April Events

An Evening with Hiromi

Friday, April 4, 2008
Palace of Fine Arts, SF

Join us for a special night with Japanese piano artist Hiromi Uehara, in association with SF Jazz, we are pleased to present an intimate, interactive pre-show talk with Hiromi at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, 3301 Lyon Street, San Francisco. Admission includes a select seat for Hiromi's performance following the talk.

Hiromi first studied piano at age six in her hometown of Shizuoka, Japan. At age twenty, she expanded her musical sensibilities by attending the Berklee College of Music in Boston. The keyboardist/composer subsequently mesmerized the U.S. jazz community with her 2003Telarc debut, Another Mind. Today at twenty-nine with four award-winning albums to her credit, Hiromi draws crowds internationally. She stands at the threshold of limitless possibility, drawing inspiration from virtually everyone and everything around her. "I really don't have barriers to any type of music. I could listen to everything from metal to classical music to anything else," Hiromi said.

Check in will be at 6:45 p.m., Program begins at 7:00 p.m. and the Concert begins at 8:00 p.m.

The cost for the event is $55.00 for Japan Society Members and $65 general admission.

Tickets are limited and advance registration is required. Admission price includes a ticket to Hiromi's 8:00 p.m. concert. Due to intimate size of the pre-show event, late arrivals (after 7:00 p.m.) will not be seated until after the conclusion of Hiromi's talk.

Tickets will be available for pick up from Japan Society Staff at the door prior to the event.

For more information, please contact the Japan Society at (415) 986-4383 or visit www.usajapan.org.

JARF's 5th Annual Curry Cook-Off at CUPC

Saturday, April 5 from 4 to 7 p.m.
CUPC, SF Jtown

The fifth annual Japanese American Religious Federation Curry Cook-off will be held on Saturday, April 5, from 4 to 7 p.m. at Christ United Presbyterian Church, 1700 Sutter St. at Laguna in San Francisco Japantown.

Prizes include $100 for the best curry in the Judges' Category and $100 for the People's Choice curry. A group of three to five "celebrity judges" will vote on the first category, and all of the guests on the second. There will be additional prizes for the Children's Choice Award and more.

To enter your curry in the cook-off or to purchase tickets, contact Pine United Methodist Church at (415) 387-1800 or e-mail revjohnoda@yahoo.com.

Admission is $10 in advance, $12 at the door. Children 4 and under are welcome for free.

Proceeds will help fund JARF's ongoing work in the community.

Free Workshop for Family Caregivers - "Everything you need to know if you are a caregiver"

Saturday, April 5 from 1 to 3 p.m.
Kimochi Administration Building, SF Jtown

Please join Kimochi as they will be hosting a free workshop for family caregivers, "Everything you need to know if you are a caregiver" on Saturday, April 5 form 1 to 3 p.m. at the Kimochi Administration Building, 1715 Buchanan Street, 2nd Floor.

Donna Schempp, Program Director at Family Caregiver Alliance will be the speaker.

Pre-Registration is required. Registration forms are available at Kimochi Front Desk. Please send in the registration form to Kimochi Office, or just call Kimochi at (415) 931-2294 to register. Each workshop is limited to 20 participants.

PARTICIPANTS MUST BE NON-PROFESSIONAL FAMILY CAREGIVERS.

For more information, please contact Fumiko DiDomizio, Kimochi Social Services at (415) 931-2275.

'The Magic and Sounds of Kabuki' at Sundance Kabuki Cinema

Saturday, April 6 - doors open at 12:30 p.m.
Sundance Kabuki Cinema, SF Jtown

"The Magic and Sounds of Kabuki" presented by the Japan Side Committee of the 41st annual Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival will be held on Sunday, April 6 at 1 p.m, with doors opening at 12:30 p.m. at the Sundance Kabuki Cinema, Fillmore and Post St. in San Francisco's Jtown.

The performers are:
Kabuki Bayashi: Saburo Mochizuki, Issa Mochizuki, Tsurunosuke Fukuhara, Yohshu Fukuhara, Taku Taguchi and Katsujuro Kinya; Soko Nishikawa Classic Japanese Dance: Senkinoh Nishikawa and Sekinya Nishikawa.

The special guest is Himi City Japanese Lion Dance.

Admission is $25 for general admission and $20 for seniors/students.

The event is sponsored by NPO Infusion, Soko Nishikawa Classic Japanese Dance and Himi City (Toyama Prefecture). For more info call Dentoh at (415) 359-9570 or NPO Infusion at (415) 331-5049.

CBF Golf Tournament at Eagle Vines Course

Sunday, April 6 at 9:30 a.m.
Eagle Vines Golf Club, Napa

The Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival Fundraising Golf Tournament will be held on Sunday, April 6, at Eagle Vines Golf Club, 580 S. Kelly Rd. in Napa.

