Our SAJCC sponsored Spring Tucson Japanese Festival is in its 9th year, once again to be held at the Tucson Chinese Cultural Center, 1288 W. River Rd. This year the hours have been extended to 10 to 4 pm. So there will be more Japanese cultural activities and performances to enjoy. See performance schedule below. Price is still the same, only $5 for adults, children 5 years and under free. Cash preferred for entrance fee.
And Happy Hinamatsuri — Girl’s Day today in our Japanese culture. Display your dolls and treat the girls to special foods. I was the only girl in my family, with 2 brothers, so this was my day.
On Saturday, March 8、 professional basketball player, Koki Matsuda will visit our International School of Tucson (IST): From 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., there will be a basketball class open to the general public. Adults, children and inexperienced players are all welcome. Please join us from this link!”
Once again the popular Tucson Festival of Books will be held at University of Arizona mall on March 15 and 16. This year Japanese American presenter Dr. Junko Sakoi, Program Coordinator of multicultural curriculum at the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) will be presenting & moderating two workshop panels on March 15.
This session focuses on strategies for engaging young children in dialogue about banned books as they interact with banned book displays in a public school library.
Education Room 333: Parent Educator (Seats 44, Wheelchair accessible) Sat, Mar 15, 10:00 am – 11:00 am Children Signing area: Signing Area – Children (following presentation)
The 2024 list of Notable Books in Poetry and Novels in Verse will be presented by the NCTE Excellence in Poetry committee. The committee will discuss ways poetry can invite children to share their perspectives and experiences through language, imagery and format.
Education Room 333: Parent Educator (Seats 44, Wheelchair accessible) Sat, Mar 15, 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm Children Signing area: Signing Area – Children (following presentation)
Junko is originally from Shiso-city, Hyogo, Japan and is married to ceramic artist Kazuma Sambe. Her Ph.D. is in Teaching, Learning & Sociocultural Studies, College of Education, at U of A. She has also done several curriculum trainings on the WWII Japanese American internment camps for teachers and students (including recent Day of Remembrance at UA APASA office on Feb. 19, 2025).
The Education Building at UA is at 1430 E. 2nd St between Highland Ave. and Vine Ave. All workshops will be in room 333.
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Indie Author Susan Kiyo Ito will also be at the Tucson Festival of Books on March 15 and 16.
“I Would Meet You Anywhere: A Memoir (2023) Mad Creek Books, an Imprint of The Ohio State University Press, Columbus Growing up with adoptive nisei parents, Susan Kiyo Ito knew only that her birth mother was Japanese American and her father white. But finding and meeting her birth mother in her early twenties was only the beginning of her search for answers, history, and identity. Though the two share a physical likeness, an affinity for ice cream, and a relationship that sometimes even feels familial, there is an ever-present tension between them, as a decades-long tug-of-war pits her birth mother’s desire for anonymity against Ito’s need to know her origins, to see and be seen. Along the way, Ito grapples with her own reproductive choices, the legacy of the Japanese American incarceration experience during World War II, and the true meaning of family. An account of love, what it’s like to feel neither here nor there, and one writer’s quest for the missing pieces that might make her feel whole, I Would Meet You Anywhere is the stirring culmination of Ito’s decision to embrace her right to know and tell her own story. Ito’s decades-long tug-of-war pits her birth mother’s desire for anonymity against Ito’s need to know her origins, to see and be seen. Ito grapples with her own reproductive choices, the legacy of the Japanese American incarceration experience during World War II, and the true meaning of family. An account of love, what it’s like to feel neither here nor there, and one writer’s quest for the missing pieces that might make her feel whole, I Would Meet You Anywhere is the stirring culmination of Ito’s decision to embrace her right to know and tell her own story.”
Separated at Birth: Adoptee Voices
Millions of American adoptees have their own unique stories to tell, and in this session we will hear some of them from two authors who are themselves adoptees. Our panelists will be Marianne Novy, author of “Adoption Memoirs: Inside Stories,” and Susan Kiyo Ito, author of “I Would Meet You Anywhere.”
Koffler Room 216 (Seats 89, Wheelchair accessible) Sat, Mar 15, 2:30 pm – 3:25 pm Memoir / Essays / Creative Nonfiction Signing area: UA Campus Store Book Sales (Mall) (following presentation)
Authors: Susan Kiyo Ito, Marianne Novy Moderator: Cathy Rivers Sponsor: Session made possible courtesy of The Stonewall Foundation Fund at the Community Foundation of Southern Arizona
Adoptee Authors, Booth #223 (Seats 1) Sun, Mar 16, 9:00 am – 11:00 am Memoir / Essays / Creative Nonfiction
A Memoir Memoir / Essays / Creative Nonfiction The Ohio State University Press November 2023 ISBN 9780814258835 262 pages The author will make this book available for sale at the Author Pavilion during the Festival.
“Yume Japanese Gardens of Tucson will be hosting a Spring Ikebana Exhibit from Mar. 13th through Mar. 16th, 2025.
Let’s welcome the season of renewal surrounded by vibrant colors and fragrances.
Ikebana is considered “an art of the moment”: one flower, one branch, one artist, one encounter. Ikebana exemplifies how no moment repeats itself and how the rarity of that moment cannot be forgotten.
Our visitors will step into this world where every flower arrangement tells a story and captures a fleeting moment. Guests will be able to watch demonstrations, see the koi pond, and enjoy the living art gallery that it ikebana.
Spring is finally here, come enjoy it!!”
Date & Time:
3/13 – 3/16
Thurs-Saturday 9:30am – 4:30pm
Sunday 12pm – 5pm
Tickets: General: $20 Members: $15 Children (under 15): $5
Hosted by Members of AZ Chapter of Ohara School of Ikebana
“The Arizona chapter of the Ohara School of Ikebana is offering an Introduction to Ikebana workshop. Students will learn about the philosophy and art of Japanese flower arranging and create an arrangement. Students will receive a vase to use in class and take home with their flowers. Kenzan (frogs) will be available to borrow during the class.”
松田鋼季さんが来てくれます。在学生向けの日本語講演会の後、午前11時から12時まで,一般の方もお招きしてバスケット教室を行います。大人も子供も未経験者も大歓迎です。学校保護者でお時間の許す方は、いつもより少し早めの10時半に来て講演会へどうぞ、子供たちが日本語で質問する姿をご覧ください。
