ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Sept—Oct.30

Bin Masaki $ 100 Tobi Matsubara 76.96 Todd Mathes 130 Roy Okimoto Sr. 500 Taz Hayashi in memory of Utaka 300 Norwalk Judo 100 Anonymous 50 Thank you for your kind generosity and continued support.

友

達

P R E S I D E N T ’ S M E S S A G E

Volume 16, Issue 6 November 2012 Newslet ter

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

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P A N C A K E B R E A K F A S T & B O U T I Q U E

Please read about Kendo’s esteemed Sensei Yamaguchi who recently passed away. How fortunate for Norwalk to have had him as the instructor since 1964 bringing impressive knowl-edge and experience to our dojo. He will be missed. We extend our sincere condolences to his family.

Thanks again to Mia Fujii for her photos of the Pancake Breakfast and Boutique used in this issue. The editor is grateful for her photos catching some neat candid views of our big event. Set up preparations for the 7:00 pancake breakfast began in the dark hours of the Oct. 13th morning by NYS, and food and service was ready to go right on time. Many hands helped make this well attended annual function and NYS is commended for their proficiency. We are grateful also for their set up for the boutique — from gym floor cover-ing to tables and chairs for the vendors. Thank you NYS coaches and parents.

This year Helen Hikiji had a new partner to help with the Boutique. After 14 years, Edna Kurahara has retired and Becky Shinomoto shared the reins with Helen. The Boutique generates good funds for our Center. We thank everyone who helped toward these successes and to everyone who came for breakfast and purchased items at our Boutique and Judo’s many lunch items. Thanks especially to Sensei Johnson who works the wok and concocts the best dishes. Hope eve-ryone who came enjoyed the day. Special thanks to all who came on Monday night after a tiring weekend to clean up the Center.

Hi Everyone! This year’s Pancake Breakfast was a great success. I would like to thank Richard Hardy with the Ki-wanis Club of Whittier for loaning us their grill and providing several cooks. They did a fantastic job with the pancakes and without their help, the lines would not hve moved as fst as they did that morn-ing. Thank you to Johnson Sensei, a Master Chef from Judo. He supervised and assisted NYS with cooking the Portuguese sausage; a total of 26 boxes! Johnson Sensei also made all of the lunch items that Judo served at the boutique. This year’s breakfast and lunch was Ono. The Board of Directors would like to thank Dean Eguchi from NYS for designing and making the new panels for the stage storage. It will house our table and chairs. They look great. Thank you again Dean. Becky Shinomoto and Helen Hikiji are the sole organizers in getting all the vendors for this year’s boutique. The boutique was busy and it looked like everyone was getting an early start on their Christmas shopping. As I walked around the gym, I would see people stop and chat with friends that they have not seen in a while. The SEJSCC will have our annual year end bento luncheon on December 2nd in the conference room. Lunch will be $10 and we will discuss the events of this past year. Please join us. If you would like to attend, contact Toshi Teramoto or ask one of the board members. I wish everybody a safe Holiday Season! Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Richard Shinomoto

Would you like some rice?

Scrambled eggs station

Shopping is such fun!

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G A K U E N N E W S Kimie Matsumoto H I K A R I TA I K O Mary Jane Mayeda

Hikari wishes to express their condolences to the Yamaguchi family on the passing of Sensei Yamaguchi of Kendo. The month of September was busy for us as we had a concert in Los Angeles at the MacArthur Park Levitt Pavilion. Then one weekend we had 7 performances, 6 of which were at the beautiful Cottonwood Church in Los Alamitos. We played taiko before and after during 3 services. One on Saturday and two on Sunday. After the performance at the church on Saturday nite, half our mem-bers had to rush back to the Center to perform for the Ballroom Dance club for their 35th Anniversary party. I’d like to thank my members for their willingness and enthusiasm in doing this. Beginning of October, we performed as Silk and Thunder at the Korea Town Festival in Los Angeles. This is a huge event with 300 booths, huge stage and thousands of people attending. I thought our festival was a lot of work, they have hundreds of people helping out and big profits are to be made with the booths. This event last 5 days. The following Friday, we performed, along with the Japanese Dancers from the Center - Akemi Jensen and two of her members, at the Aegis Assisted Living Home in Dana Point. We were enthusiastically re-ceived and they all wanted photos with the colorful costumes after-wards and appreciated us coming to celebrate their Japan Day event. This facility is beautiful and a 5 star facility. Our annual Keiro Home in Lincoln Heights is coming up and we end up with the Long Beach Aquarium Fall Festival on Saturday, Novem-ber 3rd at 2:30 pm, and La Palma Days event on Saturday, November 10th at 12:30 pm. These two events are open to the public so please join us. Finally, we had fun at our Halloween practice October 28th. Thanks to all who dressed up and brought goodies. Our taiko classes are going strong and a new class started in Septem-ber. We start new beginning taiko classes twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall. We like to keep the class small as we hold all classes on Sundays only. Next class will start in January-February so if interested, let me know so we can put you on the waiting list. Wishing you all great holidays!

