Next we had the chance to talk to Richard Konda the executive director of the Asian Law Alliance, an individual who is deeply involved in the community. At the ALA, they work with direct legal services, domestic violence, housing, community education, and police education to name a few. When asked about what social service issues are facing the Nikkei in our community, he spoke about the 2^nd generation health care, immigrant issues, and the understanding of cultural responsibilities. As the Nisei being to age, health care has begun to become a major issue. Also many immigrants, not just the Japanese, have difficulty understanding some of their legal responsibilities, such as if they get in a car accident, being scared of the situation and driving away is against the law. One story that Richard told us that particularly made an impression on me was about Cau Bich Tran who was shot and killed by a San Jose Police Office in front of her family on July 13^th, 2003. Although Tran did have a somewhat unstable past and posed no threat to the officers being under 5’ tall and weighing less than 100 pounds. The officer that shot her felt threatened because Tran was holding a Vietnamese vegetable peeler and could not speak English. The police had come in response to a neighbor’s call and within seconds of their arrival, she was shot and killed. This incident shows how certain cultural differences can result in misunderstandings and wrongful deaths. The ALA works to try and prevent situations like this. We also asked Richard what difference he sees in being a Japanese American highly involved in City Council. He replied saying the he sees himself as more of an Asian American rather than specifically Japanese and they can sometimes use this fact to their advantage when dealing with issues related to the Asian American community.

Lastly, we drove over to City Hall to speak with Robert Lopez and Wayne Chen of the Housing Department. The two of them work on policy development and specifically the affordable housing programs in San Jose. The main thing that I got from talking with them was that they use affording housing to strengthen and build a community. A lot of people have the “not in my backyard” stigma, believing that these affordable housing communities will be like the projects and residents do not want a building made to house poor people in their neighborhoods. However, by looking at these upscale housing complexes we can see that it is not the case. The buildings offer community centers, pools, and one is even designed specifically for senior living. They are also modernly designed and by looking at the pictures, they look like they would be extremely expensive to live in. Maybe in the future they will be able to plan affordable housing complexes designed for college students or recent graduates with low income.

On Thursday we had our first Intern Day up in San Francisco where we got to spend time with the other interns up there. It started off with a meeting where we decided that we will be selling curry and rice and Hawaiian Sun at the Nihonmachi Street Fair in August as a fundraiser for the program. We also had the chance to talk with Kaz Maniwa, an attorney at law in San Francisco’s Japantown. He spoke to us a little about the situation with the Japantown Center Mall and big corporations who are trying to make more money. Kaz also showed us his collection of pictures with famous people he has met such as sumo wrestlers and political leaders. He is most proud however of his 1 million dollar Turkish bill that he has framed. Although it is only work 97 cents in the United States, he can still say he is a Turkish millionaire. We then had a presentation with Kenji Taguma of the Nichi Bei Times. It was interesting to see how this newspaper transformed over the years into fully printed copies in English. It was also funny to see that Kenji knew someone who knew pretty much each and every one of us interns. For example, his nieces when to high school with me and we played basketball together. I’m beginning to see more and more of how small of a world the JA community is and I'm excited to see what he has to say in his article about our interns. We ended the intern day with a workshop led by Aya Ino. We learned about direct service programs, education, self-help, advocacy, and direct action and looked at how the organizations we have worked with fall under each of these categories along with which groups of people they serve (JA youth, seniors, families, new immigrants, non-JA, etc.) From this exercise we learned that although we have several direct service and education programs available, we are lacking in the advocacy and self-help areas. As a future leader, we can improve this by empowering others and supporting certain issues that are important to our community.

Week 2: Health and Human Services, Day 2

2010-06-29T16:35:00.000-07:00

Today we continued our work with the Health and Human Services sector with a visit to the West Valley Community Services. There I met a familiar face, my own auntie and Executive Director Naomi Nakano-Matsumoto. Right when we walked in the door, I was overwhelmed by how busy the organization was at 10 in the morning. Auntie Naomi talked to us about how West Valley was a “basic needs” organization and the different services they offer. I learned that they focus their service on those homeless who just need help getting back on track for a little while, such as after a divorce or layoff, rather than those who have formed more of a permanent social living environment on the streets. They help these people out with more of one-time incidents, like a car accident that prevents a person from getting to work. WVCS would then investigate to make sure the situation is legitimate and help them out by paying the car company rather than the individual.

Another thing that West Valley has is their affordable housing program. They own several apartments connected to the building and a few transitional townhomes and homes around the area. All of these homes are sold at BMR, or below market rate, so that those who might not otherwise be able to afford a house can find a home. While new contractors begin to build more housing around the area they are also required sell a certain percent of their houses at BMR, otherwise they will have to pay a fine. This requirement helps make sure that there is affordable housing available and West Valley does its best to house those who are stable and ready to own a home.

