ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Nov—Jan 1

NYS $ 250 Tobis Matsumura (Utd Wy) 48.05 June Sutherland 135.36 Edison Int’l (Matching Gift) 135.36 Sonoe Koyasu 500 M/M David Fusato 100 M/M Dan Ikemoto 100 M/M Yuso Kurihara 100 Anonymous 100 M/M Ernest Ikuta 500 Anonymous 500 M/M Paul Ogasawara 100 Margaret Saito in memory of her father Tom Saito 250 Late October acknowledgements: Brad Maehara, Superior Grocers All pancake mix for Pancake Brkft Paul Cahill, Farm Fresh Goods & Pacific Ranch Mkt— All eggs Globe Gas, Inc. Donated Gas Thank you for your continuing support and generosity.

友

達

Happy New Year! I hope everyone enjoyed their Holidays. I just can’t believe 2010 has come and gone and the year 2011 is upon us already. At the Board of Directors meeting in November, an election was held to select our next President for 2011. I, Richard Shinomoto, was asked to serve once again and I accepted. The annual General Meeting took place on December 5th. Two members, Carrie Nakatani and Marvin Kobayashi, were nominated to the Board of Di-rectors. Congratulations and welcome!! The Center held an AED and CPR class on November 20th. About 30 people from the Center’s various organizations were certified. Thank you to Dr. Glenn Morinishi for coordinating the class. Due to a generous donation from Mas and Setsuko Onoda, the community center now has a defibrillator. The Board was called to a special meeting on November 29th regarding the installation of an alarm system for the Center. Traci Tamaki works for Diversified Alarm Service and was invited, along with her husband Rich, to discuss the system and answer any questions. The board thanks you both for your time and efforts. The system was approved by the Board and our Center now is equipped with a silent alarm. The Board would appreciate each member to enter and exit through the front entrance only. This will help solve the problem of the doors being left ajar at the Center. Just another reminder that SEJSCC is a NO SMOKING facility! The Center would like everyone to abide

by the rules . Please pick up your cigarette butts outside of the Center. Attention, all graduating seniors!! We will be accepting applications for the NERIO/SEJSCC Scholarship. The form will be available on the SEJSCC website (SEJSCC.org). The deadline for the Scholarships will be March 18, 2011. The scholarships will be presented at the annual Recognition Dinner on April 16, 2011. The Scholarship recipients must be present at the dinner to receive their awards. This year the Center clean-up will not be held on the last weekend of April due to Easter Sunday. It will be held on the following weekend, Sunday May 1st, from 9:00 am to 12 noon. The Center would like several volunteers from each organizations to participate. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated to help beautify our Center! Richard Shinomoto

P R E S I D E N T ’ S M E S S A G E

Volume 17, Issue 1 January 2011 Newsletter

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

Tomodachi

A G I F T — S I L E N T A L A R M S Y S T E M

In front are Mas Onoda and Mary Jane Mayeda enjoying bento lunch at the General Meeting on Dec. 5.

wayside. However, Mr. Johnson wanted to help us and do a “great deed”, something that would really serve our community center in a meaningful way. He decided to donate and install a silent alarm system tor our Center. That is huge! It happens that Tracy and Rich Tamaki are good friends of his and knowing how hard Rich and our NYS work to help youngsters build character by teaching team play through basketball, he chose our Center to donate the system. Also Tracy works for him. How great is that! He cannot know how grateful we are for his generosity. He could have chosen any number of other organiza-tions who could use one BUT he chose us!! Our deepest thank you to Mr. Johnson for his kindness and wonderful generosity.

Christmas is over and the new year still brings wonderful news of people’s generosities. Our Center has been having problems with doors left open and room lights left on regularly. No matter how many times we put up cau-tion signs and mention it at the Operating Board meetings, it still happens, doors are not secured. During the summer we had continu-ous graffitied building walls and strangers riding skateboards within our building and had to scoot them out. That wonderful generosity comes from a special and kind person by the name of Danny Johnson owner of Divisified Alarm Service. He knew that we had checked into an alarm system some years ago but because it was expensive for us, the idea to install one went on

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H I K A R I T A I K O

BOARD of DIRECTORS 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 Tosh Teramoto Bob Yamada

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 Grid-ley 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; Adver-tising & Mailing: Mary Iwami, George Kato, Hy Shishino, Mas Onoda, and Norwalk Nikkei Seniors.