Our annual “undokai” was held at Gerdes Park on October 6th. This event is an annual event in schools all over Japan. Students are divided into the red team or white team and compete in various athletic events. Students and parents participated in balloon game, spoon race, donut eating race, and tug of war. Students competed in the relay race, obstacle race, and spoon race. This year the red team won. Everyone also enjoyed the lunch provided by the PTA. It was a family event enjoyed by all. The Undokai was held in conjunction with a welcome to all new students, their fami-lies. This year we welcomed many new families and a new teacher, Ms. Sledge. Many thanks to the teachers for the preparation of the activities and to parents for helping with the games, purchasing prizes and cooking the lunch for everyone’s enjoyment. A special thanks to Nancy Wong and Yumi Kushi for chairing the event. The next cultural experience will be “3,5,7 Festival”. This is the celebration of children who are 3,5,and 7 years old. Traditionally, children wear special kimono for a visit to the Shrine and parents purchase “Chitose Ame”, a special candy for this festival.. Stu-dents in the kindergarten and beginners class will get an opportu-nity to dress in the traditional kimono and take pictures. There will be a presentation on the festival presented by Mrs. Matsumoto on November 3rd during 4th period. Students will also taste “Chitose Ame”.

Tug of War—Red Team

PTA luncheon at the park after Undokai games.

Hikari and our classi-cal dance group per-formed at the Aegis Assisted Living Home in Dana Point.

Fun Halloween for Hikari Taiko

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N O R W A L K Y O U T H S P O R T S

DEC 1 Host: Gakuen

BINGO serving curry dinner at 6 pm

6:30 pm JAN 5: Host : Kendo dinner at 6 pm

Come Join Us!

SEJSCC General Meeting will be held at Noon in the Conference Room. It a good time to get together with the Board and enjoy lunch and review the year, present our current financial status and consider new ideas. There will be brief presentations by organizations but the mood will be relaxed. Come join us for a pleasant and informative time. Please con-tact Tosh Teramoto 562 865-0479 to order a $10 bento if you plan to come.

A N N U A L G E N E R A L M E E T I N G D E C . 2 S U N D A Y

Sapphires on a Roll! The Sapphires are gearing up to star t the SEYO season. They have won the last three tournaments they’ve entered: Tigers, Hollywood Dodgers Las Vegas and VFW and won first place in the South Bay Youth league which just ended. Congratulations, Coaches and Girls!

The Waves (12th Grade girls) had a good time and played well, in the VFW tournament. They earned a t-shirt as Con-solation Champions, winning 2 of 3 games.

Sapphires

The Norwalk Blazers, 5th Grade Boys team, have blazed a new trail of success in recent months. Our boys came in 1st Place in the Gold Divi-sion in the Jetts Tournament back in July, they have placed 1st in the regular season of the SBY Fall League (Gold Division) and just recently took the championship game in the VFW Tournament this past October. Now, the Norwalk Blazers will be playing up a grade level in the 6 th Grade White Division for this upcoming Winter SEYO Season.

Norwalk Blazers

Hard work pays off! The Defenders clinched their first tournament champion-ship in the 4th grade silver division of the 2012 VFW Tournament.

Go Defenders!!

Norwalk Waves

The Hornets team traveled to Las Vegas and participated in the HDLV Tour-nament and had a great time! They won the coveted black shirts and it was a great way to end the summer.

G 0 H O R N E T S

(More NYS news on page 5)

Rosie San Miguel

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N O R W A L K D A N C E C L U B scattered for a special trick-O-treat. Refreshments included pizza, a fresh green salad and a delicious slice of pumpkin pie with whipped cream. A big thanks to Jean Ikemoto, Shiz Kitayama, Betty Oshiro and George Ishi-kawa for their help in the kitchen. Thanks to donations from Helen for the candies, salad, and whip cream, Edna for the air clips, pump-kins and tablecloths and Jean for the box of green tea. Congratulations to the pumpkin decorating con-test winners. Tying for 1st place were Noreen Change and King Yee who were given dance coupons. Gil Mochizuki and Dennis Maruki tied for 2nd place and were each awarded with a

box of See’s truffle pecan pie. Those seated at the Gutman’s table enjoyed Kelley’s cook-ies for placing 3rd. Leading the line dances in their witches’ costumes were Helen and Edna. The line dancers had a great time moving to the rhythm of Old Time Rock and

Roll and the very popular Circle Waltz. the attendance was small but the camaraderie of the Gardena Valley Nisei Club, Langley, Prudy Gin’s group, King and Grace Yee’s group and the NDC members and friends made the eve-ning fun. Once again, the organizers were grateful to all the helping hands pitching in to the very end. Please join us for the Nov. 24th fall social.