They also partner with Second Harvest Food Bank and work with local grocery stores providing a wide variety of food stored to be given out to those in need. Many of the grocery stores have an “all or nothing” policy, meaning that the agency must take all the food they give or nothing at all. So although West Valley strives to provide a healthy and nutritious environment because of the correlation between poverty and obesity, they do in fact have a lot of unhealthy junk food on hand. One thing in particular that I found interesting was that they let people come in and shop through their food pantry. Each shelf and bin was labeled with a number representing how many items they were allowed to take depending on their family size. It showed that West Valley takes pride in letting individuals choose depending on the needs of their families and in not wasting food, as much would be just thrown out if the food was just bagged and sent out.

West Valley Community Services is run by mostly the hundreds of volunteers that come out and help each day. It is also another organization that is not an ethnic-based service center. Auntie Naomi has long resume of different organizations that she’s worked for and boards that she’s served on (including being named Women of Year last year). Most of the organizations that she worked for were Asian American focused, unlike West Valley Community Services. One thing that she said that was missing here was the “Cultural Competency.” Although they do have various multi-lingual speakers working, there is definitely that difference in culture when it comes to working with and bringing this altogether. Sometimes people may not know what the politically correct term to use, especially when dealing with race and ethnicity. Working with difference ages, genders, and races has forced her to learn how to break down these barriers in order for their organization to work together successfully.

The question for this week is: What are the social services issues facing Nikkei in our community? After visiting the different organizations this week that serve both the wider community and those that are ethnically based, we can see how there is a great need for financial and community support to keep these services running. People may assume that Japanese-American in our community are not poor and therefore are not in need of these services, however Auntie Naomi said that there is a number of Nikkei that come into WVCS everyday, in a wide range of ages, men and women. To answer the question, I’m not quite sure yet what social services issues, if any, face the Nikkei community but I know that organizations such as Yu-Ai-Kai, SVCN, AACI, and West Valley are definitely all vital to serving the Japanese-American community and need to be supported.

Week 2: Health and Human Services, Day 1

2010-06-28T23:31:00.000-07:00

The second week of our Nikkei Community Internship started off with a tour of the Yu-Ai-Kai facility by Wes. He introduced us to all the people in within the organization that make it so successful. We met some of the seniors and volunteers in the senior day program, visited the nutrition center, and learned about the various activities and programs that Yu-Ai-Kai has to offer. He also took us to the new Akiyama Wellness Center down the street that should be opening next month. Although it is still under construction, the center will soon be able to serve the needs of not only the seniors, but the larger community as well.

Next we went to visit Amanda Baker and Tom Kinoshita at the Silicon Valley Council of Nonprofits. There, they work with nonprofit organizations and make sure that they are not cut of their critical government funding. SVCN is not an ethnic-based group, but rather they exist to serve the entire community. Both Amanda and Tom talked a little about how it is different to work at the executive level of such a company, especially being a minority. Amanda also spoke on how for her, it was difficult at first to walk into a meeting and to find herself the only woman, person of color, and young person to be there. There is a growing need for diversity in many board of directors situations, and the only way to change this, is to step out of the comfort zone like Amanda did, in order to continue to have a lasting impact on the community.

After the visit to SVCN we went to see Tamon at AACI, or Asian Americans for Community Involvement, where we were to be staying for the remainder of the week. After lunch with Tamon and the two other interns, he gave us an extensive tour of AACI’s facilities as well as told us about the different programs that AACI offers. I was amazed at how large of an organization this was and the number of the programs that AACI has. Some of these include their Senior Services Center, which is a lot like Yu-Ai-Kai, their HIV/AIDS program, one of the few remaining places available for testing after work hours, the Youth Development Program, their Domestic Violence program, Mental Health Services, Alcohol and Drug Programs, a Center for Survivors of Torture, and Primary Health Care Services. Because AACI does cater to mainly Asian-Americans, they have multi-lingual individuals to help break down the language barrier and ensure that those in need are receiving the services and help that is available to them. After seeing what AACI has to offer, I realized how important it is to have services like these available to the Asian-American Community.

The long day was concluded with our attendance of the Asian Pacific Islander Justice Coalition Meeting located at the Issei Memorial Building. Upon arrival I assumed that the meeting was going to end up like every other meeting…long and boring. However, this API meeting was actually quite interesting. We had guest Judge Ladoris Cordell, the new Independent Police Auditor for the city of San Jose, come and speak to us during the first half of the meeting. She spoke about all that she has accomplished in her first 30 days of work, including being able to meet with all 1000 police officers in the city, which is pretty impressive!! I personally learned a lot from her short visit because I’m not too familiar with what Independent Auditors do in their line of work. Another interesting thing she spoke to us about was her filming of the new television show, “Make the Call,” that she was running to right after the meeting. This show focuses on the fact that in East Palo Alto, 50% of all homicides go unreported because people are too afraid to pick up the phone and make the call. This hit particularly close to home (literally and figuratively), as living and growing up in Los Altos, where Palo Alto is a neighboring city. Another interesting issue brought up in the meeting was the Arizona Immigration Law. Nick Kuwada from the Asian Law Alliance actually traveled with a group down to Arizona and discussed what he experienced. Just for “reasonable suspicion” you can be asked to show identification and proof of residence. And of course this reasonable suspicion is what leads to racial profiling. We seem to be backtracking historically in the human rights department…if racial profiling is something that is growing stronger, what should we be expecting next?