Mary Jane Mayeda

明けましておめでとうございます。 Thanks to all our supporters, our school had another suc-

cessful year. 2011 is the year of the rabbit. Our school will begin January 8th.

Our students had a very busy year. In December, students from Numazu Chuo High School in Japan came to visit our students. This is the school we visited last summer. Our students stayed in their homes and went to their school for one week. The Numazu students were able to converse with all of our students and also had a presentation about their city in English to all of our students.

Thanks to our wonderful parents, the students enjoyed cultural experiences all year long. On the last school day of the year, students enjoyed toshikoshi soba, a tradition for New Year’s Eve to pass from one year to the next. A very special visitor from North Pole came to school and visited all the students and brought pre-sents. Students will again experience culture with a taste of ozooni, a tradition of mochi eating on New Year’s Day. The students will also listen to a presentation to learn about the New Year celebration in Japan.

All students participated in the annual nengajo contest. The cards are on display in the hallway. Students will vote for the best card in each age categories. A few of our best ones were sent to the national contest. In the past we had a number of winners from our school.

After two long weeks of winter break, the students will be ready for the end of the first semester. We will be preparing for the mid-term examinations to be held at the end of the month.

The annual New Year celebration dinner will be held on January 29th at 6:30 PM in the gym. It will be a potluck. All students of the school will provide the entertainment. Mark your calendars.

Kimie Matsumoto

G A K U E N N E W S

Above: Hikari Taiko pausing for a Xmas photo during party. Left: Helen Hikijji at right received the years Tak Murata perpetual award. Glen Mayeda at right is helping hold them.

We wish everybody a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year filled with good health, love and happiness. The year went by too fast and it’s already a new year. I wish to thank all of the Center’s board and members for giving us a place to practice and all the other organizations their pa-tience in putting up with our classes on Sundays. For 26 years now, we have been able to come to the Center and practice and hold classes. I wish to thank all Hikari board, staff and members for another great year. Our Christmas party which was held on December 19th was another big success. Congratulations to Helen Hijiki for this year’s Tak Murata award. Let’s pray 2011 brings us a better and greater year for all the organizations.

Numazu students from Japan speaking to our Gakuen stu-dents in December.

S E J S C C G E N E R A L M E E T I N G Over 30 members attended the year-end relaxed meeting enjoying bento lunches, brief reports and to meet new leaders from various organizations. Jim Niiro gave the financial summary, Gakuen direc-tor Kimie Matsumoto using a newly acquired “elmo” spoke about the Japanese school. Other reports followed including Center cost savings due to our newsletters now being online. Judo, Kendo, Hi-kari Taiko, NaWahine ‘O Kawena, all briefly spoke of their member-ship growth and participation. The group was happy to hear that Richard Shinomoto will continue his presidency. Other officers will also continue with their respective responsibilities and a toast was made. Our Center is in a happy place with many conscientious supporters taking on responsibilities sos that our Center remains the hub of many activities people come and enjoy. The meeting ended with drawing numbers for raffle prizes.

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N O R W A L K K A R A O K E C L U B

ing league and has three children and five grandchildren. Being a devoted and hands-on mother, she agreed to help her son with some of his martial arts moves in kempo when his two sisters de-clined to work with him. While helping him, she lost her balance and fell and broke three mayor bones in her leg breaking her ankle as well. Upon healing, she took a few years off from work to care for her grandchildren, and returned to part-time employment in 2006 at Office Depot where she is still employed. A very enthusi-astic member of karaoke, Patsy states that she “just love it!” She took singing lessons for a brief period of time in 1969. With a very supportive family, she is very happy that all of her children, as well as her husband, have attended some of the karaoke programs.

The NYS junior league teams started their 2010-2011 season the weekend after Thanksgiving. Norwalk has 30 junior boys and girls teams playing this winter! That is a record number for Norwalk. We have six new pee wee teams which came from our Rascals pro-gram. The boys have four new teams: Vipers, Ninjas, Defenders and Fireballs. The girls have two new teams: Blue Diamonds and Sap-phires. Welcome to all of our new players and their families. On December 19th, NYS held their own picture day for the SEYO year-book. All teams gathered in our gym and under Jerry Nakafuji’s ex-perienced coordination and supervision, everything moved along very

As we celebrate Christmas and as the year 2010 draws to a close, the Norwalk Karaoke members are thankful for the friendships that developed over the many years singing and meeting together in song. The Christmas party on December 20 was an enjoyable time as we celebrated the holiday season together. We welcome new members A-shui Wang and Toshiko Sandoval who joined us in 2010.

