It's Nikkei Time! (At USC that is...)

Life After Manzanar

2009-08-10T22:42:00.000-07:00

USC Nikkei isn't dead! We haven't posted anything in a while is all... In fact, we've had so many events that we haven't had time to reflect on them, but that will soon be rectified! Here's a rundown on the highlights of our programing after leaving you hanging with our last post on Manzanar. For a full list of events click here.

Keiro Adopt-A-Grandparent Day

This day was all about spreading a little joy to the residents of this care facility. We helped the residents make crafts and even had a little janken (rock, paper, scissors) competition going on between the volunteers.

A Song For Ourselves

We were really fortunate to be able to attend the world premiere of Tad Nakamura's A Song For Ourselves in Little Tokyo. Tad had screened the second film of his trilogy, Pilgrimage, at our 2008 DOR Week.

A Song For Ourselves was absolutely wonderful. It was insightful of the time period and amazingly funny. I learned so much about the life of Asian American movement troubadour Chris Iijima and the movement itself. After the screening we were treated to music performances by Asian American artists, among them Nobuko Miyamoto and Charlie Chin whom Iijima had worked with. Hearing them perform live today and comparing that to the footage of them in the film, I could almost imagine what it was like all those years ago when they were fighting for the movement. I can't wait to see what Tad has in store for us next time.

Culture Night Retreat

CN Retreat was at the JACCC in Little Tokyo this year to ensure that everyone who was involved with our show had at least some real experience with our skit's setting, an integral part of the theme.

To start the day off right we got to Little Tokyo bright and early for a walking tour full of historical information on the area. Back at the JACCC we played some ice breakers, previewed
sections of the show, tried out a part of the show that we were not currently in (drama, taiko, KBD [hip-hop dance], or SoTrad [sorta traditional dance]), and participated in a discussion workshop on community and what that entails. It definitely served its purpose bringing everyone closer together and teaching us the meaning behind the whole production.

Yaki Night

We had a pretty big turn out for our 2nd annual Yaki Night, a fundraiser during which you get off real inexpensive for ALL YOU CAN EAT barbecue and the satisfaction that comes from helping USC Nikkei. Thanks for the support and hope to see you for the next one!

Officer Auction

Every year board members auction off something to offset a little bit of the cost of producing our Culture Night. On the block this year: baked goods, a bag full of Hawaiian snacks, dinner and grocery shopping in Torrance, the puppets used in the show's skit, a round-trip Southwest airline ticket, and Mario wearing a Pikachu suit to all subsequent Nikkei events. Thanks again for the support!

Culture Night Rehearsals

At the end of March it was time for us to gear up for Culture Night with FIVE rehearsals before the dress rehearsal and opening night. Rehearsals were pretty long even with different groups running around at the same time, but all that hard work and practice paid off as we had a very successful show.

Intramural Soccer Games

April 1st marked USC Nikkei's first Intramural Soccer game. The Gummi Bears played 4 games after which they placed 2nd in the finals. YAY Gummi Bears!

Culture Night

Our 2nd Annual Culture Night on April 11th was another big success. Everyone had fun working together to put on a great show and grew closer as a Nikkei family. At the end of the night everyone was exhausted from being up so late the previous night and waking up so early that morning, but we all had happy grins on our faces because it had been such a rewarding experience.

Officer Elections

Nikkei had several people run for leadership positions this year, and I was glad to see all the dedication and love that our membership has for this organization. All the candidates were wonderful, and it was very difficult to elect just one for each position, but here are the new elected officers for 2009-2010:

President: Sean Miura
Internal Vice President: Austen Hagio
External Vice President: Chantelle Takata
Finance Vice President: Kelly Ishizuka
Day of Remembrance Chair: Mika Lewis
Publicity Chair: Daniel Shimura
Secretary: Emily Kim
Treasurer: Gavin McCarter
Historian/Webmaster: Derrick Solidum
Culture Night: Maya Mueller and Andrea Wong

Congrats!

Westwood Dinner with UCLA NSU

This event was very enjoyable because so many people showed up from both NSUs and we were able to meet and interact with many new faces over sushi and other Japanese foods.

Gyoza Night

During our last General Meeting of the semester, we had a demo on gyoza (dumplings). After being instructed on how to make them, members got to create one of their own and eat it. We also had veggie gyoza pre-made for our vegetarians.

Banquet

Our Events Planning committee hosted banquet at Wokcano this year. We had four huge tables filled largely in part to begging via personal Facebook video wall posts. Members and non-members alike didn't regret coming though! We had a janken coin game, Nikkei trivia questionaire to win the amazing centerpieces based on the JACCC, JANM, Yogurtland, and Marukai to go along with the theme Nikkei's Little Tokyo, LOTS of food, slide show, officer gag gifts, quick officer transitions, and great conversation. All in all a fun night.

Coffee Break

Coffee Break is Nikkei's last event of the semester where everyone meets at Starbucks for an hour or so to take a break from finals studying and refill coffee. This was also the last chance to see everyone before summer officially began.

Chibi-K

Some of us were able to stay a little longer after school let out for Chibi-K, the children's fun run in Little Tokyo hosted by the JACCC. We slept over at Nishi Hongwanji temple so that we could be awake early in the morning for setup. After setup we helped the kids stretch for their run, later running with and cheering for them during the races. The remainder of the day was dedicated to helping out the game and craft booths for Children's Day on the JACCC plaza.

Summer Happenings

We've had two small events this summer: volunteering at Keiro and a bake sale in Hawaii. The Keiro event was similar to the one I mentioned at the beginning of this post. Since it was Hawaiian themed, we helped pass out leis, assisted with crafts, and chatted, but this time we were treated to a hula performance by two of the volunteers. I can't say too much about the bake sale because I wasn't there, but I heard that they sold out both nights, so it must have been very successful. Great job!

It's been great serving you this year. I can't wait to see you and all the new members we'll have this coming semester. See you in a couple weeks!

Nikkei Manzanar Trip

2009-04-17T14:30:00.000-07:00

Hey hey hey!

