San Francisco 49 miles Scenic Drive -4

Since Japan Town is one of my favorite place, forgive me, readers, to park in the basement garage of Japan Town Buildings, and walk around a little bit to show you insight of Japan Town uploading some pictures taken in Japan Town.

First Picture left is the close-up shot of the 5 layer roof Japanese Style Pagoda. Instead of Japanese ones are all wooden built, this is all concrete architecture. But it still is Buddhism Pagoda, carrying the message for love and peace.




This place is small square where the people working in Japan Town can take lunch out. Some times you can see Asian people playing Japanese style or Chinese style Chess. The picture right is main road go through Japan Town. The tower is built copying Japanese traditional Fire Watching Tower. There are Japanese Shops around here.

Picture below left is World War II Japanese American Monument on the same street as above. Each of 4 side of this stone shows 1. Immigration Started, 2. Building Base of Living, 3. Started to Enjoy Living Here, and 4. War destroyed their Living and Enjoyment. The message says "Please rest in peace. We will not make such a mistake again."



The last picture below left shows inside of Japan Town Buildings. There are many restaurant and shops and I cannot show them all here. Sushi, Sashimi, Benihana BBQ, Tempura, you name it you have it. The picture is the shop selling Japanese potteries and ceramics with traditional Japanese paintings and arts. If you are familiar with Japanese Potteries, it is Mashiko.

There are some shops and groups who are providing training for Japanese Dance, language, Origami, Drams, Musics, etc... Occasionally, these groups hold a booth in Japan Town Buildings and serve tea and talk with people visiting here. They are very friendly. It is great place to hear Japanese Accent English explaining Japanese traditions and histories.


Related posts:
http://zheninternational.blogspot.com/2009/03/san-francisco-49-miles-scenic-drive-3.html
http://zheninternational.blogspot.com/2009/03/san-francisco-49-miles-scenic-drive-2.html
http://zheninternational.blogspot.com/2009/03/san-francisco-49-miles-scenic-drive-1.html


Check my websites to find out what I am doing:
http://vur.me/shawfunami/main
http://vur.me/shawfunami/SF
http://vur.me/shawfunami/zi


Feel free to contact me:
shaw@zhenintl.ws
Shaw Funami
Fill the Missing Link

Japanese American and I -2

When I decided to keep staying in US and declared so in 2001, there are a lot of problems and frictions in my family. I remember some family members accused me yelling at me "You are abandoning your own mother country and family". I can imagine for the people immigrated to overseas must have had same kind of experience. But, they decided to emigrate based on government policy, this kind of blame may be out of mark.

Japanese Government, despite the promoting this policy, was very irresponsible it seems. In 1980's when Japanese enterprises are building their factories and offices in foreign countries including US, did not hire Japanese Overseas much, in spite of Japanese Overseas People's strong hope, desire, and expectation.

Japanese Americans in WWII time needed to prove themselves to be Americans, needed to give up their original language and expose themselves to fierce European battle field. My wife is a Chinese American born in China. Comparing Chinese Community and Japanese Community in US, I see a clear difference. For example, Japan Town, San Francisco, is a historical monument. No Japanese American Living can be felt. Chinatown, instead, has a lot of living activities. 2nd Floor of Souvenir Shops is their living space, I can hear babies crying, husband and wife are shouting something. After more than 60 years since end of World War II, the War is still affecting peoples lives all over the world.

There were time when Japanese Companies hiring Japanese Overseas inviting them from Brazil, etc... Because younger generations population is decreasing in Japan, it is only way to expand their business in Japan. The situation changed last year. Due to the bad economy today. They are now firing them, according to Japanese TV News Program. I cannot help talking to myself what a country. What a companies. So selfish.

I am starting to believe that now is the time that Japanese Overseas - Japanese should strengthen their ties and try to cooperate, coordinate, help each other, so that no external environment including government, countries, companies can hurt us any more.

Japanese-Japanese people should learn more about Japanese Americans, Japanese Brazilians, Japanese Overseas. The followings are the same site and blog I showed in part-1, but for Japanese people to learn about Japanese Americans, these are very good sites:
http://www.densho.org/
http://blog.densho.org/

Also, there are Japanese site introducing the history of Japanese Americans, for your reference:
http://www.nifty.com/aja/start.htm

I also hope that this article and information will help world people to understand Japanese and our history a little more than knowing Japanese as "Economic Animal", "Japan as #1" or "WWII enemy", or "Quality Products", or "Toyota", or "Sony" (LOL).

