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Nov 4, 2024 | 
nichibei.org | Derek Tahara
RICHMOND, Calif. — For more than 50 years, Sakura Kai Senior Center has been nourishing Nikkei seniors’ minds and bodies through numerous activities and programs. Marjorie Fujioka, a Sakura Kai board member, spoke about the volunteers who have helped prepare food and teach classes. The organization currently offers technology classes, including how to use mobile devices. In addition to Fujioka, Amy Shinsako, a Sakura Kai long-term volunteer, shared stories about the organization’s history.
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Oct 28, 2024 | 
nichibei.org | Derek Tahara
Ninety-year-old Ruth Ichinaga still lives an active lifestyle through playing taiko, and taking hip-hop dance classes at the Albany Senior Center in Albany, Calif. Ichinaga worked as a nurse for the Oakland Unified School District before retiring. She said her nursing career has helped her stay healthy throughout her life.
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Sep 23, 2024 | 
nichibei.org | Derek Tahara
SAN JOSE — Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in late 2019, several businesses in San Jose’s Japantown shuttered, opening the door for new companies to occupy those empty spaces. The new shops include barbershops and salons, artistic businesses and specialty stores. Kia Fay, The Curl Consultant owner, said when she moved from Oakland, Calif.
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Sep 6, 2024 | 
nichibei.org | Derek Tahara
Shuichi Nihira begins making soba at 6 a.m. every day. Nihira, who co-owns Sobakatsu with Yoshi Shinoda, can make 70 to 80 bowls of soba per day. The cozy new soba restaurant is located at the corner of Laguna and Sutter Streets in San Francisco’s Japantown. According to Nihira, Shinoda researched the best soba noodles in the United States.
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Jul 27, 2024 | 
nichibei.org | Derek Tahara
As a women’s softball coach, Brian Iseri tries to teach his players “how to be confident even through adversity.” Iseri, 59, has relied on his positive mindset since being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in mid-May. “I think using some of that (confidence) is really helping me get through this,” Iseri said in a phone interview with the Nichi Bei News.
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Jul 2, 2024 | 
nichibei.org | Derek Tahara
The Rev. Yuki Sugahara, the new rinban for the Buddhist Church of Sacramento, was born to be a minister, almost literally. The Shimane Prefecture native’s parents are both ministers. His family has had 15 generations of family ministers. Sugahara assumed his appointment as the regional head minister of the greater Sacramento-area temples last July. Previously, he was the resident minister at the Oregon Buddhist Temple in Portland, Ore. from June 2017.
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Jun 29, 2024 | 
nichibei.org | Derek Tahara
Karen Tsugawa painted the history of Sacramento Japantown in an oversized panel of hanafuda cards on a mural at the corner of Fourth Street and Capitol Mall in the city. Organizers held the unveiling May 29. Group members spoke about the project, their family’s connection to Japantown and the ethnic enclave’s history. Tsugawa and Reclaim Sacramento Japantown, a group aiming to help the community remember the ethnic enclave, have spent a few months working on the project.
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Jun 27, 2024 | 
nichibei.org | Derek Tahara
On Dec. 31, 2023, the Seattle Betsuin Buddhist Temple became the victim of an arson attack, the Wheel of Dharma previously reported. The temple is “still in the early phases of the restoration process,” Alex Sakamoto, an Arson Restoration Project Committee member, told the Nichi Bei News in a phone interview. The temple is still in the clean-up phase, as “there was smoke damage throughout the whole temple,” he said. He added that they had to throw much of the “physical content” away.
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Apr 4, 2024 | 
nichibei.org | Derek Tahara
WAIPAHU, Hawai’i — Jon Itomura, the Hawaii United Okinawa Association executive director, said his organization is a result of the Battle of Okinawa, in the Pacific War, “which devastated all of Okinawa.” The nonprofit was established in 1951 to assist in the relief effort.
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Mar 30, 2024 | 
nichibei.org | Derek Tahara
Rich Saito, a respected San Jose Japantown community member and retired San Jose Police Department lieutenant, passed away March 14. “Rich is gone too soon and is being missed by everyone in Japantown,” Pam Yoshida, Japantown Community Congress of San Jose co-president, wrote in an e-mail to the Nichi Bei News. The JCCsj shared in a Facebook post that, “It is with a heavy heart and tears, that (we) share the passing of Rich Saito.