Now that CN is done, we can finally reflect back on...

Manzanar!!!

So long ago (as in a couple months ago) USC Nikkei went on its biennial (I actually had to look this up) trip to Manzanar. For those of you who don't know what Manzanar is, it was one of the internment camps that housed Japanese Americans during World War II. With a great speech from Mr. George Takei earlier on in the week (see previous entry) our Nikkei members were eager to go to the actual site. Little did they know (including me) that they were in for the experience of their lives.

After an entertaining 3.5 hr drive and a short night's rest, the group woke up early in the morning to go off to the campsite. We started off by going to the visitor center and watching a documentary about internment (which in my view was missing quite a bit of information) followed by a short (but what felt like forever) introduction given from one of the staff. We then briefly glanced at the rest of the exhibit and then we were off to the cleaning sites. The site we were cleaning was the judo dojo. The site had never been cleaned and quite honestly, I couldn't tell that anything was there at first.

As you can see there were a lot of dry shrubs that were infesting the area. I mean after all, it hadn't been touched since the 1950's. The cleaning process seemed overwhelming at first because the shrubs were firmly rooted to the ground. I wondered how much difference a few hours was actually going to make, but after those few hours of battling against the shrubs with shovels, picks and of course bare hands, it was amazing to see how much change there was. Everyone definitely felt a sense of accomplishment and at the same time a special bond to the internment camp by doing this service project.

Of course our hard work showed in other forms too (as in a lot of scratches)

but nonetheless it was definitely a new and worthwhile experience. I often hear how people aren't motivated to go to these trips because it looks boring or it takes up too much time. The fact is we also had people who initially thought that who actually went on our trip too, but each and every one of them were glad that they went and recommends it to everyone especially if you've never gone before.

I hope that in the future, we have more people who will come with us and experience the cultural and historical value of the internment camp and gain some insight to the JA history.

-Mario

DOR Guest Speaker Series featuring Mr. George Takei

2009-03-11T10:34:00.000-07:00

Greetings Family & Friends!

So it's the week before Spring Break and I thought I'd update you all about our Day of Remembrance event with George Takei.

In the days and minutes leading up to the event, we officers were working hard to make sure EVERYTHING went smoothly. Craig, Evan, and Pam put a lot of time of making sure we were prepared, so everything ran smoothly and on time. Until George Takei started his speech, I honestly had no idea what to expect.

Our wonderful advisor, Velina Hasu Houston, helped us out that day by introducing Day of Remembrance and George Takei. George Takei started his speech talking about his experience with the internment camps. Because I had heard the stories from the volunteers and JANM and from documentaries, his story about how camp, at Tule Lake, was an enjoyable time to him because a young boy and didn't understand what was going on was no surprise to me. What did surprise me was that the hardest part about the whole internment experience for him was coming back to his home town Los Angeles. Once leaving the camps, George Takei talked about the prejudices he faced in school and in the community. I had known that settling back into the community was difficult for the internees, but it was only in that moment did that really hit me. I also had an "ah-ha" moment when George Takei spoke to to all of us about how America is a work-in-progress country. The Japanese interment was the result of American prejudice, and it made me think about the prejudices that still exist in this country today. His speech really inspired me to really look hard at the assumptions I make about a person based on race no matter how small or in consequential they may seem.

George Takei then graciously answered questions from the audience, stood for pictures and signed autographs for everyone who waited! And it was a looong line of people!

I really enjoyed the event and want to congratulate Craig, Evan, and Pam on a job well done. And a special thanks to George Takei for coming out to speak to us, Velina for introducing our guest speaker and moderating the Q&A, and to our driver Mika!

Be sure to check back for Mario's entry about the Manzanar Retreat!

Take care everyone! - Penny

From Pumpkin Carving to UCLA CN...

2009-02-25T23:30:00.000-08:00

Hello faithful readers of the Nikkei blog!

It's been a while since the last entry hasn't it? That is because Nikkei has been crazy busy putting on events for our lovely members to enjoy, so hopefully from now on we can get back to regular posting.

Since our last entry we've had lots of exciting events such as:

Pumpkin Carving

Everyone got a little messy competing to create the pumpkin Elise and Penny would find most appealing. In the end, the winning pumpkin was Nikkei to the core.

Meltdown

Our annual Intercollegiate Nikkei Council clubbing event

Keiro Card Making

During this general meeting we made cards to send to Keiro nursing home residents.

Weekender in San Francisco

Everyone had a good time shopping, eating, and enjoying the sights of SF.

Keiro Card Delivery

Delivering the cards we made to Keiro!

Holiday Party

Our Nikkei family coming together to celebrate the end of another year with lots of to-die-for food!

Ozoni

Members got to try a little traditional New Year's soup with mochi at our first event of the spring semester.

Ski Trip

Our annual Big Bear ski trip was fun but bittersweet since it was Justin's (the coordinator) last trip to plan for everyone. It was pretty warm up there too, but snow is snow!

Dinner & Karaoke in Little Tokyo

This event was the first event planned by this year's Social Events Committee. Everyone had some good eats and sang (or rapped) their hearts out.

Calligraphy General Meeting

Our second Social Events Committee event! Chantelle taught us the basics of shodo or calligraphy.

Day of Fun with Nikkei at King's and Mulligan's in Torrance

First it was dinner at King's Hawaiian and then off to mini golf and arcades at Mulligan's.

UCLA Culture Night & Dinner in Westwood

This year UCLA focused on the changing face of Little Tokyo in Always Welcome, Never for Sale.

Before that we went to dinner in Westwood. Yum... In-N-Out...

Watch out for the next entry on George Takei!

Knott's Scary Farm!

2008-12-17T03:19:00.000-08:00

Hey! Hopefully you're experiencing the awesome feeling that follows THE LAST FINAL OF THE SEMESTER! W00t w00t! I know y'all are dying to start the break, so I'll keep this post short. ^__^

So first off, let me start this off by saying that I scare easily. And I mean REALLY EASILY. My own reflection can catch me off guard at times...well, that's a bit of an overexaggeration but you catch my drift right? BUT! Despite my tendency to get scared easily, I definitely had a blast at Knott's Scary Farm with all my nikkei homies (those who weren't there physically were there in spirit, right?).

