Wow, it feels weird, but I’ve finally written a new Nikkeiview column, the first in a year and a half. I’ve just been too busy (I know, it’s a lame excuse), but by writing these Nikkei Blog posts, I’ve been inspired to finally sit down and write a longer column.
It helps that I went last weekend to southern New Jersey with a JA group to Seabrook’s annual Bon Odori dance. Read the column here, and let me know what you think.
By the way, i know there are a broken links all over the Nikkei View site. If you get an error message when you click to an older article, try adding “/nv/” between “nikkeiview.com” and the rest of the url. Sorry about that. I’m manually trying to fix the links when I can, and I’ve asked Daigo Fujiwara, the man who set up this blog for me, and who transfered the Nikkeiview site to my new hosting company, if there’s some automated way he can fix the links….
Hi Gil,
Nice to be able to read your column again! And Congratulations to you and Erin on your marriage!
Aloha,
Isami Yoshihara
Mahalo, Isami! It feels good to be back in a writing mood, and I hope the blog will be a perfect outlet so I can be more prolific again.
Gil
Dude,
You obviously have a lot to learn about the East Coast. For one thing, Seabrook is not between Philly and Atlantic City – its way farther south. See that’s what happens when you come on a bus – you don’t have to look at a map or know where you’re going. Second, of course its humid here in the summer. As people here always say when its stinkin hot in the summer: “it’s not the heat, its the humidity.” Now you have an idea. It will probably be that way next year for Obon too, and most years after that. The surprise is when the humidity is low (oh yes, and by low I mean like 35% instead of 60- 85%, which feels absolutely crisp). And third, many of us don’t consider Seabrook to be a small JA community, but a JA community. There are not too many places on the East Coast where you’ll find things like a JA Buddhist temple, a JA church, a JA boy scout troop and Hoh Daiko. Not to mention its own JACL chapter.
So welcome to our part of the world. When is PC going to move here?
Paul
Hi Paul! You know, I figured someone would get me on the description of Seabrook being in between Atlantic City and Philadelphia. I looked at a map this mornign and saw that it’s south of both, it sort of makes the third point of a triangle with equidistant (more or less) sides from Atlantic City and Philadelphia. That’s why I described it that way, for the folks who don’t live in the east. Hey, at least I was sensitive enough to describe it this way: “even tiny JA communities like I imagine exists in a place like this.”
Thanks for the clarification of the JA community here… I wondered, but for a first-person account I went with my initial thoughts, which is what I generally do for my columns and blogs.
And you might think 65% humidity is crisp, but man, I’m wilting up here! I’m convinced central air conditioning, which my Jersey City apartment has, is the greatest invention since fire.
PC come to this area? Sorry, man, I know for a fact without hesitation that the JACL wouldn’t be able to pay the staff enough to leave Little Tokyo for the Big Apple or anywhere this side of the continent.
See you soon, I hope!
Gil
PS — In the interest of accuracy, I’ve edited the column slightly, incorporating some of Paul’s vast and deep pool of knowledge.