Life After Manzanar

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

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

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...

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!

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!

[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!)

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