Despite the long lines and crowded haunted houses (which definitely made it harder for us to get scared) the hours we spent at the park were definitely super fun thinking up ways to scare the scary people if they tried to scare us.

So what was the best way to avoid getting scared? By using our Trojan Pride of course! At first I didn't think that telling them to FIGHT ON (fight on sign included of course) would work, but it did...surprisingly. We even managed to get some of the scary people to flash the fight on sign back at us! Just as a side note, we first tried the Yogurtland cheer (yogurt yogurt land land!) but to our disappointment, that didn't seem to do the trick.

So for all of you who didn't come with us because you scare easily I encourage you to come out next year. If you don't wanna get scared, chant FIGHT ON with us and show off your Trojan pride because that's sure to keep the scary monsters away. ^__^ I mean, if the girl who gets scared by her own reflection did fine, I'm sure y'all would!

And if y'all haven't read Craig's article yet, read it. It's hilarious as usual.

Have a wonderful winter break! See you all next semesterrr!

Car Rally 2008!

2008-12-10T17:44:00.000-08:00

[Before we get to the article itself, I just want to apologize to our regular readers out there for taking so long to update this. In short...sorry Sean.]

As a basketball player in 8^th grade, my coach always drilled into us that victory was the product of working hard, playing smart, putting forth the maximum effort, and working together as a team. I never thought about it much at the time, but looking back on it, I can say that he was absolutely right on all counts. But since then, I’ve also realized that there are some extreme situations when winning requires a little more…like 4 guys, 2 clarinets, a camera, and the adult section of a Little Tokyo video shop. (This one time, at band camp…)

It was a cool Friday night on October 10^th, 2008, a perfect setting for what has come to be known as the pinnacle of competition, the sport of royalty, or simply “THE GAME” (never, under any circumstances, written in lower case). That’s right folks, it was time for one of USC Nikkei’s most popular and enduring events: Car Rally. Car Rally is a photo scavenger hunt in which teams journey through Los Angeles as they try to complete as many photo challenges (and thereby score as many points) as they can within the allotted time. With free Meltdown tickets and a lifetime of bragging rights on the line, this year’s competition was sure to be intense. We would start at USC and have 2 hours to complete challenges around campus, in Westwood, Beverly Hills, Sawtelle, Hollywood, and in Little Tokyo, where we would meet up to end the competition and have dinner. With that, Daniel (aka Shimmy), Evan, Gavin, and I formed team “Sexy Clarinets” (more on that later) and set out to try and win this thing.

The competition started at around 6:30 on a Friday night, so we decided to do all of the challenges around USC first in hopes that traffic would die down in the meantime. We posed with Tommy Trojan, chilled with DPS, played air-Taiko at the Senshin Buddhist Temple, and studied at the Gakusei Kai house among others. One of the challenges awarded 1 point for every person in the photo wearing USC-branded clothes, so in true rule-bending fashion, we took a picture with the USC-clad marching band that was playing at the women’s volleyball game that night and insisted that the judges give us points for each and every one of them (sorry judges, but we had to do it).

We gambled that a lot of groups would waste lots of time driving and getting stuck in traffic, so with an hour left, we decided to head directly to Little Tokyo to complete the challenges there. In Little Tokyo, we balled at the rec-center site, arrested Shimmy at the Koban, and went zero-G at the Ellison Onizuka monument. Little Tokyo is also where we pulled off a stunt that earned us our team name, a boatload of points, and some serious Trojan Marching Band (TMB) street cred. One of the photo challenges called for us to take a picture in the adult section of a Little Tokyo video store, but with 2 TMB clarinet players on the team, we decided that we could up the ante a little. We headed over to the shop (and for some reason, we all knew which one to go to) and after getting the OK from the confused but cool cashier, I filmed Evan, Shimmy, and Gavin proudly playing the USC Fight Song in the middle of the store. (I know, I know, we're awesome.)

When it was all said and done, it turned out that our intuition was right since all of the other groups burned a lot of their time getting stuck in traffic. Even so, the other teams all had great stories about getting Diddy Riese cookies in Westwood, window shopping on Rodeo Dr., visiting the Flynt building in Beverly Hills, or even just rocking out to K-pop on the car ride over. As it turned out, a sound strategy, a little luck, and an awesome video store clerk were enough to propel the Sexy Clarinets to victory. And just so you know, the title of “Car Rally 2008 Champion” puts us somewhere between Brad Pitt and the Pope on the celebrity scale. Ok, maybe not, but did either of those guys play the fight song in a Little Tokyo porn shop? Didn’t think so.

Califonicated Sushi (formerly Musu-BI Yourself!)

2008-10-31T00:50:00.000-07:00

Hey Nikkei-ers!

A little while ago, we had our 3rd general meeting about Musubis and Sushis presented by our master chefs, Mario and Josh!
They taught us all about how Spam Musubi and California Rolls are not Japanese creations but have American origins. ^-^ Not only did we get to learn about food, but we got to enjoy some too. First, FREE SPAM MUSUBI was given (or thrown) to anyone who could name any other sushi's that were created in Amercia.

Those who didn't get a chance to answer, or did but repeated someone else's answer (cough AUSTEN cough), and those who did, got to make their own California Rolls. A demonstration was given by our guest chefs and then we all got to try.

Everyone seemed to enjoy their mini-Califronia rolls. Just look at all the happy faces!

and more happy faces...

and some other faces (that reflect happiness from California rolls).

Once nori ran out :(, people go creative and used avacado shells to finish off the rice, crab, cucumber and avacado! w00t to being a resourceful Nikkei member.

Over all everyone seemed to enjoy the food, friends, and history of Californicated Sushi!

See all of you at our next event!

Penny

Darumarama!

