On Wednesday January 27, schools in Salmon Arm, BC were closed so that students could attend the Olympic torch relay and cauldron lighting. To the delight of all, the final leg of the relay was run by popular former Salmon Arm teacher and principal Roy Sakaki, who took the torch from local curling Olympian Sandra Jenkins and lit the cauldron in front of City Hall after doing an impromptu dance on the stage.
The Sakaki family is well-known in Kamloops and the surrounding area. In 1949, Roy’s father Tetsuo Sam started …

In 2006, Arts Beatus presented an exhibit by doll artist Tomoka Ike based on The Tale of the Heike, an epic account of the struggle between the Taira and Minamoto clans for control of Japan at the end of the 12th century. This month, Ike returns to Arts Beatus with a much more down-to-earth exhibit. Conversations on the Street is inspired by people she has met, conversations she has overhead, and strangers she has spoken to on the streets of Vancouver, BC.
I spoke to Tomoka Ike by e-mail.
In Her Own …

TERIYAKI SHRIMP
1 lb. medium size shrimp
1 tsp. grated ginger
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup soy sauce
sesame seeds

How Did Japanese Visitors and Viewers See Our Community?
Now that the Winter Olympics have come and gone, it all seems like a big blur – with an overall impression that Canada did well. Leaving the medal count and the rest of the big news to the mainstream media, I’ve strung together some comments and vignettes, heard personally or seen on the internet, about some cultural facets of the Games and about Vancouver, its setting. Of particular concern for us living in the cusp of Canadian and Japanese cultures must be …

On attending some of the free events and activities during the Olympics, I was pleased to see many displays of our diversity through featured foods, arts, and music around Vancouver. Many of the musical entertainers here during the Olympics satisfied my love of music and arts. I was also please to see that many of the fine multiethnic restaurants that we have here in Vancouver have done their utmost in appeasing the palettes of all of our guests.

When I saw an article in the newspaper—Naoko Takahashi wins women’s marathon after drinking an extract distilled from giant killer hornets at the Sydney Olympics—long after Naoko had won at Sydney, I was struck by the imagery that it conjured up, unforgettable, and I immediately thought of the raspy, buzzing sound of bagpipes as a representative, or stand-in for hornets and taiko for pounding of feet on pavement.

Two Great Traditions. One Great Story.
This May, Vancouver audiences will be treated to a unique double bill as City Opera Vancouver presents the immortal story Sumidagawa, from the 15th Century, together with its 20th Century twin, Curlew River, a Canadian first.
“We are building great bridges,” said City Opera artistic director Dr Charles Barber. “We are bridging five centuries and two cultures in one narrative. We tell the story of a woman driven mad by the loss of her child. It is agonizing and beautiful.”
Sumidagawa will be told by the Toronto …

When Yayoi Hirano arrived in Vancouver in 1992 on a performance tour she was billeted with Roy Kiyooka, an Order of Canada recipient with a long and storied career as an artist and teacher. She spent two weeks living in his Strathcona duplex and was introduced to many of his friends and acquaintances including Kokoro Dance’s Jay Hirabayashi. Remembers Hirano, “The organizer of the festival said, ‘You are so lucky to stay with him. He is a one of the greatest Japanese Canadian artists in Vancouver.’ But for me, coming …