Yonsei 18 - Fourth Generation Japanese-Americans - Part 1

My husband and I have two sons.  The younger son lives with his Japanese wife and two sons in Nagoya, Japan, while our older son lives with his Japanese-American wife and two sons in California. And there-in lies my story. (Remember you can click on any picture to enlarge it.)

In California, my son's family belongs to the Yonsei Basketball Association.  Quoting from the Yonsei Basketball Association web site:
"The Yonsei Basketball Association, founded by Frank Kiyomura in 1993, consists of specially selected young men and women active in Japanese-American Youth Basketball throughout Southern California. The vision of the Association is to provide our American youth with a glimpse of their rich heritage through immersion in the Japanese culture by staying with a local Japanese family and participating in their daily lives."

Here's the basketball teams: boys and girls. Zachary is the
boy standing closest to the right side.

(Yonsei refers to the fourth generation of Japanese-Americans.
First generation:  Issei
Second generation:  Nisei
Third generation:  Sansei)

Last summer Zachary (age 14) as part of the Yonsei Youth Basketball Team, along with parents and siblings, traveled  to Tamana on the Island of Kyushu in Southern Japan.  Kyushu is a popular tourist destination - sub-tropical, with active volcanoes, one of Japan's finest reconstructed castles and gardens.  Tamana is a small town where The American Yonsei team played Tamana High School Team - among others.

Members of the entourage stayed in hotels, while each basketball player stayed with a host family.  (The host families most likely knew very little English, and the Yonsei visitors probably knew less Japanese, although they did have some lessons before they left the States.)

Zachary with his host Takuma

Our younger son, Sharif, living in Nagoya (Central Honshu - south of Tokyo)  drove with his family and mother-in-law to Tamana to see his brother and family.

Here they all are at the Tamana train station. Left to right, Chris (age 4) held by his mom, Sachiyo,  Liam (age 7) in front of Sharif, Wade, Zachary, Cody (age 10), Joyce and Mrs. Oi.

Kumamoto Castle with samurai warrior

When not watching basketball games,  the families took in the sights.  This is the Kumamoto Castle.  Kumamoto is just south of Tamana.  Chris was not at all happy about the samurai warrior sharing this picture with them.

Apartment gardens seen from Kumamoto Castle

Here is Cody having a calligraphy lesson, one of the Yonsei activities.

Bedroom scene at the hotel - with Cody relaxing

Garden from hotel window.



Wade and Sharif in the garden.



Chris exams a prickly pod while Cody shows Liam a bug (?).

After a few days the Yonsei Team said good-bye to their host families.  The Yonsei group traveled on to Hiroshima, and Sharif and his family continued on to visit the Aso-san volcano caldera, a big tourist attraction on Kyushu.

You may be  wondering why it took me 9 months to write about this trip.  I had to collect the pictures from our sons' Flicker accounts.  It took me awhile to get enabled to download and/or copy photos, to decide which ones to use and to determine how to describe the Yonsei 16 program.  The last problem was solved when I hit upon looking for the web site.