www.gbcjls.org What age of yourself did you like the the nation, people and best? the world everyday. Can you age gracefully? The emperor’s What scenery is the world? days start off with the ritual What do you hear when listen? What noise is the silence? of morning prayer Close your eyes. What do you see? for the nation. Throughout Between a question and answer, the years of their reign, they trav- eled all over Japan numerous times JLS Article: Madoka Hull, Principal which one do you need now? Preschool Article: Keiko Damiata, Director Do you have will to do? to meet people, and comfort them Translation: Madoka Hull, Hiroco Ames Layout： Hiroco Ames at the time of big disasters. They Word Process, Edit, Print: Eri Nelson What do you want most? publically visited various countries NEWSLETTER SPRING- 2019 What are the ingredients of the life? in the world. Both the Emperor and What is the happiness? Empress spent enormous time and effort for their nation and the people. PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE This era despises words. I humbly would like to express my Do you believe in words? sincere respect and appreciation. I “First Question” hope for their continued health and by Hiroshi Osada happiness, and for the new Emperor (Japanese poem translated to Naruhito and Empress Masako’s English by Madoka Hull) successful reign. Currently, Japan is facing many problems with neigh- Did you look up at the sky today? Was it far or near? I hope the New boring countries. We sense an unset- What were the shapes of clouds? Year finds you in excellent tling feeling. Upon the renewal of What smell filled the wind? spirits. the era, I hope that we have bright What is a good day? The year 2019 is the last year of and peaceful world. Have you told someone “Thank you!” Heisei era in Japan. As many of you today? may know, Japan counts years using Madoka I. Hull, a system of an imperial reign period, Principal What do you see through the window, and currently we are in Heisei ( 平 or in the far distance on the street? 成 ) era. Heisei era began with Em- Heisei (平成)… achieving peace Have you seen a spider web sparkling peror Akihito’s succession from his 平… peace with raindrops? 成 Have you stood under the oak or father Emperor Hirohito’s passing in … to become keyaki tree? 1989. During the 30 years of Heisei Do you know the names of roadside era, so many incidents happened. trees? The examples of recent incidents are Are trees your friends? the Kumamoto earthquakes, super heavy rain, typhoons; floods in many CLASS OBSERVATION When did you last gazed at the river? parts of Japan, the great Tohoku AND TEACHER-PAR- When did you last sit on the sand or (east Japan) earthquakes and nuclear ENTS CONFERENCE grass? power plant meltdown. The 2007- At the end of January, we had class What is it beautiful without hesitation? 2008 economic collapse is still fresh What are your 7 favorite flowers? observations and teacher-parents in our minds. The fall of the Berlin For you, who are “We”? conferences. I was Wall, Gulf War, Soviet collapse are glad to see so some occurrences of the Heisei era. Have you heard birds twittering before many parents The last 30 years, the Emperor Aki- dawn? came and ob- hito and Empress Michiko prayed Have you prayed facing the west sky served classes. when the sun is going down slowly? for the peace, security and order of For the small Spring, 2019 Page-2 children’s classes, many parents are eager to talk to BUDDHISM LESSON 101 their child teachers, so that some parents had to wait their turn for quite a long time. We apologize for your On December 18th last year, the students of Mr. Yas- wait. The designated teacher-parents conference day is hiro and Ms. Uehara’s classes attended the Buddhism not the only time you can speak to teachers. Please feel seminar for the first time. The students learned the free to talk to your teacher anytime after classes. simple concept of Buddhism and the Japanese words derived from Buddhism such as “Ohao (good morning” and “Konnichiwa (hello.)” They learned the meaning of “religion” and “truth”. The students were introduced APPRECIATION some Buddhist concepts: anybody can become Buddha when one attains enlightenment, life of suffering (pain Mrs. Masako Ota, who was one of the advisors of the and misery exist in life) , and all worldly things are im- Buddhist Women’s Association here at the Church, permanent. The lecture was about 40 minutes, as a brief passed away at the beginning of January. I attended introduction. Since our students had little knowledge of her funeral representing the school. She taught at this Buddhism, I wonder how much they took in. However, school in 1950’s. Upon her passing, the JLS re- it was a very good to be exposed to one of the world’s ceived a large donation from late Mrs. religions. Ota and her family. We would like t's en Le joy to express our deepest condolences mer w to the family. We are very grateful Sum ith u SUM-MER SCHOOL s! to Mrs. Ota and her family for their SOON ACCEPTING ENROLLMENT thoughtfulness to the school and their generosity. FREE Let’s make good use of summer vaca- T-Shirts tion by learning Japanese.The program includes Japanese learning, arts and crafts with summer themes, exercise, cooking, making shaved ice, a field trip and many more fun activities. 