Another relatively new member, Patsy Tsuda, joined karaoke in No-vember 2009. She was born and raised in Kailua Oahu and at 15 she moved to Los Angeles, California with her family. She graduated from Belmont High School and received an AA degree in Secretarial Science—Medical from Los Angeles City College. She worked as a medical secretary for approximately 20 years at various medical groups and hospitals. She met her husband Roger, while in a bowl- HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

O U R B O A R D M E M B E R H I G H L Y H O N O R E D B Y G O V E R N M E N T O F J A P A N

The Government of Japan announced the recipients of its Fall 2010 Decorations—The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbons, and The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays to two outstanding southern California individuals. Honored were professor at USC PETER BERTON and our Board Member GEORGE KATO. This distinction honors and recognizes individuals who have worked to better U.S. and Japan relations. George Kato was presented The Order of Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays at the pri-vate residence of the Consul General of Japan in Hancock Park in Los Angeles on November 19th. This is a very prestigious honor. Mr. Kato’s first exposure to world relations began when he represented Japan at the “World Youth Conference” in New York as a Waseda University student. Impressed by opinions ex-pressed at the confab, he was determined to study in the U.S. and he did. He graduated from UCLA and completed his master’s program majoring in Social Work at USC. He worked as a LA county Director of Social Services for the Long Beach District and retired after 34 yrs. He taught Japanese at Orange Co. Buddhist Church for 35 yrs. He dedicated himself to volunteer efforts in the Japanese American community. He served long terms in high capacities in many and various organizations, from the Judo Council, Nanka Kenjinkai Kyogikai, to various Nikkei Councils throughout southern California with emphasis and dedica-tion in the JAPANESE LANGUAGE and CULTURAL FIELD. He helped establish scholarship programs in organizations throughout Orange County including our program here at SEJSCC. His many years of leadership and guidance at SEJSCC have contributed greatly from the time he was on the 2nd building committee which additions were completed in 1994. We are privileged and honored to have him on our Board. Aside from his excellent abilities and dedication, he is insightful, personable, kind and thoughtful gentleman. CONGRATULATIONS GEORGE!!!

N O R W A L K Y O U T H S P O R T S smoothly. Judy Kikkawa was the photographer. She posed and photographed all players and coaches. The next event that NYS will be participating in at the community center will be to host the March and April bingo dinners — bring your hungry families and join us for a delicious dinner and bingo afterward. This is a great fundraiser for our center. Please come out and support us! NYS would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you “happy new year” - may 2011 be filled with fond memories, the best of health and much happiness.

NORWALK BLUE ANGELS 5TH GRADE TEAM GIVING BACK On December 18, 2010, the Norwalk Blue Angels basketball team went to give presents to CHOC (Children’s Hospital of Orange County). We wanted to help our community by giving presents and toys to sick kids who have to stay in the hospital for Christmas. Some of them had cancer and other illnesses. A CHOC volunteer spoke to us about how the kids have to stay in the hospital and don’t get to have fun like we do during the holidays. It was really sad.

It made us appreciate all that we have and also made us want to volunteer too. Before going there, we did not realize that some kids can’t even see their family at Christmastime because their bodies can’t fight germs. We enjoyed visiting CHOC and it was a great experience for our team! Yukimi Konishi (photo on back cover) Blue Angels Team Member

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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 Southest 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 562 865.7368 Ikebana (Flower Arrgmt): Ogawa Sensei 714 893.1245 Tanden/Yoga Class: Mrs. Koyasu 562 865.9652 Guitar Class: Yuji Hata 562 695.1908 Japanese Classical Dance: Akemi Jensen 562 691.2764 Norwalk Youth Sports: Rich Tamaki rytamaki@yahoo.com 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 Norwalk Dance Club: Edna Kurihara 714 847.1173 Judo: Jim Glick 714.315.8503

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

N O R W A L K N I K K E I S E N I O R S

NDC Fall Social November 27, 2010 Perhaps it was the chilly damp night that drew only 55 guests to the social, however, the dancers took advantage of the spacious floor and waltzed the night away. Co-hosts Helen Hikiji and Karen Chow satisfied everyone with a delicious menu. Moist and flavorsome char sui bao was the main entrée with a side dish of Chinese cabbage salad made by Helen. Staying with the typical flavor of the month, pumpkin bread was a delectable choice for dessert. Although we are being mindful of many blessings at Thanksgiving, it is not uncommon to see the Christmas holiday fast approaching. The presence of holiday banners, homes fully decorated with bright colored lights and Christmas decorations suspended at nearly all the city light and Christmas decorations suspended at nearly all the city lights cre-ated a happy holiday mood. Consequently, DJ Yuso kurihara took ad-vantage of the opportunity to enhance the evening with a variety of fa-miliar and favorite Christmas music. It was a cozy evening for socializing during intermission. The NDC mem-bers and friends were truly grateful to the following dance clubs for their attendance: Em Yamada, Prudy Gin, and the Gardena Valley Nisei Club. The NDC committee also appreciated the many Good Samaritans who remained and efficiently assisted to tidy up the hall.