NDC Anniversary Dinner Dance Sept. 22 Harriet Yamada and Edna Kurihara did a su-perb job multitasking and serving as host-esses for the evening. There were 81 mem-bers and guests attending the social and among the guests were 6 taiko drummers. A delicious bento prepared by Sango Restau-rant included teriyaki chicken, shrimp tem-pura, a Caiifornia roll, a green salad. For dessert, Harriet donated the sherbert and it was served with wafers donated by Edna, a good choice for a warm evening. In addition, Edna donated napkins and French vanilla creamers. Serving the refreshments went very smoothly due to the wonderful assistance of Jean Ike-moto, Connie Ciranna, Ann Lowe, Betty Oshiro, Chiemi and Kenny Yukimasa and Jim Noe. The prompt delivery of the bentos by DJ Yuso and Edna’s son, Randy Kurihara and granddaughter Leah, was a tremendous help. A unique program of 4 numbers performed by 6 members of the Norwalk Hikari Taiko group including our MC Harriet Yamada was out-standing. The precision and talent of the group keeps them on a busy performing

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

Dojo in 1975. He also served as President of the Southern Cali-fornia Kendo Federation, continuing as its senior advisor as well as principle instructor for the kata and referee seminars. He was also a member of the Board of Directors of the All United States Kendo Federation for many decades to the present day, mentoring many who have held office. He was the coach for Team USA in the 6th World Kendo Championships in France in 1985. Yamaguchi Sensei founded the Southern California Iaido Association and served as its head instructor and advisor. He was the first iaido sensei for most of the founders of North-ern California Iaido Association and was a nurturing advisor and mentor to their group. We at Norwalk Dojo were so fortunate to have him as our head iaido instructor and advisor. Yamaguchi sensei’s health had been in decline, and he was not actively participating in keiko for a long time. But fortu-nately he was able to teach our beginning students; they may not realize yet how lucky they have been to receive the teachings of such a great sensei. On Friday night, after changing to keiko and hakama, he suddenly collapsed in the dressing room. Though efforts to revive him were not promising, he was quickly transported to a nearby hospital, where a large crowd of sensei, kenshi, and par-ents from Norwalk Dojo were soon joined by Costa Mesa Dojo members to await word of his condition. Sadly he could not be revived. Our deepest condolences to his brother Makoto, daughter Elaine, son Masashi, nephew Hiro and other family members. We will all miss him. Photo by Dennis Ralutin. Thank you to Dennis Ralutin, Tom Bolling and others for assistance with the material in this article.

On October 5, 2012, Norwalk Kendo Dojo lost our most senior advi-sor, Yamaguchi Takeshi sensei. Yamaguchi sensei was born in Los Angeles in 1938. Interned with his family in Manzanar in the months fol-lowing Pearl Harbor and subsequently moving through various relocation camps ending in Texas. He moved to Japan with his family following the War eventually returning to Los Angeles. In 1963, he and his younger brother Ma-koto began training in both kendo and iaido under the great Mori Torao sensei, known by many as the founder of kendo in the United States. With Mori sensei’s foundation, and the tutelage of other such greats as Akio Hara sensei and Torataro Nakabara sensei, Yama-guchi sensei evolved into a major teacher of regional, national and world-wide importance. Yamaguchi Sensei often trav-eled throughout the country and even internationally to help develop both

kendo and iaido, especially to places in need of kodansha level instruc-tors, helping to spread his love and knowledge of both arts. Even after a region was able to establish its own strong kendo and iaido commu-nity, he would be asked back for his continuing guidance, recently re-turning from such a trip to Texas just a few weeks before his passing. When Hara sensei founded Norwalk Kendo Dojo in 1964, Yamaguchi sensei was one of the first assistant instructors at the dojo, going on to help found Covina Dojo in 1969 and founding Costa Mesa

schedule throughout the year. Included are sows at the Center, at various schools, the Keiro Nursing Home, the Long Beach Acquarium and at cultural events throughout Los Angeles and Or-ange County. As the evening came to a close and eve-rything was put in place, it felt great that the 35th anniversary party went well. It was a pleasure saying “Thanks and Goodnight”. NDC Halloween Dance October 27 As the dancers entered the hall, there was a large blown-up pumpkin with two little friendly ghosts on its top, to set the mood for a Happy Halloween social. Helen Hikiji, Edna Kurahara, Jean Ikemoto and Con-nie Ciranna were the busy goblins plac-ing the scarecrows, pumpkins and fall foliage to create a perfect stage scene. A witch hat hair clip was given to each of the ladies bringing smiles to their faces. Tables were covered black and centered with a witches’ hat and candies were