2008-09-24T17:07:00.001-07:00

SO! Last week Tuesday was our 2nd General Meeting, which was called....Darumarama!
If you didn't already know, the daruma is the little guy we use on all of our fliers and things. The daruma was designed after a Zen Buddhist monk named Bodhidharma who meditated for so long that his arms and legs and eyelids fell off. Hence the almost egg-like daruma was born! Typically, they include the colors red, yellow, green, and white.
The daruma is a Japanese wish doll; when you make a wish, you fill in the daruma's right eye with black ink, and when that wish is fulfilled, you fill in the left eye. At the end of the year, the darumas are burned. The daruma is also closely tied with the proverb "nana korobi ya oki" which means "fall down 7 times, get up 8." This proverb also contributes to the daruma's shape and is why it has a low center of gravity. No matter which way it falls over, it can come back to it's original upright position.
This is one of the reasons why we have the daruma as our symbol. No matter what happens to us as an org, we'll always get back up. Also, if you notice, our daruma has no eyes colored in. This is because we do not have just one goal for our organization, we are just trying to reach our best potential. And! It looks really awesome.

After those present learned all of that, we had a little trivia game with Pocky prizes and then we were on to making darumas!
Chantelle made up some nice darumas that you could color in and decorate, cut out and put together for your own personalized 3-D daruma.

We all had a lot of fun making our darumas unique and colorful. Then once they were assembled, since the darumas were hollow, we had candy to fill them with! There were definitely some interesting and awesome ones there..like a Taiko drum daruma, or a daruma globe with wings and glasses...

Here are a few of them for you to see!

Looks like fun, right!?

Hopefully I will see you all at our next general meeting for musubis!

Little Tokyo Exploration!!!

2008-09-11T00:50:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone. So last week we had our FIRST Nikkei event of the year (not GM) which was Little Tokyo Exploration. We had around 50 people show up which was awesome!!!

Anyway we started off at JACCC and played a couple of games. The first one was to find someone with the same _____ (the person in charge chooses these categories) where you find someone who has the same something as you. The second game was the three syllable game where you pick a three syllable word/phrase, make an action that goes with it and then try to knock out other teams by doing your action and word and then sending it to another team by calling out their word and doing their action. Of course my group’s was our club logo: Daruma! (for those of you who want to know what a Daruma is, show up to our next GM on Tuesday, September 16) and of course we won =).

After that was lunch. We all split up into a bunch of groups and went to eat lunch at different places. Kind of a bummer that we couldn’t all have lunch together but I don’t think there’s a restaurant that can hold 50 people. My group went to Curry House and had some pretty entertaining conversations. I think we talked a lot about China for some reason. The food was pretty good (I had a curry wrap. It was good but they didn’t wrap it very well) and we were all satisfied with our meals except for one thing: dessert! So we were off to Yogurtland and of course everyone else was also there. In fact we pretty much filled up the whole store. I feel like that might turn into a Nikkei hang out spot in the near future…

After that I headed over to Mitsuwa with a small group to buy some groceries/ play at the arcade. I think the most entertaining moment was the shopping cart ride I got from Kim. Yes it was better than the whole 2packs of curry I bought. All-in-all it was a great event. I wish I got to know everyone who came but since I didn’t you all should come out to more Nikkei events that are coming up!

See you all soon

-Mario

First General Meeting 2008

2008-09-05T10:13:00.000-07:00

Welcome Back USC Nikkei!!!

The first meeting of the semester was AMAZING!

We were all shocked at the HUGE turnout as people shuffled into the already packed room.

People were filling out applications and getting their amazing shirt.

The meeting was short and sweet.
President Penny started it , introducing herself and the board, and thanking the other APASA and INC (Go Riverside!) organizations.

Then Josh and I went over a few announcements (Little Toyko on Sat., Cubbing next Thur., and the Ohio State FOOTBALL GAME (9/13!!)).

Then, The SKIT. We Highlighted 5 of our favorite events from last year.
Clubbing at Meltdown

Our biggest event with INC (Intercollegiate Nikkei Council).

Card-making for Keiro

Making Holiday cards for Keiro Retirement Home

Ski Trip

Two days of skiing/snowboarding in Big Bear with your Nikkei family

Week of Remembrance

Remembering the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII

and...
Culture Night!

"I'm a taiko drum. Hit me!"

BANG

BANG BANG

Kazan Taiko, KBD hip hop, Traditional Dance, SKIT

KBD, Nikkei's hip hop group made their first performance of the year.

Everyone is welcome to join, especially if you have never danced before. And KBD will be performing in the 2009 CULTURE NIGHT!!!!

Finally, we did what Nikkei does best: eat food and talk story :)

Hope you all enjoyed it!
Our next meeting is Tuesday, Sept. 16th.
Same place, same time (THH 212 at 7pm)
See you soon!
<3 Jeni

Chibi to the K

2008-06-16T20:51:00.000-07:00

What up nikkei-ers. Here to post some stuffs on Chibi-K. Woohoo. Yeah, anyway...

To give the logistics: Chibi-K is a run for children to celebrate Children's Day. In Japan Children's Day is a holiday the nation likes to call Kodomo no hi. The 1k run was held in Little Tokyo along with the Family Funfest and welcomes all to learn and enjoy a little Japanese American culture. This event was held after our school year ended hence why it's not in Sean's crazy post. That and I heard he had some problems with his flight or something..... Yeah. SEAN U SHULDA BEEN DERE BRAH!

As a disclaimer I'm not a big picture person. So don't expect any pictures. Yeah. I personally don't like them cause they're so still. Like that. Yeah. Some people say a picture is worth a thousands words. Well, I say I don't really like words either.... Yeah.

It was a gray day and after much spacing out and speculation on wii buying we, as in the USC Nikkei kids who were still here for Chibi-K, arrived at the Nishi Hogwanji Temple before dinner Saturday night. Ate some good food, went to Yogurtlands. You know how that goes.

Met up with some INC kiddies and the people new to Chibi-K, myself included, found out we were sleeping on a basketball court. But no basketball playing allowed! I know, outrageous right? That enraged me. And we missed out on the San Tai San Basketball Tournament that day! How ridiculous was that?! Well, I digress on all the ballin' that could have potentially happened that weekend.