2019-2020 NEW SCHOOL YEAR It is an enriching program and the best chance for your ENROLLMENT children to review, learn new things and catch up. The registration forms are available at the office. Registration for the 2019 - 2020 school year will start. [Summer School] The notice and the re-registration form will be distributed l in the classes in April. Please submit the re-registration Daily Class: form to your class teacher, A.S.A.P. June 24 (Mon) - Augst 2 (Fri) The dead-line for the enrollment: l Saturday Class: July 6 (Sat) - July 27 (Sat) JLS Daily division ... Friday, May 31 JLS Sat. division ..... Saturday, June 1 RING SAL l To Preschool 4-year-old parents: SP E Please note that for the preschoolers who are enter- P T C ing the kindergarten class of the Japanese language FUND-RAISING We NEED division from this fall, the dead line is different your heeeelp! from currently enrolled JLS dtudents. n Daily Cookie Sale Deadline for 4-years-old - Saturday, May 11 Friday, March 8 After the dead line, $140.00 registration fee will be Tickets are n Chiken Terriyaki charged for it is treated as a new registration. Please available & Cookie Sale read the detailed information letter that will be dis- NOW! Saturday, March 9 tributed in each class at a later time. Spring, 2019 Page-3 PTC NEWSLETTER OSEIBO DONOR LIST THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR GENEROSITY! Happy New Year! I hope you had a Ajifu, Masanobu Mizutani, Takeshi nice holiday season. We went to the Akai, Greg Morimoto, Kerry Joya-no-Kane service at GBC on New Akimoto, John Nelson, Brad Year’s Eve and made Ozoni with the Arakaki, Pablo Nelson, John Arakawa, Tatsuya Nishikawa, Mark mochi we made at the PTC Mochitsuki on Arima, Kevin Nishio, Yohei the New Year’s day. I’m grateful that my daughter can Arkin, Mike No, Jason experience the Oshogatsu tradition in USA. Armstrong, Stephen Nouchi, Wayne Asahina, Kinji Noya, Yutaka In December, we had another successful annual Mo- Asai, Hajime Okawa, Jeyemy chitsuki event. The PTC would like to thank all the Bilbrey, David Olszewski, John parents/grandparents who came to volunteer Bobola, Michael O’Neill, Shaun Chang, Mark Palm, Miki at the event. Not only the students, but Chunono, Chris Pash, Justin all of us had a wonderful time, Cohen, Alexander Peng, Stephen pounding, rolling, and eating Cooper, James Quan, Dean Cudal, Jansen Reed, Michael the fresh mochi. Volunteering Denem, Julius Rinoie, Ken during the busy pre-holiday Elkner, William Samuels, Harris weekend has never been easy, Froeb, Gordon Sato, Masaaki Fujimoto, Gary Sato, Takashige but it’s always worth seeing Fukunaga, Robert Scallon, Philip the kids’ happy smile. Gani, Steve Sesto, Adrian We’d like to thank PTC president Godinez, Albert Sugisaki, Toyokazu Gorton, Edward Tagawa, Tomoko emeritus Ms. Nancy Hamasaki and the former board Goulet, David Takahama, Akira members Ms. Lisa Kuwabara and Ms. Frances Hikido Guadagno, Thomas Takahama, Hiroyuki for coming to help the Mochitsuki again this year. We Haneda, Atsunori Takeuchi, Minoru Harrison, Shane Tani, Ron are also grateful to have Marukai corporation’s support Hashimoto, John Tasaki, Ken as usual. Hashimoto, Masaki Torihara, Kohei In the new semester, the PTC will have the spring Hata, Robert Tran, David Hill, David Washington, Brandon chicken teriyaki sale and the Yochien division will hold Hutchison, Cory Watanabe, Toshio the annual Undokai event. Please see the notices from Ichiyanagi, Nana Wong, Edwin the school office for each event and try to participate as Ikeuchi, Mark Wooster, Andrew Ito, Kai Yamada, Mariko a volunteer as much as possible. Johnson, Kenji Yamada, Zachary Kanai, Kousuke Yamaguchi, Koji Yoko Godinez, PTC President Kau, Ryan Yamashita, Suguru Kelly, Steven Yee, Thomas Next PTC Meeting: Kim, Edmond Yoshida, Eric Kurokawa, Johnny Yoshikawa, Akiko n Saturday, Feb, 23rd at 8:45 am in the Cooling Room. Leumg, Terry Young, Rich Lin, Eric Yun, Nathaniel Mametsuka, Randy Zaw, Steven If your name is omitted from the list or any Ziemba, Paolo correction, please report to the JLS office.