Yamaguchi Takeshi Sensei

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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 Adult Japanese Class: “ “ Norwalk Nikkei Seniors: Toby Fusato 562 860 7369 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: Billy Matsubara 562 483.9374

Happy Fall Sea-son! We started off the season with the 50th Annual Tenri Judo Tour-nament at John Glenn High School. The turnout from the club was terrific as well as the 10 man slaughter line extravaganza conducted by 6th dan Takamasa Anai sensei. The Community Center’s Annual Pancake Breakfast was a great way to put together a great breakfast and get a jump on the holiday shopping. A big ‘domo arigato’! Otsukaresama to Sensei Johnson AGAIN for as-sisting NYS with the cooking of the sausage for the breakfast. Did you check out the bento feast provided by Sensei Johnson? We served our infamous orange chicken, judo pork chop, roast beef stew, pickled cucumbers and our World famous span musubi made by the Matsu-bara Team. Thank you to all the parents who worked tirelessly to make this another judo event success. Without a days rest, we make an impressive showing at the Nanka Open Team Tournament in Covina. A total of 8 teams represented Norwalk Judo Dojo and provided a competitive spirit. Hey, have you checked out the NEW mats we’re practicing on? Thanks to the hard work and efforts from the sensei/parents from the annual judo tournament in July, we collectively raised enough money to replace the judo mats. If you haven’t seen it, stop by Tuesday or Friday nights around 7:00 pm and see how well the judokas take a fall on the new mats! We had the opportunity to have Dan Takata sensei, one of the leading Southern California referees, to provide a referee clinic at the dojo on Thursday night, Oct. 18, to help inform parents/judokas alike on the mean-ing of specific judo calls and hands on technical demonstrations of illegal throws/holds. Thank you Scott Momii sensei for facilitating the informative demonstration. While we are on that same subject, we are honored to have Yuzo Koga sensei, 6th dan, former 5-time National Champion, Meiji University graduate on Friday, Nov 2. Thanks again Scott sensei! As we fall (literally!) into November, we take a moment to give thanks to each and every one of you who have supported the dojo in your personal time and inner spirit. We have grown in numbers, but have also grown closer like a family. Each fundraiser, tournament brings some familiar, some new faces ...win or lose, the feeling of support has no bounds. That

N O R W A L K J U D O D O J O June Uyekawa is what makes these events so much fun. Our President Mr. Matsubara prides our dojo on the strength of family and how everyone shows up if there is something that has to be done. It takes a village and we have a foundation to grow one. December brings us to our annual Christ-mas and awards ceremony. This year, it is slated to be on Saturday, Dec. 15th in the dojo. Details will be provided by Mr. Matsu-bara. We’ve put the word out to the North Pole that we’ve got a whole lot of ‘good’ members that should be on his list ….keep that date open! Details on the New Year’s Eve Party are still in the planning stages, we’ll keep you

updated. May you all have a thankful and peaceful holiday season and surround yourself with family and friends. Peace on earth, good will to all…..

Norwalk Judo Dojo at Nanka Open Team Tournament in Covina.

So proud at 50th Annual Tenri Judo Tournament.

The Cobra team played in the VFW Tournament and won the Championship in the 4th Grade Boys Bronze Division. The last couple of games were very close and exciting with the boys winning by only a basket in each of those games!

NYS— Cobra BB Team

Pancake Breakfast crowd

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Southeast Japanese School & Community Center “Tomodachi” A Bimonthly Newsletter November 2012 Norwalk CA 90651-0431

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

CALENDAR Operating Bd Mtg—1st Wed Monthly 7pm Center Bd Mtg—2nd Wed Monthly 6:30 pm NOV 26 Fall Social 7-11 pm DEC 1 Monthly Bingo 6:30 pm 2 Annual General Mtg Luncheon 31 New Years Eve Dinner/Dance JAN 5 Monthly Bingo Games 6:30 pm 26 Winter Social 7-11 pm Scholarship Appls available for HS graduates www.SEJSCC.org

Thanks to Whittier Kiwanis for use of their trailer grill includ-ing their volunteer cooks who helped toward our breakfast success!

Breakfast at dawn!

Cashiers’ Table

Pancake Breakfast & Bout ique