Check-in is at 9:30 a.m. and tee-off is at 11 a.m. The course is located off Jameson Canyon Road (Highway 12), just east of Highway 29.

This annual event raises funds to benefit all programs of the Cherry Blossom Festival, now in its 41st year. All proceeds go to the festival's general fund.

The event will be an individual 18-hold medal play competition using double peoria scoring.

Soft-spike shoes are required. Foursome requests will be accepted. The non-refundable entry fee is a $150 donation, which includes green fee, golf cart, dinner and tee prize. Entries are limited to the first 144 received. The deadline for entry was March 21, but it has been extended.

The grand prize for the raffle, donated by Japan Airlines, is a pair of round-trip tickets to Japan. The Cherry Blossom Queen candidates will be selling tickets for $2 each.

Those who arrive early can enjoy the complimentary range balls and enter the tournaments third annual putting contest.

All mulligans will be eligible for a separate golf prize from Eagle Vines Golf Club.

The hole-in-one contest will provide a chance to win a quick $10,000.

The Women's Flight will include additional door prizes.

Prizes for both men and women's flights include rounds of golf at Harding Park and other courses, golf equipment and other golf goodies, and gift certificates.

For more information, please call (415) 921-0146.

The Cherry Blossom Festival will be held in San Francisco Japantown on the weekends of April 12-13 and 19-20.

Folktales from the Japanese Countryside

Wednesday, April 7, 2008 from 10:30 - 11:30 a.m.
Mission College Library

Please join storyteller Hiroko Fujita on Wednesday, April 7 from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at Mission College Library as she will be telling folktales from the Japanese countryside.

Fran Stallings tells multicultural traditional tales and original stories. Autoharp accompanies her songs and embellishes many of her stories. She works with adults and all grades from K-12. Lively audience participation suits the age of audience members.

The schedule is as follows:

10:30 - 11:00 a.m.
Storyteller: Hiroko Fujita with Fran Stallings
Children's Program

11:00 - 11:30 a.m.
Storyteller: Hiroko Fujita with Fran Stallings
Program for Adults

For more information about the program: please click here. Daily parking permits are available in Lot D for $2.00

Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival

April 12 & 13
April 19 & 20
Post from Laguna to Fillmore, SF Jtown

The event is free and open to the public.

For more information, please visit http://nccbf.org.

15th Annual Cherry Blossom Festival Basketball Jamboree

Saturday and Sunday, April 12 & 13, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday, April 19 & 20, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. JCCCNC, SF Jtown

The 15th Annual Cherry Blossom Festival Basketball Jamboree showcases 3rd through 7th grade girls and boys teams from all over Northern California in fun and exciting games. Come see our youth in action! The Jamboree will be held in the JCCCNC Gymnasium located at 1840 Sutter Street in SF Japantown.

The proceeds from our annual Cherry Blossom Festival Jamboree will benefit the Shinzen Nikkei Youth Goodwill Basketball Program that sends 20 youth to Japan, every other summer, to learn more about Japanese culture through homestays and activities with the youth of Japan.

For more information about Fees, please contact Ken Maeshiro at (415) 567-5505 x 239.

To sign up, please call (415) 567-5505, email programsevents@jcccnc.org or inquire through the on-line form.

"Bullish on Asia" - Japan Society Lecture

Wednesday, April 16 at 5:45 p.m.
USF Main Campus, SF

With the American economy entering a recession, Japan's economy still struggling, the Chinese economy fighting inflation, and with Wall Street, the flagship of capitalism, being rescued by foreign state-backed investors (sovereign-wealth funds), where does one invest? Is Northeast Asia still a bullish bet?

To get some insights, come hear British-born, Cambridge-educated, San Francisco-based Paul Matthews, who has actively invested in Asian markets since 1982 when he moved to Hong Kong to work for the GT Group to manage their Pacific Growth Fund, one of the most successful Asian-oriented mutual funds in the U.S. In 1989 he left GT Group to establish Matthews International Capital Management. The rest is history-successful investment history.

Patrick Lloyd Hatcher, Ph.D., Kiriyama Senior Distinguished Fellow at the USF Center for the Pacific Rim, will conduct the interview.

The event is free and open to the public. Reservations are recommended by calling (415) 422-6828. For more information, please visit www.usajapan.org.

Asia Society Northern California to present three Leadership Awards at 5th Annual Dinner Celebration

Saturday, April 19 at 6 p.m.
Four Seasons Hotel

Please join the Asia Society Northern California on Saturday, April 19 at 6 p.m. for their Fifth Annual Dinner to present Leadership Awards to three individuals in honor of their distinguished service in the fields of Arts & Culture, Education and Business and Policy at the Four Seasons Hotel San Francisco, 757 Market Street.