Week 1: History and Character of San Jose’s Japantown

2010-06-27T00:43:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, June 22^nd was our first official day of work here in San Jose Japantown. It started off with a short orientation at the Yu-Ai-Kai Senior Center where we met the NCI team of San Jose. It was the first time that Sami and I really got to see what the next eight weeks of our summer would entail. We learned that each week we were given a topic, which coincides with the people we would be meeting with, and the organizations we would be working with throughout each week. The topic for the first week was the History and Character of Japantown. We were given a wonderful and detailed walking tour by Leslie Masunaga who volunteers at the Japanese American Museum of San Jose giving tours on a regular basis. She gave us background to the different landmarks such as the Nikkei Lantern, the Issei Stone, and the several historic benches placed throughout the town. It was amazing to see how the landmarks and buildings each have a special story attached to them, giving San Jose Japantown its personality and historical significance.

We also had the chance to sit down and speak with Aggie Idemoto who volunteers at the Japanese American Museum of San Jose (JAMsj) as well. Mrs. Idemoto spoke to us about the museum and how it was founded in 1987 in order to preserve and share some of the history, art and culture of Japanese-Americans. It focuses mainly on the agriculture and farmlands of the greater bay area, the World War II experiences, and the resettlement struggles after the war. Although the museum is currently under construction, she said that it should be completed and ready to open at the end of summer.

On Thursday we drove up to San Francisco to attend the roundtable discussion for the National Asian American Pacific Islanders Historic Preservation Forum, which was to take place on the weekend. Let by Alan Nishio and Jill Shiraki, we sat through presentations on various historical Japanese-American sites throughout California, such as the Gilroy Hot Springs and the Castroville Schoolhouse of Monterey Bay. Along with the other interns from San Francisco, we listened to what the leaders of the different organizations had to say about preserving certain sites and also participated in the discussion to show a young adult perspective.

Throughout the week we spent a good amount of time working with Leon Kimura, president of the San Jose chapter of the JACL. With headquarters in the Issei Memorial Building, Leon has been working on the big centennial celebration marking the 100^th anniversary of the Issei Memorial Building that is to take place in October. To prepare for this, we helped him with the research of the building’s history and went through pictures to make a slideshow portraying important events happening with the building over the past century. It was interesting to learn how the building, which was once a hospital, is now home to organizations such as JACL, San Jose Taiko, and CATs. We also helped out with the Children’s Day festivities, which took place at the Issei Memorial Building on Friday. Children from Lotus Preschool and Suzume no Gakko came to enjoy the arts and crafts, games, and delicious food. There were also special appearances by Shorty Fatz custom bikes who offered coloring pages for the kids and State of Grace Tattoo who provided face paint tattoos that were extremely popular with the kids. This past week I learned the saying “kodomo no tameni,” meaning “for the children’s sake.” It is because of events like these that bring the San Jose Japantown community and keep it strong for the future.

Opening Retreat: June 20-21, 2010

2010-06-24T21:59:00.000-07:00

My Nikkei Community Internship experience started off with a trip down to Los Angeles for the opening retreat of this summer internship program. The 11 Norcal interns flew together to meet up with the 8 others from Southern California. After a few introductions and icebreakers we participated in a scavenger hunt of Little Tokyo. Through this activity we had the opportunity to get to know our way around Little Tokyo and a chance to bond with our fellow team members. I was able to learn about the various art pieces and memorials built through the area and I also had the chance to try natto for the first time –an experience I must say will never happen again. After the scavenger hunt we learned about the Nikkei Declaration and met Chris Aihara, the executive director of the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center (JACCC), who spoke a little bit about her organization and the community. We also had the opportunity to meet with Debbie Ching, a nonprofit professor for the Master’s program at CSU Northridge. Mrs. Ching led us in an Organization Life Cycle workshop and left us with some helpful information in the areas of networking and communication. The day ended with a lecture on the various acronyms and organizations throughout the different Japantown communities, followed by the alumni dinner where we were able to meet previous participants and talk to them about their experiences.

The next morning we were given a talk by Alan Nishio, the current president of the Board of the Little Tokyo Service Center Community Development Corporation. Mr. Nishio used his sense of humor as he spoke to us on the Japanese-American Community in its past, present, and future stages as he continues to be a greatly involved member and leader. Following his talk we had the NCI Opening Reception where we put Mrs. Ching’s networking skills to good use. Several important community members as well as NCI alumni attended and we had the chance to talk with and learn about how each are involved in the Japanese-American Community. This luncheon concluded the Opening Retreat of the Nikkei Community Internship, giving us interns a lot to look forward to over the next 8 weeks.