What we did do was intermingle with some of our INC brethren and sisteren and did some ice breakers. Some people made some friends. Someone fell down off of someone else's back. Some people were done with school which was kinda awesome. Kazuma our group owned. Power extension cord shout out. Good times, good times.

Oh and we celebrated a certain birthday girl's date of birthage. She has a baking blog btw. http://cakeshot.blogspot.com/ idk if there's shots in the cake or cake in the shots or what...

To the dismay of all in the temple several people managed to wake up before 5 am to wake everyone else up. I hated those people.

But thanks to them we managed to seperate into our teams and set up the 1K run for all the little chibis. We also sat around, ate doughnuts and drank coffee. Lots and lots of coffee and sitting around.

The run went well and we got to see how much more in shape kids from 12 and under were than us big college students. I think we managed to prove that when they had the volunteer run. Although, it may have been the goodie bags filled with cute cartoon coloring books a couple of children cartoon show VHS's in Japanese and an even a healthy apple that motivated them. Kids love their apples nowadays. I'm sorry that you didn't get a goodie bag when you won the Chibi-K Evan. I'll give you an apple later.

After the run it was time to disperse into festival mode. Or mode that involves ugly purple vests. The JACCC plaza was turned into an assortment of food, games and merchandise booths and a stage. On stage we watched/heard performances from some pretty mean taiko to a graceful hula dance. There was also some dancing that originated from Denmark?...

Families enjoyed traditional JA foods(rice w/ furikake, spam musubi, shave ice...), there were shirts for sale with a really fat rabbit on it and parents proudly watched their children perform on stage(the little league taiko group was one of the better taiko performances I've seen).

It's traditional to serve mochi, a kind of really really good and soft kind rice cake originated from Japan, on Children's Day and workers from the acclaimed sweet shop Fugetsu-Do were more than happy to provide. They prepared their mochi slightly toasted, wrapped in nori(seaweed) with a sauce similar to shoyu(soy sauce) and it was awesome. I had at least two. And, no, I didn't steal any from any little kids. The Fugetsu-Do workers had more than enough mochi to munch on as a last memento for the parents there, the children they brought to share with them a part of the JA culture and, us, as part of the volunteers who helped provide the opportunity.

aighthungryimoutties

010 - Sean's Year in Review

2008-05-23T13:25:00.000-07:00

Has it really only been a week and a half since the school year ended?

For me, this has been an amazing year of changes, of a little "struggle", but ultimately a year of amazing AMAZING growth. I remember walking into our first meeting, expecting 30-40 people and instead finding a room of 75. We ran out of food faster than we could have imagined, had activities that were fun yet impractical with the number we aggregated, and in general had a great two hours of organized chaos that would, I think, set the mood for the rest of the year.

I found myself growing into my role as one of the board members in this organization, and I'm sure the other new board members found themselves in similar situations. As a publicity chair who was doing too much for his own good both academic and extracurricular, I will admit that it was a little overwhelming. When you have an exam the day after a flier design needs to go to print, it's hard to judge just what the priority is, but everything went fine in the end. The lack of sleep and intense planning paid off in successful events where I found myself able to meet new members and take leadership roles I would never have had otherwise.

Fall came and went, but not without leaving its mark. We had a Keiro event that may or may not have been blogged about earlier on that I think really set itself apart from other events that we've done this year. It really gave us the opportunity to go out into the community and actually do something. I know on a personal level it was an amazing opportunity as I have had family in Keiro, so to give back to this institution that has done an amazing service to our community was awesome. It was also cool to see everyone on board working so hard towards it...I could really tell that as a team we all had this level of commitment that was needed to run a successful year.

This showed through again in the AMAZING week that was Week of Remembrance. I can't even begin to describe how amazed I was with how this week went. Our screening last year had an attendance of 10. This year, it had 75. That says something...to be able to get so many people in one room and then to educate them in their own terms on what we're all about and why those 4 years mean so much was rewarding for me as I'm sure it was for all of us. I'm looking forward to getting back to Manazanar next year.

And then. It became CN crunchtime.

...crap.

If fall seemed heavy on sleepless nights and hard deadlines, the spring dwarfed it. Dance practices until 12 (on top of my other dance commitments, meaning 5 day dancing weeks at some points), working with Victor on coaching the cast, fliers, promotional materials, e-mails to everyone ever, and Facebook maintenance. Craig, Victor, and Penny pretty much lived on my cell phone during the month leading up to the show, making sure I had enough money to do what I needed and making sure I had the support of the board in the decisions I was making to promote.

After two months of straight craziness, however, the night came. And it was amazing. When Penny and Victor went out on stage to welcome the audience...I found myself at a bit of a loss of words. While the cast and crew watched from backstage, I took a step back to take all this in. This was the culmination of a crazy idea we never thought we could pull off, the true measure of what our board was able to accomplish. All the sleeplessness, all the stress, all the injury (well...at least my injury which consisted of inadvertently getting spraypaint in my eye, requiring me to wear an eyepatch for a couple of days) was leading to this crazy 2 and a half hour show that I am proud to have been a part of and still in awe of. It was truly the highlight of my experience at USC and I think it will be the defining experience of my academic career.

Incidentally, I have started writing the script for next year so there is going to be another one next year fer shurr...

After CN there was this kind of emptiness. Soon that emptiness would be filled with studying for finals and other end of the year activities, but nevertheless that week after all was said and done...I don't really know what happened. We had our Nikkei banquet and we had our final goodbyes while packing and moving out, but even now it feels like something is missing. A kind of closure to the whole experience that I suppose I am getting as I write this entry.

I want to thank everyone for giving me the time of my life on board this year. As your humble publicity chair I don't want this to sound like some academy award acceptance speech, but as a person who was losing hope in the Asian American student population as a place of discussion and growth, this organization and how it has changed has given me hope again that we are not an apathetic generation and that we do care about where we came from. I am proud that we are so diverse in membership and leadership, I am proud that we have made a concerted effort to reach out to the community, and I am proud that we are rebuilding the legacy of what was once the largest APA student organization campus.

