Week 8: Government and Retreat

Sam Liccardo

Our NCI experience finally ends with week 8.  Helen Hayashi took Kelly and Michelle on a tour of downtown San Jose.  She drove us around St James Park to check out the homeless population.  In the afternoon, we went to city hall to meet San Jose City Councilmember Sam Liccardo.  He was very kind and charismatic when answering our questions.  Following our meeting with Sam Liccardo, we met with Ed Shikada, San Jose's Assistant City Manager.  He told us about his background and explained to us his position.  He was nice enough to show us some Japanese exchange programs and organizations which we very much appreciated.

Ed Shikada

Tuesday we called Ky Le, the director of Santa Clara County Homeless Systems.  He explained to us some of the programs and issues he is working on to help the homeless.  The next stop was with Julia Dawson, the Director of Georgia Travis Center.  She gave us a tour of the Georgia Travis Center; a spacious building for women and children.  It provides many programs during the day and helps to get peoples' lives back on track.  In the afternoon, we had lunch with Yosh Uchida and his assistant Jan Cougill.  Mr. Uchida (and Mrs. Cougill) told us about his life and how judo has been a huge part of it.  Mr. Uchida brought the weight class system and judo to the olympics.  He coaches for the San Jose State judo team and the USA olympic team.  He showed us his office and a portion of his awards he has received.  He brought out picture albums of sumo and judo from back in the day.  We ended the day with Ray Bramson, Director of the Homelessness Response team for the city of San Jose.  He gave us a realistic picture of homelessness in San Jose and the numbers in the city.

Sophie Horiuchi-Forrester

Wednesday started off with meeting Michelle Covert, the Manager of the Bill Wilson Center.  The provide programs and housing for teens and young adults.  It was a great location with many facilities accommodated for teens.  Wednesday was also the first day of our three day NoCal retreat.  The afternoon started off with a reunion with the SoCal interns.  We ate lunch at Yu-Ai Kai with the seniors and members of the Japantown Community Congress.  After lucnh, JAMsj gave us both a museum and walking tour.  The day in San Jose ended with a great workshop with San Jose Taiko.  They instructed us on their four principles and let us warm up before hitting the taiko drums.  

Day two of retreat started in San Francisco where all the interns debriefed about the internship as a whole.  Next, we divided into our regions and debriefed on our separate experiences.  In the afternoon, we were given a walking tour of San Francisco's Japantown by JohnDavid.  The day ended with a small NorCal NCI alumni dinner.

Taiko Workshop with San Jose Taiko

Friday was the last day of retreat.  We set up for the closing luncheon and welcomed family and previous supervisors and workshop leaders.  The luncheon consisted of intern testimonials, a slideshow, and gifts followed by many pictures.  If you would like to see more pictures from our last week, check out our Google+ page!  https://plus.google.com/u/0/  The closing luncheon was a great was to end the NCI program. 

Overall, we really enjoyed the NCI experience.  It gave us many opportunities and introduced us to amazing people who do great things for the community.