Japantown Business Association and San Francisco Closing Retreat

For my last week of NCI, I got to spend time with Kathy Sakamoto of the Japantown Business Association (JBA). I also got to meet Michelle Ramos, the JBA intern for the summer.

The Japantown Business Association is really important due to the diversity of Japantown. Naturally, businesses have different goals and shoot for different customers, so they won't always agree with each other. JBA really tries to help all of the businesses here, and the Japantown community. And being someone who visits the community regularly, I think the variety of the businesses here is needed to bring people into Japantown.

During my time with the JBA, I got to meet a lot of people. First, we attended a Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) meeting at the San Jose Museum of Art that included a couple city representatives and other important people in Asian American businesses or communities. They are organizing the CAAM Fest, a fall festival showcasing Asian American movies. This is a good opportunity to enlighten the community about various issues Asian Americans face and a different perspective.

I also got to see many of the businesses in Japantown during my time with the JBA. Kathy had Michelle and I go around Japantown to talk to business owners about Japantown's 125th anniversary next year. The JBA is trying to collect information on all the businesses in order to showcase them in social media and other things for next year. It was interesting to be able to meet a bunch of the business owners and their businesses. I have been in Japantown many times in my life, and there were several businesses that I never even knew about there.

On Wednesday, the Japantown Community Congress held a closing luncheon for me. And just like that, my time with the NCI program in San Jose was over. However, I still had a little bit more to do.

On Thursday, all the interns met up in San Francisco for the closing retreat. Jeremy and Coco first led a walking tour, mainly for the LA interns who hadn't been to SF Japantown for NCI before. We then had a statewide debrief, where all the interns talked about the pros and cons of our experience in the NCI programs and with the retreats. Then, we split up into our regions (Norcal and Socal) and had regional debriefs about our experiences with intern days. For dinner, former Norcal interns were invited to socialize with everyone, before we went to the Hotel Kabuki to sleep. 

The Norcal interns had prepped for the closing luncheon for several weeks, and now it was time to shine. Our theme was "Blazing a Brighter Future," as we used Tanabata decorations to convey our wishes for the Japanese American communities. First, we met with the California Japanese American Community Leadership Council (CJACLC) that consists of people from the three Japantowns. Then we had the closing luncheon, at which I spoke at. 

I would like to express my gratitude to Ellen, Andrew, and Roy for organizing the NCI program in San Jose. I would also like to thank all of my weekly supervisors who helped make this program a great experience, and the people they had me interact with. Finally, I would like to thank my fellow interns, for being the icing on the cake. I had a wonderful experience!