As you checked in at our Christmas party, you were asked to guess the number of senbeis in a jar and also dark beans in another jar. Another game was to feel and guess items in stockings; that’s how our Christmas celebration got underway. Tables were colored with Christmas sweets and in wire baskets as members began enjoying their tasty bento from Sangos. After a brief meeting and the gracious approval by both Toby Fusato and Chiyeko Uyemori to continue on as President and Treasurer, entertainment began. The “Aalapark Serenaders” are a relaxed but talented group of ukulele strummers, singers and a harmonica player that really “went with the flow” making background music for some of our NaWahine ’O Kawena hula dancers and singers from our Hawai-ian karaoke. Cheerful Rosie San Miguel was the MC introducing the performers. We enjoyed the presentations and you could tell the performers did also. Thank you to all the performers, some coming in early to help, and to Toby for scheduling a nice relaxed musical program. Later a yummy cake was served to all and Bingo followed. Seniors will be hosting the Jan. 8th Bingo serving a spaghetti dinner starting around 6 pm. Hope to see many there.

Our January Shinnenkai will be on Jan. 25th at the VIP Restaurant. It’s located at Walker/Orangethorpe in La Palma. Maps will be avail- able at our next meeting Jan. 11 when we prep newsletters for mail. Vegas trip with the Long Beach group is scheduled for Feb. 1-3. Check with Toby if you wish to go. Currently there are about 6 going. Taz Hayashi who had a knee replacement surgery around Thanks- giving is going through physical therapy and probably would like to hear from us. She is doing OK except during those therapy sessions which can be painful. We wish a timely and complete recovery so she can be joining the Vegas trips.

dance proved this to be a myth. Thanks to the organizational plan-ning by Harriet Yamada, Helen Hikiji and Edna Kurihara. Paul Tran’s Unique Catering provided a buffet that everyone loved. Guests en-joyed a special peach cake dessert later in the evening. Tables adorn with flowering plants, colorful balloons suspended at the ceiling and the sound of wonderful dancing music by DJ Yuso Kurihara set a happy atmosphere. A variety of innovative games challenged everyone. Naturally, winners were compensated with wonderful prizes. As the evening progressed, besides the general order of dances, line dancing and a mixer made the evening flow smoothly. As midnight approached, everyone was prepared with a drink of Martinelli’s Sparkling Cider in champagne classes for toasting the new millennium. The balloon drop at midnight climaxed the eve-ning. And naturally, those capturing the floating balloons filled with dollar bills had the biggest smiles. The committee was very generous in donating prizes, money, and Martinelli’s Sparkling Cider and acknowledges Mae Shimazu, a for-mer NDC member, for donating mandarin oranges. These were individually wrapped in festive netting and given to each guest. The most appreciative feeling of the evening followed shortly after mid-night. The floor was completely littered with deflated balloons and confetti, therefore, it was a welcomed sight to see volunteers partici-pate in the mundane task of orderliness. The Judo youngsters hav-ing a sleepover were happy beneficiaries of left over balloons. Have a HAPPY NEW YEAR and thank you all for your gracious sup-port the past year. Please join us for the Winter Social, Jan. 22nd.

