What wonderful summer weather we enjoyed this year and it seems like our Indian Summer is starting out very well. Just enjoy the crisp fall weather with all the autumn colors. My girlfriend Betty Nomiyama (Kitagawa), a grade five classmate from Bridge River days, came to visit her mom, who resides in Rosewood Manor (walking distance from my home). She’s living in Seattle and we have corresponded through all these years and finally met after 62 years at her mother’s 102 Birthday party. Since we kept in …

Upcoming on October 17-18, Vancouver will be hosting the National Association of Japanese Canadian (NAJC) Annual General Meeting. This will be an important AGM as the NAJC membership will discuss the impact of the impending changes brought about by the changing global economy.

It’s not easy to walk into a strange rehearsal hall in a strange country where one doesn’t speak the language or understand the culture and play on unfamiliar drums, but right from the first drum beat, the Chibi kids showed they were ready to give it everything they had.

Although our visit to Kerala’s coastal cities of Trivandrum, Kollam and Kochi (Cochin) was the only totally new experience, it was quite stimulating to encounter so many different peoples and their cultures one after another in a short time.

The rooms are out of another era, with eccentric touches, each one a little different: on the original iron bedsteads are thick mattresses, fluffy comforters, and piles of pillows. Japanese themed prints hang on the walls, and on each dresser sits a globe and a bottle of Mt. Fuji spring water.

With so many organizations in our community, our Committee recognized the significance and value of hearing and documenting the stories of the issei and nisei—those who remember the years immediately before, during and after the Internment.

When Katari Taiko celebrates its 30th Anniversary with a concert at the newly refurbished Cultch (formerly the Vancouver East Cultural Centre) on November 1, it will mark three decades of dedication to not only the art of drumming, but the community that gave birth to the group.

As our family walked through the international arrivals terminal at YVR on our way home from Japan at the beginning of August, my daughter Kaya looked at me and said, “People are so rude in Canada!” As we’d only been back on Canadian soil for 20 minutes or less, the judgement seemed rather harsh, but I knew what she meant.
I remember arriving home after my first trip to Japan in 1982 and having that same feeling—of standing in the middle of a crowded downtown mall and feeling, not exactly frightened, …