If you are interested in Japanese version of this article, please visit my Japanese blogs:
Part-1
http://zheninternational.cocolog-nifty.com/xiaozhen/2009/01/-1-6c84.html
http://zhenwu.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2009/01/-1-6c84.html

Part-2
http://zheninternational.cocolog-nifty.com/xiaozhen/2009/01/-2-dff4.html
http://zhenwu.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2009/01/-2-dff4.html

Contents are the same in both blogsites.


Check my websites to find out what I am doing:
http://funami.edcdiamond.com/
http://www.shawfunami.com/
http://zhenintl.ws/

Feel free to contact me:
shaw@zhenintl.ws
Shaw Funami
Fill the Missing Link

Japanese Americans and I -1

It was February in 2005. I was standing outside of Shen Yang Airport, Liao Nin Province, China. I was taking a flight to Tokyo, Japan in 2 hours. It was just right after Chinese Moon Calendar New Year and outside was freezing cold. But, I cannot stop watching the outside wide, huge, and vast landscape spreading in front of me. It was nothing spectacular, but just flat, wide, and vast. I was thinking to myself that "I can understand the feeling of many Japanese in past felt coming to China and never gone back to Japan."

The history of modern time Japanese emigration brings us back to 1885. Japanese continuously emigrated to several countries. Brazil, US, China, Thailand, etc... until WWII slowed everything. Now, I myself being a "Japanese living outside of Japan', the history of Japanese Overseas has kept interested me. A friend I met 30 some years ago started me to think about it. His name is Paul Nakamura. He was an English Teacher in Tokyo. He looked like a Japanese, but he acted slightly different from Japanese, and he could not speak Japanese other than simple conversation. He was a Japanese American born in California. 3-sei (3rd Generation).

He and I get along together. I attended his lessons, lunch together, dinner and drink together. One time, I asked him if he had not been interested in learning Japanese. He told me that his parents did not want him to learn Japanese. He further told me that his father was constantly nervous and his mother was always angry. And they were always against him and stopped him whenever he showed interest in Japanese stuff. But, he could not stop himself being attracted by Japanese culture and needed to come to Japan and see it and feel it.

Since I met Paul, I started to think about Japanese Overseas. Because I was also the one who is majorly interested in living outside of Japan. I started to live in San Francisco, 1997. My previous employee sent me here as a part of stationed Japanese management team. I came across the Tanforan Shopping Mall's Picture posting above, July, 2008. It was showing Japanese Americans' history in War time. I talked with Japanese American Society and posted the following Japanese Article. "Another Pacific War - Record on Tanforan Japanese Camp".

http://golog.nifty.com/cs/catalog/golog_article/catalog_002300_1.htm?page=1

The following is one of the pictures I was allowed to use from NJAH (National Japanese American Historical Society). There are a lot of pictures but this picture was kept in backside of my eyes for long time. I even feel that this picture keep shouting out loud.

After the article was posted, I did not do anything particular on this subject. On New Year Day, this year, I was watching Japanese TV Program and came across a program about Japanese Americans, and found about the following 2 sites.

http://www.densho.org/
http://blog.densho.org/

I talked with the site management, and showing the above URL and link with their consent.

These are very good website and blog including Japanese Americans' testimonies taken in video. They are great source of historical information.

In taking a look at the testimonies in video clip in these sites and information given from NJAH, I was thinking the relationship between Japanese Americans (Japanese Overseas), Japan, Japanese Japanese, and I.

I did not like this article to be too long. So, I will write my thinking in the next article.

PS: I hope that this article and information will help world people to understand Japanese and our history a little more than knowing Japanese as "Economic Animal", "Japan as #1" or "WWII enemy", or "Quality Products", or "Toyota", or "Sony" (LOL).

If you are interested in Japanese version of this article, please visit my Japanese blogs:
Part-1
http://zheninternational.cocolog-nifty.com/xiaozhen/2009/01/-1-6c84.html
http://zhenwu.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2009/01/-1-6c84.html

Part-2
http://zheninternational.cocolog-nifty.com/xiaozhen/2009/01/-2-dff4.html
http://zhenwu.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2009/01/-2-dff4.html

Contents are the same in both blogsites.


Check my websites to find out what I am doing:
http://funami.edcdiamond.com/
http://www.shawfunami.com/
http://zhenintl.ws/

Feel free to contact me:
shaw@zhenintl.ws
Shaw Funami
Fill the Missing Link