A discussion between the awardees will be moderated by Steve P. Westly, FOunder & CEO of the Westly Group. The theme of this year's Annual Dinner is sustainability - both locally and in Asia. As issues of energy production, global warming, and environmental degradation have become worldwide concerns with an enormous impact on California, the Golden State is poised to help lead the way to a cleaner and more sustainable future.

Join us as we engage some of the key policy shapers and business leaders in California who are making a difference locally, nationally, and across the globe.

Arts & Culture honoree, George Lucas, is the creator of the Star Wars Saga and Indiana Jones series, director of American Graffiti and THX 1138, as well as the producer of a myriad of independent films. In 1971, Lucas formed his own film company, Lucasfilm Ltd, whose feature films have won 19 Oscars and whose television projects have won 12 Emmy Awards. Lucas' Letterman Digital Arts Center in the Presidio and two ranches in Marin County, represent the highest possible standards of environmental sustainability. Always striving for harmony with local environments, he has permanently preserved over 95% of more than 5,000 acres through an agricultural easement.

Business & Policy honoree, Peter A. Darbee, is a veteran of the energy, telecommunications, and investment banking industries. Mr. Darbee is Chairman of the Board, Cheif Executive Office and President of PG&E Corp. Based in SF, PG&E Corp. is a $34 billion energy-based holding company that has one of the largest natural gas and electric utilities in the US.

Education honoree, Dr. Steven Chu, was the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1997. He is Director of the Lawerence Berkely National Laboratory and Professor of Physics, Molecular and Cell Biology at UC Berkeley. Previously, he held positions at Stanford and Bell Laboratories. He is an interntionally renowned leader in energy research and policy and co-chaired the InterAcademy Council (IAC) study "Lighting the Way: Toward a Sustainable Energy Future."

For more information about the event or to RSVP, please contact Jennie Akune at (415) 421-8707 or email sfannualdinnfer@asiaoc.org. You may also visit the Asia Society website by clicking here

Free Workshops for Family Caregivers

Saturday, April 5th:
1:00 - 3:00 p.m.
"Everything you need to know if you are a caregiver"
Speaker: Donna Schempp, Program Director - Family Caregiver Alliance (English only)

Saturday, April 19th
1:00 - 3:00 p.m.
"Understanding Memory Loss - Dementia and Alzheimer Disease"
Speaker: Heather Grey, Supporting Group Coordinator, Alzheimer's Association

Thursday, April 24th:
1:00 - 2:30 p.m.
"How to Cope with Caregiving Stress"
Speaker: Sachi Inoue, Ph.D, Rams Inc.

2:40 - 3:10 p.m.
"Stress Reduction Techniques: Exercise and Meditation"
Speaker: Atsuko Sells

Saturday, May 3rd:
1:00 - 2:00 p.m.
"First Aid/Emergency Care for Seniors"
Speaker: Yukiko Kukimoto, RN, MS

2:10 - 3:40 p.m.
"Hands on Care Techniques for Family Caregivers"
Speaker: Yukiko Kukimoto, RN, MS

Pre-Registration is required: Please send in the registration form to Kimochi Office, or (415) 931-2294. Each workshop is limited to 20 participants. Participants MUST be non-professional family caregivers. Japanese translation will be provided. For more information, please contact Fumiko DiDomizio, Kimochi Social Services at (415) 931-2275.

2008 Events by Month

Current News & Ongoing Events

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December

2008 Past Events

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June

July

'Fusion' - Weekly Magazine - now on TV "Pacific Fusion," a new weekely magazine show that explores and illuminates the diversity and flair of Asian Pacific American cultures and lifestyles recently debuted this past sunday with showings every week at 12:30 p.m. on KRON-TV (channel 4),

The host is 1997 Miss Universe, Brook Lee, who has hosted programs on ESPN, the Travel Channel, and E! Entertainment Channel.

The show also airs in Honolulu on KHON2. For more information, please visit www.pacificfusion.com

Japanese Language Courses Offered at Nobiru-Kai

Japanese language courses for beginner and advanced students are now in session at the Nobiru-Kai office located at 1840 Sutter St. Suite #207 in San Francisco's Japantown. Students can study Japanese in a ligh-t mood at competitive prices. Classes offered are:

*Level 1 (beginning) - Saturdays 12:45 p.m. to 1:45 p.m.

*Level 2 (Beginning) - Saturdays 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.

*Level 4 (Advanced) - Saturdays 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.

The tuition is $7 per class for Nobiru-Kai members and $10 per class for non-members. There re is a $10 fee for each session after the first class. For more information, please call Nobiru-Kai at (415) 922-2033.