Our first days of NCI (Nikkei Community Internship) had us split 3 days in San Francisco and San Jose to meet the other interns from SF and LA. There are 21 total interns in the program; 2 from San Jose, 7 from San Francisco, and 12 from Los Angeles. We learned that these 3 cities are the last remaining official J-Towns left in California. Learning this we learned why this program is important to the future of J-Town communities and how each of us can take what we learn from where we are placed and the workshops that we do and use it for the future of J-Towns and the Nikkei Community.
Picture of SJ,SF, and LA interns in SF J-Town 6/15/15
Meeting and getting to know my fellow interns was a great opportunity and experience. I got to meet people from different schools and leadership backgrounds as well as other people within the Nikkei Community. I soon realized that the Nikkei Community that I had grown up and been apart of for my life up until now was just a portion of what the actual community is. Just being apart of and active in the Mountain View Buddhist Temple/Buddhist Churches of America and subsequent youth groups/ organizations was the only idea or picture that I had of the Nikkei Community. I was aware of San Jose Japan Town and actually grew up there, going to pre-school and practicing Judo for a few years as well as being active in the Tri-City/ Nikkei sports leagues was the only other part of the Nikkei Community that I was aware of as well. My goal by the end of this program is to hopefully as my time here at NCI progresses on I will become more involved within the broader Nikkei Community of San Jose Japan Town and understand what it takes to help this community progress.
First Few Days:
As the day began we rolled into the Issei Memorial Building on 5th Street in San Jose Japan Town. We met with Roy Hirabayashi who showed us around the historic building that we will be calling "home base" for the next 8 weeks. Next we met with Duane Kubo who began to talk to us about our overarching project that we will be working on mostly for the time we are working in J-Town. He allowed us to think of a few ideas that we then narrowed down to creating a film or documentary to help raise awareness about the historic Issei Memorial Building. So for the past two days we have been working on research and filming ideas as well as a timetable to do such an "ambitious" project as Duane put it for the next 8 weeks. We are also working on a few smaller projects such as a social media campaign to help tie the community together as well as other even smaller projects like taking surveys for the JCCsj and the JBA while we are here.
Brainstorming ideas for our two main projects with Duane
Alec Matsumoto 5/19/15
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