NDC New Year’s Eve Dance—Friday, December 31, 2010 There is an adage that is heard quite often, “The older people get the slower they move”. A little more than 70 party-goers on New Year’s Eve

Remember to mark your calendar and come to our

April 16, 2011, Sat. Social: 5:30 pm, Dinner 6:30 pm Applaud our service and scholarship honorees, enjoy dinner & entertainment. Buy your tickets from your club rep. or contact any Board members. (more info in the March issue)

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Happy New Year to everyone! We are looking forward to a great 2011 and we wish you all the same! On November 7, the big day finally arrived: Norwalk Kendo Dojo’s 45th Anniversary Tournament and Celebration. This was a huge event which we had been planning for well over a year, with espe-cially intense preparation the final few months. The competition was kachinuki-sen (winner immediately fights the next person in line), similar to the “old skool” style of tournaments back in the 1960’s when Norwalk Dojo was formed. The tournament was unique in that the approximately 200 participants were split evenly into four courts, so that all were present in the gym to add to the fun and excitement. It took many, many iterations to finalize the layout and logistics so that the honored guests, competitors, and spectators could all enjoy the tournament. We ran two sets of four divisions (one in the morn-ing and one after lunch, so each participant competed at least twice), and amazingly we were able to finish by 3 pm, per schedule. After the tournament awards ceremony, we put down the tarps and set up for the anniversary party. Gifts of appreciation were given out to the senseis, long-term kenshi, officers, and other supporters of the dojo. Two of our members, Yamaguchi Takeshi sensei and Kodama Jean sensei, have been with the dojo since it started in October 1964! A huge dinner party (approximately 300 guests) followed the presentations. The menu, food preparation, and service were very reminiscent of the “Issho Ni” fundraiser dinner event we help put on at the Center in 2009. So many people worked so hard on 45th anniversary planning and execution that we cannot list them all here. Please see the dojo news page (http://www.eanet.com/norwalk/archives/2010/sum.htm#Nov) for links to details, results, and photos. Special thanks to the main com-mittee heads (Jean Kodama, Brian Yoon, Ted Yoshimura, and Me-gumi Domen), but really, thank you to ALL Norwalk member who helped out at the tournament and celebration!

After the 45th anniversary, the December 17th Christmas party seemed almost trivial by comparison, but of course it, too, was a lot of work, and a good time was had by all. Thank you to everyone for a great party and a great 2010! Norwalk Kendo Dojo practices Mondays from 7:00 to 8:30 pm and Fri-days from 7:30 to 10:00 pm. New members are welcome; beginners are accepted on the first Friday practice of each odd month. The iaido group practices from 9 to 10 pm on Mondays; iaido beginners are ac-cepted in January, April, and July. For information about Norwalk Dojo, including upcoming and past 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.

N O R W A L K K E N D O D O J O

ATTENTION GRADUATING HS SENIORS! APPLICATIONS FOR SCHOLARSHIPS! Don’t miss out! Graduating High School seniors are encouraged to apply for the Nerio/SEJSCC Scholarships offered to qualified applicants. The applicants will be available around the third week of this month on our Center website: SEJSCC.org. Be complete with your an-swers. Application return deadline is March 18, 2011! Awards will be announced at the annual Recognition Dinner and Awards night on April 16th. Recipients must be present to receive the awards.

Reminder ….. Hosted by : Norwalk Dance 2/6

Chicken Wings &

BINGO Chili Rice at 6 pm

Feb 6 - 6:30 pm Mar 5 - 6:30 pm Norwalk Youth Sports 3/5 Dinner at 6 pm

Norwalk competing at right. 200 participated in 45th anniversary tourna-ment and celebration on Nov. 7th. Big effort for our Norwalk Kendo Dojo.

There will no longer be any flyers. We will publish only 6 newsletters per year—January, March, May, July, September, October & November.

Recognition Dinner and Awards Night

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Southeast Japanese School & Community Center “Tomodachi” A Bimonthly Newsletter January 2011 Norwalk CA 90651-0431

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

Happy New Year!

CALENDAR Jan 12 Center Bd Mtg 6:30 pm 22 Winter Social 6:30 29 Gakuen New Years Party 6:30 Scholarship Appls Available Feb 2 Operating Bd Mtg 7:00 pm 5 Monthly Bingo Games 6:30 9 Center Bd Mtg 6:30 26 International Nite Social 7-11 Mar 2 Operating Bd Mtg 7:00 pm 5 Monthly Bingo Games 6:30 9 Center Bd Mtg 6:30 18 Scholarship Appls Due 19 Jr. Basketball Banquet April 2 Monthly Bingo Games 6:30 pm 6 Operating Bd Mtg 7:00 13 Center Bd Mtg 6:30 16 Recognition Dinner & Awards 23 Western Social May 1 Annual Clean-Up Day 9-Noon

Blue Angels 5th Grade Basketball team makes a kindly visit twith presents to Childrens Hospital of OC and learns much in return.

Gakuen kindergarten children ob-serving 3,5,7 Festival in November.

Board members enjoying bento at General Meeting. Nonaka sensei dressing a student in kimono.