As of our transition retreat two weeks ago I am no longer a board member, but I wish the new board the best of luck in what I'm sure is going to be an amazing amazing year. I'm looking forward to coming back in January to see how much we've grown as a family in the semester that I'll be in Hong Kong.

2k out.

- Sean

Yaki Night!!!

2008-04-08T13:15:00.000-07:00

So first off, thanks for everyone who showed up to yaki night. We had a HUGE turn out (a lot more than I expected) and thus the slight shortage in food at first.

Anyway yaki night was great, but perhaps it would be interesting to know what went behind the scenes in preparing for this event.

The first thing was to secure a place, in which we were lucky to have people living in troy hall (thanks Brad!). This was not so bad but trust me, everything else was quite an adventure for every one else that was involved in this event.

On my side of the story when I first went out to look at prices of the food, I had no clue where the korean market was. I kind of just jumped into my car, drove around Ktown and pretty much hoped that I would end up at a market eventually. Luckily my wandering process didn't take too long since I pretty much guessed correctly where I market would be.

From here Craig took on the lovely process of actually buying all the food once I put out some rough estimates of how much food we needed. Apparently Craig and Austen had quite an adventure at the Korean Market especially with the butcher man. I think you should ask Craig and Austen about the details because I'm sure they tell the story much better, but to sum it up they almost got added to the meat pile in the display case.

Once the shopping was done the torch was once again passed back to me as I scurried with some friends to cook the yakisoba, okonomiyaki, and yaki musubis. Here I found out that I'm not very good at making triangles as all my musubis turned out to be circles (many thanks to Julia for fixing them). As I ended up doing most of the prep work, Penny cooked the yakisoba, Josh marinated the chicken and Chizuru and Taka were nice enough to cook the okonomiyaki. So... if you liked either one of those dishes and want to know how to make them, you should go ask the people who cooked them =). Anyway, prep work started only 1 1/2 hours before the event since I was stuck in Lab till then so as you can imagine the kitchen scene was quite a mess as food was flying everywhere. I should've taken a before and after picture of my kitchen... it was pretty crazy.

Now the next problem was the grill. First of all we didn't buy enough charcoal, and second off the plate that held the charcoal was way too low from where the grill was. So in order to solve this problem Austen decided to use the tiles that were placed in the courtyard to lift the plate up (shhhhh don't tell anyone). The final thing left was to start a good fire... Thats where shinji's pyromania kicked in with the excessive lighter fluid, which resulted in flames which could've burnt off all of our eyebrows. But thanks to that the charcoal lit and it was time to start cooking food... and from there you all pretty much know the rest.

P.S.-Did I mention there was a flaming cookie? Lighter fluid really does wonders.

006 - NIKKEI SPORTS DAY!

2008-03-30T21:34:00.000-07:00

[I know Sports Day was like 3 weeks ago, but don’t worry…the awesomeness that follows is well worth the wait…]

You know those sports movies where the team ends up losing in the championship game, but by overcoming adversity along the way, the losers still feel like winners in the end? This story is kind of like that…but instead of overcoming adversity and shedding a bunch of first-loser tears while the other team hoists the trophy in the background, my team set out to create adversity for everyone else and just declared ourselves the real winners at the end of the day – we even have the trophy to prove it.

First, let’s backtrack a little: it was a sunny Saturday afternoon on March 8^th, 2008, a perfect setting for USC Nikkei’s very first Sports Day. The basic premise of Sports Day was to get into teams and race around campus completing a bunch of different sports-related challenges. On completing a challenge, the team would receive a clue to the next event and so on, with the team finishing first being the winner. Now, the first thing to realize about races like these is that there are always rules (or lack thereof) that you can exploit to your advantage. With that said, Austen, Mika, Ryan, Lance, and I christened ourselves “The Bus Drivers” (because we’ll take you to school…get it? get it?) and set out to win this thing in the most diabolical (read: awesome) manner possible.

Our first event was a basketball challenge at the Cardinal Gardens Apartments basketball court. We sunk shots forward, backward, granny-style, and even from behind the backboard. During the course of the challenge, Josh mentioned that he propped the usually locked Cardinal Gardens door open with a bicycle lock so teams could get inside. We couldn’t let that opportunity pass us by, so the first thing we did on our way out was to remove the bicycle lock and thereby lock out whichever lucky team came behind us.

Penny was in charge of our next challenge, which involved our team shooting darts from a Nerf gun at a target in various ways. I knew about this challenge already, so, being the evil genius I am, I told my team to jack as many of the Nerf darts as possible when we left for the next challenge. With 4 of the 6 darts in our possession, my team grabbed the clue out of Penny’s hands and took off running before she could even realize the greatness that had just taken place.

We were skipping, three-legged racing, crab-walking and wheel-barrowing around the track during the next challenge when I saw Jeni, who was in charge of this station, answer her cell phone and look knowingly in my direction. When she ran over asking me if I knew anything about the 4 missing Nerf darts that were crammed in my pockets, I think I replied “Jeni, I’m kinda busy right now” before skipping away as fast as I could.

The next two challenges were fairly uneventful in the way of rule-bending, although I did have to give up 3 of the darts to get the clue from Jeni that sent us to Jillian’s event. We hula-hooped, did cartwheels, and formed a human pyramid in order to get our second to last clue, which brought us to Mario’s golf challenge. After a few Tiger Woods-esque puts, we were on our way to glory.

Well, we would have been if Missy’s team hadn’t beat us there by literally 10 seconds. We were running to the last station in Topping and saw her team go in the door just in front of us. In addition to the clues we received at the end of each station, we also got a puzzle piece and a song lyric that we had to assemble and sing at the end. When we got into the classroom, Missy’s team had put together their puzzle and was already in the middle of singing their song. We rushed in, put together our puzzle and sang the most bad-ass rendition of Disney’s “Under the Sea” you’ve ever heard, but we were still too late – Missy’s team had already won.

