New “Chasing Japan” blogsite

Posted on March 22, 2017 by Carolyn Classen

Chasing Japan is a blog about two guys and their dream of living and working in Japan.

“A lifestyle blog of sorts, we want to share our love of Japanese culture with the world, and how that love fuels our desire to build our very own business in Japan.

From a variety of Japanese pop culture topics, photography blurbs, and tips on how to balance work and life, we hope you find our posts entertaining and useful in some way.

So welcome to the adventure. We’d love for you to join us!”

Louis Rivera and Nick Burkhalter are the “two guys”. Louis has studied the Japanese language, and was the MC for the Tucson Japanese Festival on Jan. 14, 2017 at PCC Downtown. Nick claims to have his “head in the clouds, heart in Japan”, as he is married to a Japanese woman, and has traveled to Japan three times.

Cherry Blossom Festival at Japanese Friendship Garden in San Diego, courtesy of Chasing Japan

Website: www.chasingjapan.org. Recent blog articles posted on Chasing Japan have been about visits to the Japanese American National Museum (Los Angeles, CA), the 12th Annual Cherry Blossom Festival (San Diego, CA), Inaugural Otaku Festival (Tucson, AZ) and the 2017 Annual Arizona Matsuri (Phoenix, AZ). Stay tuned for more as Louis and Nick travel, take photographs, and enjoy Japanese culture.

Louis also has an ongoing photo exhibit “Japan by Night” with color photographs taken during a visit to Japan in 2016, at Yume Japanese Gardens of Tucson. Exhibit ends on March 28, 2017. Read more at our front page article of Feb. 14, 2017.

L to R: Louis, plus Cosplay characters at Tucson Otaku Festival, courtesy of Chasing Japan. Cosplay characters are Franken Stein, a Survey Corps member, & Hatsune Miku in back.

New Trends in Japanese Children’s Books

Posted on March 20, 2017 by Carolyn Classen

New Trends in Transnational Japanese Children’s Books

This article is re-published with permission from Junko Sakoi, multicultural integration coordinator at Tucson Unified School District.

Ikebana for Everyone at Tucson Botanical Gardens in March and April, 2017

Posted on March 13, 2017 by Carolyn Classen

Ikebana For Everyone: 4-Part Series (Ohara School of Ikebana) at Tucson Botanical Gardens, 2150 N. Alvernon Way

Create beauty and reduce stress through Ikebana, the ancient Japanese art of arranging flowers in the style most pleasing to the eye. Learn from the Ohara School of Ikebana whose instruction is the result of 600 years of evolving artistic development in Japan. Develop your practice incrementally over four sessions. Price now includes a container and kenzan to take home and flowers for each session. Please bring a bucket, towel, and shears.

4-part series: Mar. 16, Mar. 23, Mar. 30 and Apr. 6

Date: 03/16/2017

Time: 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.

Price: $125

Class availability limitations: None

Asian book panel discussion at Tucson Festival of Books on March 11

Posted on March 10, 2017 by Carolyn Classen

At the Tucson Festival of Books on Saturday March 11, 4 to 5 p.m. – a panel discussion on Asian books, with Junko Sakoi and Yoo Kyung Sung.

“The Danger of Dragons: False Images in Asian Books”

“Dragons are often portrayed in children’s books as a common symbol across many Asian cultures.This portrayal is a misunderstanding with some Asian cultures have strong connections to dragons, but others having different types of relationships. Comparisons of Chinese, Japanese and Korean cultures will be made through children’s books and cultural information.”

WWII Japanese American internment camps to be discussed at Tucson Festival of Books, March 11 & 12

Posted on March 5, 2017 by Carolyn Classen

Pamela Rotner Sakamoto, author of “Midnight in Broad Daylight: A Japanese American Family Caught Between Two Worlds” will be attending Tucson Festival of Books on the University of Arizona mall. “The true story of a Japanese American family that found itself on opposite sides during World War II—an epic tale of family, separation, divided loyalties, love, reconciliation, loss, and redemption—this is a riveting chronicle of U.S.–Japan relations and the Japanese experience in America. After their father’s death, Harry, Frank, and Pierce Fukuhara—all born and raised in the Pacific Northwest—moved to Hiroshima, their mother’s ancestral home. Eager to go back to America, Harry returned in the late 1930s. Then came Pearl Harbor. Harry was sent to an internment camp until a call came for Japanese translators and he dutifully volunteered to serve his country. Back in Hiroshima, his brothers Frank and Pierce became soldiers in the Japanese Imperial Army.”

Pamela Rotner Sakamoto

She will be on panel discussions on the WWII Japanese American Internment on March 11, 10 a.m, (Gallagher Theater in the UA Student Union ) and on Race Relations on March 12, 10 a.m., and WWII Internment & the Holocaust on March 12, 2:30 p.m. (UA Library, Special Collections)

See our Calendar for more details.

“Fluent in Japanese, Pamela Rotner Sakamoto lived in Kyoto and Tokyo for seventeen years. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Amherst College, she holds a doctorate from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Sakamoto is an expert consultant on Japan-related projects for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. and has taught in the University of Hawaii System. Currently, she teaches history at Punahou School in Honolulu. “Midnight in Broad Daylight: A Japanese American Family Caught Between Two Worlds During World War II” is her first trade book.”

All Info at www.tucsonfestivalofbooks.org to reserve tickets for some of the events, and the full 2 day schedule of the festival.

Also coming to Tucson Festival of Books are two authors writing specifically on the WWII Japanese American internment camps:

Richard Cahan, author of

Richard Cahan by Jason Marck

“Un-American: The Incarceration of Japanese Americans During World War II”,

Cahan is “a journalist who writes about photography, art, and history. He worked for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1983 to 1999, primarily serving as the paper’s picture editor. He left to found and direct CITY 2000, a project that documented Chicago in the year 2000. Since then, he has authored and co-authored more than a dozen books, including “Vivian Maier: Out of the Shadows.”

and Richard Reeves, author of

Richard Reeves by Patricia Williams

“Infamy: The Shocking Story of the Japanese American Internment in World War II”

Reeves is “Senior Lecturer at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California, is an author and syndicated columnist whose column has appeared in more than 100 newspapers since 1979. He has received dozens of awards for his work in print, television and film. Reeves has published more than twenty books, translated into more than a dozen languages.”

Both authors will be on the March 11 WWII internment panel with Pamela Sakamoto at 10:00 a.m.

Reeves joins Sakamoto again on the March 12 panel at 2:30 p.m. on “Asking Why: WWII Internment and Holocaust”. See our Calendar for details.

Southern AZ Japanese Cultural Coalition

Japanese culture in the southern Arizona region

Monthly Archives: March 2017