Cherry Blossoms in Full Bloom

The cherry trees donated by the Japanese Association of Northeast Ohio (JANO) are in full bloom. This year is the 100th Anniversary of the gift of cherry trees to the United States from Japan for the mall in Washington D.C. This year the blooming is early. I tweeted last night that I wished one of the news organizations would broadcast something. Little did I know when I made that tweet that Newsnet5 already had!

Yesterday about 15 of us had an impromptu "hanami" which was a lot of fun. Check out the pictures below.

If you have a chance, you'll want to stop by today since I think the inbound rain and storms will knock all the blossoms off the trees.

JANO 2011 Sakura Picnic

JANO's annual picnic will be held on Sunday June 16th at the Brookside Reservation of the Cleveland Metroparks. Check out the flyer and set aside the date.

JANO 2011 Sakura Picnic(PDF opens in new window)

Looking forward to it this year and hoping the weather will hold.

JANO is having a really busy spring, particularly with volunteer activities related to raising money for the victims of the March 11th earthquake and tsunami. We have already participated in some, will be participating in some more. In addition, a hundred or so of us are off to watch Ichiro on May 15th.

With all of that activity, we are hoping that the picnic will be a little special this year.

AHA - Japanese Food & Cultural Experience to Support Japan

Japanese Food & Cultural Experience to Support Earthquake and Tsunami Victims event will be hosted on Tuesday, April 12th at the American Heart Association in Cleveland.

Japanese Food and Cultural Experience (PDF, opens in new window)

AHA Cleveland Metro Map

The events to raise money for Japan keep coming in which is absolutely great. I know JANO had collected quite a bit of money and I'm assuming that the Red Cross has done very well too.

If you have donate, please consider it!

 

National Cherry Blossom Festival: Stand with Japan

I just found this site today - National Cherry Blossom Festival which is kind of embarrassing since a friend of mine from JANO has been telling me about it for a couple of years. But I noticed Elly had linked to on facebook. So I checked it out.

More importantly, though, I noticed this event they are having - "Stand with Japan"

The Festival invites you to Stand With Japan at the Washington Monument, followed by a walk around the Tidal Basin in the spirit of hope and rebuilding.

Beginning at 6:30pm on March 24, people will gather at Sylvan Theater (15th Street and Independence Avenue, SW) before walking the Tidal Basin. All donations received throughout the fundraising effort will go directly to the National Cherry Blossom Festival Red Cross Online Donation Site, directly benefiting the Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami fund.

Oberlin Hosts Kenny Endo Taiko Concert

Kenny Endo, a world-renowned taiko player, along with four other equally talented musicians in a concert that focuses on Traditional Japanese instruments, like fue, shamisen, and koto, as well as contemporary jazz influences, like the vibraphone will have a concert sponsored by a taiko group at Oberlin University.

Lake Erie Crushers' Japanese Night

This last Thursday night was Japanese Night at the Lake Erie Crushers game. Since the Crushers' stadium is on Avon about 15 minutes from work, I went straight from work. Well, I took a detour to pick up a friend since his wife and kid was coming later to meet up with Arisa and another couple, also good friends. In each of our cases, the husband is American and the wife is Japanese. So it's cool to hook up with them every when we can.

And it was even better on this night since the Crushers were putting on Japanese night. Ken Hill, an American Japanese, or Japanese American, not sure which, is on a summer internship at the Crushers and this was his brainchild apparently. He did a great job getting participation from a variety of groups including JANO, the Cleveland Chapter of the Japanese American Citizen League including Mame Daiko and the Sho-jo-ji Dancers, a Japanese restaurant and a women who teaches shodou, and couple of folks from the Cleveland Japanese Meetup.com group. There were a couple of Japanese folks who are currently working at the Cleveland Clinic. I grabbed some pictures with my cell phone hence they are not that great. Arisa had the camera but she didn't arrive in time for the drumming or dance.

 

 

Arisa was going to volunteer at a ongiri contest and some other things, but unfortunately the rest of the evening got rained out. Just as they were about to start, the rain came down and reports of Tornado warnings/watches a county to the west. We waited for about 20 minutes then left for the evening. While we're disappointed that it didn't work out for a longer evening, it was certainly a lot of fun. I really wanted to wear my jimbei but its stored away somewhere and we couldn't find it in time. Next time though!

Bonenkai

I realized this year that I hadn't been to a bonenkai in ages. Of course here in the U.S. December is a month filled with "Holiday" parties. Well in Japan they're called bonenkai. Literally "forget the year gathering". Either way, it generally involves drinking, conversation, and general fun with friends, colleagues and clients.

So I'm happy to report that JANO is supporting a spontaneous "Bonenkai". It'll be on Saturday, December 19th from 6PM to 9PM.  And what good bonenkai wouldn't have Karaoke?
So the 1st Annual Bonenkai will be held at Karaoke Station

Please RSVP by 12/10/2009

Below is the map to Karaoke Station:

View Larger Map

I must say that I'm looking forward to it.

Japanese American Fair

This last Saturday, Arisa and I headed out to St. Ignaitus High School to attend the JACL's 40th Japanese American Holiday Fair. I had a errand to run at Micro Center and so we were running a little bit late. We got there probably about 2PM.

By the time we got there, it was packed. I'd say close to a hundred folks or so were there. The Mame Taiko Drummers were already in action. At the entrance to what I assume is the cafeteria, there were booths with a silent auction, origami, and other things like soap sales.

It was our first "Japanese-American" event, as opposed to JANO, but I'm glad we went.

40th Annual Japanese American Holiday Fair

40^th Annual Japanese American HOLIDAY FAIR

Saturday, November 7, 2009 at St. Ignatius High School from 1pm to 5pm

FOOD, ARTS AND CRAFTS BOOTHS AND ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAM

1:30-2:10 2:15-2:45

JACL Sho Jo Ji Billy "The Kid"

Japanese Dancers Matsumoto Juggler

3:00-3:45 4:00-4:30

JACL Mame Daiko Mentor Karate

Taiko Drumming Institute Martial Arts

Also see the Japanese Holiday Fair 2009 PDF