After all that effort we put into sabotaging everyone else, we were still only second place – the first losers. The Bus Drivers (psh, you know you love it) weren’t going to stand around and watch someone else take the trophy we schemed so hard to deserve, so we did what any self-respecting team would do: we made our own. If you’re observant, you’ll have noticed that I said we jacked 4 darts but only returned 3 – so what happened to the last dart you ask? It was branded with “THE BUS DRIVERS: TAKIN’ YOU TO SCHOOL SINCE ‘08” and all of our names.

No doubt about it, Missy’s team was 1st place that day, but it was the Bus Drivers who took home the trophy!

-Craig

UCSD Culture Show

2008-03-18T00:15:00.000-07:00

So on March 9th we made a trip down to San Diego to see the very hyped UCSD NSU Culture Show, "Living For Retribution." The show was directed by juniors, Alan Choi and Connie Yiu and included performances by the amazing Rina Nakano, Asayake Taiko and Ascension hip hop dance team...

So we made the supposed 2 hour car ride down to sd. I think i was driving around 90mph or at least trying to most of the was se we got there in about an hour and a half. My legs were so sore when we got there and my car was playing DS the whole freakn way. "I" was so bored. We then pick up some food from the "better than Chano's, Roberto's." Next off to the show...

When we arrived i saw oh so many familiar faces but most, to me, were unfamiliar. I HAVNT BEEN TO AN INC EVENT TO A WHILE. Anyways we seated and were sooooo anxious for the show to begin....

It started by an amazing performance by vocalist Rina Nakano who sang Alicia Keys' "No One." It was followed by the steps of UCSD's hip hop dance team, Ascension. I was pretty entertained but still so anxious for the culture show performance. The skit was pretty entertaining filled with little but hilarious random jokes. The plot was about a young detective who joins a Police force based in LA that specializes in Yakuza activities. As this detective gets more involved with stopping the Yakuza he ends up uncovering part of his past, finding his long lost brother, solving his parents' murder and of course he falls in love. After intermission Asayake Taiko gave a great performance .

Overall i think the show was pretty good. it was filled with lots of random goofy antics and nipple caressing amongst the seriousness nature of the plot. Great job UCSD! We'll see you next year.

On the way back we grabbed so In-n-out and we arrived at usc at around 11:30pm.

see you all next time.
holla at your boy,
-evan

004 - Culture Night Retreat!

2008-03-13T16:08:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since this blog has been updated. That ends now!

So, since USC Nikkei is putting on its first (ever) Culture Night this year, we figured that it was a good idea for all of us to get together, have some good food+fun, and think about why we're actually putting one on. Here's some pictures to help get you through all the text.

This picture cracks me up. We started off the day by giving everyone a CN Buddy! and played this game called Bird on a Perch. Basically, it involves running around in circles until someone yells "BIRDONAPERCH," after which everyone has to find their partner and jump on them. You don't see any of that here though- just lots of joyful, carefree frolicking.

Notice how much fun everyone is having, despite having lost already. Don't notice the girl tending to her wounded knee.

After what will always be remembered as the "Rice + Spam" potluck, we had each of our performing groups show their skills to the rest of Culture Night. Of course, we started off with USC's very own Kazan Taiko! They officially became their own separate student organization this year. Guess where they're performing on April 26th!

If you said Nikkei's Culture Night, then awesome! If not, then you're wrong. Sorry.

After Taiko, we performed a scene from our skit. To let everyone in on the story, the skit this year features 5 kids in Japanese school who, in order to not flunk out, have to (you guessed it) put on a Culture Show-show-show-show!

From left to right: Jason (the Taiwanese best friend), Trey (the Yonsei male love interest), Mi (the valley girl from Japan), Leaf (the half-JA female love interest), and Laura (the angry video blogger from Hawaii).

Our last performance group was from Nikkei's very own hip hop team! (Name yet to be decided). Just like Taiko and skit and the rest of Culture Night, it's history in the making with the very first team from our club! You know those pictures that are awesome because there's that one person who looks awkward, or two? Well, this is like that, only everyone seems to be in an awkward pose. That's Awesome x 12!

After we had each group perform, we gave everyone an opportunity to learn one of the others. Of course, a lot of people flocked to Taiko (who wouldn't?), but skit and dance had a good number of people as well. The dance that Sean led was actually the Odori piece we're performing for Culture Night, otherwise known as Soran Bushi. They look like superheroes.

All in all, I think everyone had a fun time at CN Retreat. We talked for a while about what we have learned and still have to learn about why we put one on in the first place. Each part of CN (skit, Taiko, hip hop, Odori, etc.) is really a unique aspect of JA culture, if you want to look at it that way. More than anything though, it's ultimately about building community and shared experiences, which is what really define any culture at the end of the day. Be on the lookout for more Culture Night updates as April 26th approaches!

I'm gonna go take a nap now before Taiko.

-Victor

003B - My Trip to JANM

2008-02-28T12:58:00.002-08:00

Hi! I thought I'd break the ice and make the first non-Sean blog post. : )

Last Saturday, to wrap up DOR week, Nikkei paid a visit to the Japanese American National Museum. I had been here before with the College Honors Society last year, but I decided it would be kind of cool to visit this place at just not any point in time, but at the conclusion of Day of Remembrance week.

It was a totally different experience this time around, because there was a museum guide. He wasn't just any guide, however--he had actually lived in the internment camps himself. As he went through various exhibits, he would tell side stories that gave a tiny glimpses into how difficult and downright depressing the whole experience was.

Despite the fact I'm actually not Japanese American, just being in the museum and listening to the guide tell his story allowed allowed me to really put myself into these peoples' shoes and experience just a little of the hardships they had personally gone through.

Perhaps the fact that the museum curator went to USC for college made things much more relatable. When EO 9066 rolled around, he was pulled aside in the middle of his studies to be relocated in a concentration camp. The fact that this happened to thousands of Japanese American college students should really make any college kid cringe. How different would your life be, if you lived during that era, just because your ancestors happened to be Japanese?

