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Club Information
Little Tokyo
Every Tuesday at 11:45am except 4th Tuesday at 7:30am
Far Bar
347 E. 1st St.
Los Angeles, CA  90012
United States
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District Site
 
VenueMap
Venue Map
Upcoming Events
District Assembly
Carson Community Center
May 14, 2016
7:00 AM – 12:00 PM
 
Rotary Int. Convention in Seoul
May 28, 2016 9:00 AM –
Jun 01, 2016 12:00 PM
 
Russell Hampton
National Awards Services Inc.
Sage
News
Sachiko Yoshimura of JETRO to Speak Tomorrow
Sachiko Yoshimura of Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), the first female head of JETRO's LA office will be our guest speaker tomorrow.  She majored in English literature at the respected Sophia University in Tokyo.  At JETRO, she was in the research and analysis division and supported the expansion of small and medium size companies to overseas before she joined the LA office.
 
She is well respected in the Japanese business community, and this is your opportunity to get acquainted!
 
Let's give a very warm Rotarian welcome to Ms. Yoshimura!
 
See you tomorrow.
 
Yours in Rotary,
Makiko  
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Stories
Glendale Welcomed Us Warmly
Hiro Yokota and Makiko Nakasone were very warmly welcomed by the Glendale Rotary on April 28.  We could thank the 45-member club in person for their generosity to sponsor our club, send PDG Chuck Reinhart as our mentor, and purchased our 4-Way Test banner.  We exchanged the club banners with President Armen Khalafyan.
One of the inspirational moment is when the long-time Rotarian and the most generous member, Sam Carvajal, stood up after the presentation by representatives of the Healthy Start, a Glendale Unified School District's department which serves the homeless and foster care students.  Sam proposed, "Let's donate to Healthy Start.  I will match ever dollar!"  In the next 5 minutes, more than 10 members raised hands, donating $100 each.  With Sam's matching, they donated more than $2,000! 
Frances Hashimoto Plaza Beautification Project

Signature Project: Monthly FHP Beautification

Eleven members and friends got up early again and gathered at the Frances Hashimoto Plaza for our monthly beautification project on Sunday, April 24!  For many, this was the second weekend clean up in a row, but we were all happy to see the end results.  Our Community Service Chair/VP/President-Elect, Mike Okamoto, brought his impeccable drawing of the stone monument we are planning to install to honor late Frances Hashimoto at the plaza.  After the clean up, our own Yokko-san and her husband/designated photographer, Hiroyuki-san treated us with tasty coffee and sweets.  Thanks always for your kind hospitality!
 
Pictured are from left to right are Mari Robinson, Makiko Nakasone, Weili Materna, Yokko Ueda, Joanne Kumamoto, Collin from Sustainable Little Tokyo, Collin's mom, Derek Furukawa, Collin's dad, Mike Okamoto, and Hiro Yokota.  Not pictured are Hiroyuki Ueda and Tomomi Kanemaru of Nikkan Sun newspaper.

 
4-19-16 Club Meeting Report
Meeting on April 19 @ Far Bar from 11:45 am to 1:00 pm
Attended: June Berk, Makiko Nakasone, Mike Okamoto, Mari Robinson, Tsukasa Watanabe, Hiro Yokota
It is terrible to hear about the earthquakes in Kumamoto and Rotary Club of Little Tokyo express sincere sympathy to those we were affected by them.  We are currently collecting your kind donations to the victims.  If you would like to make a donation, please make your check payable to the Little Tokyo Rotary Foundation and give it to Yokko Ueda, the foundation treasurer.
Pledge of Allegiance: June Berk
4 Way Test: Hiro Yokota (Japanese) & Mari Robinson (English)
Reports:
Rotary Day of Service at the LA River was successful. There were 15 club members, families, and friends.  Everyone enjoyed the day. Thanks, Mike, for organizing the group!
Frances Hashimoto Plaza Monument project is making progress. Mike showed the design and reported that we picked up 3 stones and a granite plaque. Wording for the plaque is being finalized with JACCC and Hashimoto family.
Announcements:
FHP beautification project is on Sunday, April 24 from 9:30 am to 10:30 am.
We will have a Spring Social for the seniors at the Little Tokyo Tower on Wednesday, April 27 from 11:00 am. Lumbini preschool children from Higashi Honganji will sing TWO songs!!
We will be dark next Tuesday as we will have a joint meeting with Glendale Noon club on Thursday, April 28 from noon to 1:30 pm at the Embassy Suites in Glendale.
District Conference will be from April 28 to May 1 at the Hilton Hotel Mission Bay.
A-Bomb survived camellia tree re--planting ceremony at Storrier Steaner Japanese Garden in Pasadena on May 8
District Assembly in Carson Community Center from 7 am to noon on May 14: new board members and officers for the next Rotary year are encouraged to attend.
Club Runner demonstration: President Makiko showed contents and function of our webpage: http://littletokyorotary.org/Please visit the website! If you have technical issues, please call toll free 877-469-2582 by 2pm as the service center is located in Toronto.
Rotary Day of Service a Huge Success
Kudos to our Community Service Chair/PE, Mike Okamoto, for recruiting as many as 15 club members, family members, and friends to participate in the Rotary Day of Service on Saturday, April 16.  I think our club had the most number of participants in the District!  The L.A. River near the Sepulveda Sports Complex in Van Nuys became so clean, and we all felt really good.
 