His friend from the USC Pharmacy School died in combat on the European front for the American Army--the army of the nation that condemned Japanese Americans to camps that did not even meet the requirements in the Geneva Conventions of Human Rights. (The one camp with actual Japanese prisoners had better conditions because it was supervised by the League of Nations.) Other friends who had survived into the aftermath of World War II and were released from the camps had to face immense discrimination--people who had even graduated with masters and doctorate degrees had to become gardeners for the rest of their lives because nobody would hire them.

I'm sure my eighth grade history textbook covered Japanese American internment, but I remember not thinking much of it even, because it was a tiny section in this huge chapter I would be tested on. It wasn't that much better in AP US History, although my teacher in lecture did at least call these internment camps, concentration camps (while contending that the German concentration camps were death camps).

This time around, the meaning of DOR really hit me, full-on in the face. After personally listening to the museum guide's story, I'm really glad USC Nikkei has been commemorating DOR; it's a sordid page of history not many people (especially non-JAs) like to touch, but I feel is crucial for us to read.

By the way, sorry if this post was super-long! It's just that my experience at JANM was so enriching and I got so much out of it, haha. I'd really recommend you to visit there sometime if you haven't been there (and shake off a bit of the sad feelings with excellent Japanese food at nearby restaurants). Even if you have, I'd still recommend another visit because you absorb so much more knowledge with each visit you pay.

-Jean

003 - Week of Remembrance

2008-02-21T15:43:00.000-08:00

February 19th, 2008 marked the 66th anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066 which put 120,000 West Coast Japanese Americans into concentration camps. Our organization has commemorated this signing for the past three years (or four years?) with events on campus to educate the greater student body about the camps.

This year we invited an artist/community organizer named Traci Kato-Kiriyama to come and conduct a storytelling workshop, intended to give students the tools to tell their stories in ways many people could not after the camps. With a perfect attendance that wasn't too big but wasn't too small, we played a lot of theater and improv games that led into a writing session where we got to write on a variety of topics, allowing participants to speak to many experiences in ways that often times we don't get the chance to. We really enjoyed having Traci and hope she can come back later on the semester!

Tonight is going to be the big, most publicized event we've held this year. We were even on the front page of the Rafu Shimpo and the main USC webpage with this one! Tadashi Nakamura, a filmmaker from UCLA (but we won't hold that against him) will be coming to screen his Sundance Selected film, 'Pilgrimage'. I saw this film last year and am really looking forward to seeing it again. 'Pilgrimage' is basically about how a group of students took a trip up to Manzanar and ended up sparking this annual pilgrimage to the site as well as a lot of student activism. I went once while I was in middle school and have been wanting to for a while...

So that's our week. There were a few more events, but I'll save that for a full on Week of Remembrance look back. Hope to see you tonight!

2k out!

- Sean

002 - First Meeting Wrapup!

2008-02-04T16:33:00.001-08:00

So we had our first meeting last Tuesday with a good showing. We did a few ice breakers, met new people, and told everyone about our looooooooong schedule for the next couple of months. Day of Remembrance is coming up fast!

The meeting had a good amount of new people which was really cool. We look forward to seeing you guys at more events coming up liiiiike.....

TRADITIONAL DANCE
Ok, so maybe it isn't AMAZINGLY traditional...but it's pretty close. I learned this at a summer camp I worked at and had to teach it to a bunch of kids...they picked it up pretty fast, so I'm hoping you guys will as well. It's supposed to be a fishing dance (the yelling of "SORAN" and "DOKKOISHO" is the equivalent of "UGH!"...or whatever noise you make when you throw your nets out to water at 6 in the morning).

Here is a clip from the JDrama "Kinpachi Sensei" which outlines exactly what we'll look like and how the audience will react:

(Tuesday, 7:30 - THH114)

HIP HOP PRACTICE
Guys. It really isn't that hard. Don't get freaked out...just do it.

(Sunday, 6:30 - Heritage Hall)

Day of Remembrance
Um...this will get a post to itself. Hang tight on that one.

Aight.

S'about it.

2k out!

- Sean

001 - USC Nikkei Association's Blog is...OPEN!

2008-01-29T10:39:00.000-08:00

Hey guys, welcome to the USC Nikkei Association's spot on the blogsphere. Cause the website is a pain to update and stuff happens up to the minute, this is the place for all your up to the minute USC Nikkei news!

Let's get the ball rolling with a Fall 2007 wrap up...

-FALL 2007-

With a new board and a new goal for the year (in case you didn't know it, it's "To represent as many facets of the Japanese American community as we can"), USC Nikkei started off the year with an increased membership (almost double last years!) and an increased drive.

We had our first Iron Chef event with a huge turnout and lots of awesome food. The winning team? I honestly can't remember, but Craig's ramen salad without the ramen (we refer to it as JA salad) got first place as the single most liked dish, a well deserved win despite the fact that Howard and I made a hamburger with rice in it which was pretty much the bomb diggity.

Our Car Rally (alright, so this isn't really in chronological order) had a huge turnout with 11 (7? 5?) cars all over Los Angeles in a giant scavenger hunt! From Santa Monica to Little Tokyo, Nikkei members took photos and video in familiar territory like the Third Street Promenade and not so familiar territory like UCLA's Greek "row" (one team even managed to take a photo inside a frat house!), ending up with a giant convergence in Little Tokyo with much food and mirth.

With the greater Intercollegiate Nikkei Council (the association of collegiate Nikkei groups in Southern California) we had a get together in Irvine, getting the chance to meet folks from all over the place. We look forward to seeing more of the INC, already having a Little Tokyo scavenger hunt with them this semester.

In addition to these freaking sweet events, we had awesome general meetings where we made lanterns, t-shirts, and began to prep for our first annual CULTURE NIGHT!

This semester we're kicking it off with our first month celebrating Shin-Nisei (Japanese Americans born in the US post-WWII) by having more Japanese oriented events like our Soran Bushi dance workshop next week, our Japanese Valentines Day meeting in two weeks, and yet another traditional dance workshop in the last week to get everyone hyped up for culture show! 2008 is going to be a great year, so keep watching this space as more stuff comes up!

2K OUT!

- Sean