Those who sacrificed their beautiful Saturday morning to come for the clean up are: Mike Okamoto, Hiro Yokota, Weili Materna, Sylvia and Yoshi Ena, Joyce and Greg Chinn and their friends, Connie Yuhara, and Brian Ikeda, Chris Komai, Miyako Hotel's Keiji Kobayashi and his entire family, Ayaka, Kaeru, and Mahiro, and myself.
 
Sorry, I seemed to have missed the group photo, and could picture just five: (from left to right) Weili Materna, Brian Ikeda, Connie Yuhara, Joyce Chinn, and Makiko Nakasone.
 
Domo arigato!  
Good Show at Last District Breakfast
 
Trying to beat the morning cross town traffic, several members became early birds and made it to the last quarterly District Breakfast at LAX Westin on April 5th at 7 am.  We love the friendship with other Rotarians in the district, but also wanted to show our support to the Interact and Rotaract students, the next generation Rotarians, who were emcees and organizers of the breakfast.  The room was packed with more than 300 attendees.
  Our club was again recognized as one of dozen clubs which inducted new club members this Rotary year.  We welcomed a total of five new members so far, a net gain of 25%.
  Shown in the picture from left to right are Makiko Nakasone, Joyce Chinn, Mari Robinson, and Mike Okamoto.  Attended but not shown in the photo are Sylvia Ena and Jan Perry who had to leave early for work.  As you may see, some of us purchased Rotary backpacks to support the Interact abd Rotaract students who are already planning for next year's humanitarian trip! 
Joint Meeting with Burbank a Big Success
The joint meeting with Burbank Sunrise was a big success on 3-29-16! Some of us became early birds, attended their 7:15 am meeting at the Burbank Holiday Inn, and were ever so warmly welcomed.  We were happy that we could thank them for their generous support to our club in person.  We will not forget their kindness to donate their $192 Happy Bucks earlier this Rotary year, several Tiger rice cookers they had purchased at our first fundraiser, and the banner banner they had given to us.
 
We proudly presented our brand new club banner for exchange.  This banner is the creation by all of our club members over several months, but in particular with the time and effort thrown into by Yokko Ueda, our professional computer graphics designer.  The banner was a big hit.
 
Accompanying Makiko were Tomoko Omura and Weili Materna.
 
 
FH Family Visits Our Beautification Project!

Frances's Son, Ryan, Joins Our Clean-up

At our monthly beautification project at Frances Hashimoto Plaza yesterday, we were delighted by the visit of Ryan Friedman, the son of late Frances Hashimoto, and his finance, Sharon Im.  We were happy that we could personally show Ryan and Sharon what we had been doing to express our gratitude and respect to one of the most respected community leaders, late Frances.  Even though it was Easter Sunday, 15 members and friends showed up to clean the plaza, and water the Rosemary we had planted.
 
Sown in the picture from left to right are: Weili's friend, Kumiko Nakamura, Mari Robinson, Hiro Yokota, Yokko's husband Hiroyuki Ueda, Haru Takehana, President Makiko Nakasone, Ryan Friedman, Weili Materna, Sharon Im, Chris Komai, Joyce Chinn, Mike Okamoto, and Yokko Ueda.  Not pictured but came for the clean up are Kathy Ikeda and Derek Furukawa, past president of Gardeners Federation of Southern California.  It is important to note that Derek had a conflicting schedule, but instead of skipping the clean up altogether, he came early in the morning to blow leaves on the plaza for us to make our work easier!  Now that is commitment and dedication.
 
As part of the beautification project of the plaza, we are planning to install a stone monument to honor Frances with the money we raised by selling the 52 rice cookers Japan Tiger Corporation of U.S.A. had kindly donated last fall and the Rotary District community grants we recently received.
 
The next clean up will be ay 9:30 am on Sunday, April 24.