Obon Dance Practice

Obon dancing is made for anyone to come in and participate ... but for ease of mind, we are having free community dance practices to learn the dances that most temples in the Southern District are doing, every Tuesday and Thursday until our Obon carnival on August 4 & 5, 2007 in our parking lot.

GVJCI Carnival, June 23-24, 2007

The GVJCI Carnival was this past weekend.

Every year at the Gardena Valley Japanese Cultural Institute Carnival, the church helps out at this community fundraiser in two ares. - game management for Bingo on both nights of the Carnival, and making and selling sushi (chirashi and inari) on Sunday only.

The sushi-making started on Saturday. Some of the ingredients could be prepared ahead of time and refridgerated.

The rice-cooking starts early in the morning on Sunday which I was in charge of. I open up the Social Hall Kitchen, and start the first batch of five 32-cup pots of rice. It takes about an hour before it is ready for the vinegar and the rest of the process, so that's why the rest of the rice-cooking team gets there later.

Then the whole assembly line gets going, using about 50 volunteers to make everything and have it delivered to the JCI.

Why don't we "modernize" the process, make shortcuts here and there? Well, as long as there are able-bodied volunteers to help why not? It is a social thing and its good to catch up on the latest gossip as well as simply seeing people.

Little by little, the process of making sushi is opening up to people of all ages, genders and walks of life - and that is important about being part of the Sangha.

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Because I woke up early to get to church, after bringing home late the Jr. YBA from their seminar in Oxnard the day before, I will admit was "in deep meditation" during part of Rev. Nakano's family sermon. At least the "meditation" was in silence. I couldn't recap what was said, but I'm sure she had good things to say.

Namo Amida Butsu

Losing A Friend

This past week we lost a friend. He was a member of former GABAs and had always encouraged the YABA leadership to move up, because eventually it would be these YABAs that would be the leaders in the church. Not to long ago, after an unusual day for him while preparing for Obon, he undergone some tests and was later diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as "Lou Gehrig's disease."

What it is it? From the ALS - Greater LA Chapter website, it is "a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually lead to their death. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With voluntary muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed."

A year later his family and friends supported him in the annual ALS-Los Angeles fundraiser, Walk to D'Feet. It had been a 4 mile walk around Santa Monica, last year it became a 2.3 mile walk around the USC campus, sponsored by the Phi Delta Theta, the same fraternity that Lou Gehrig was a part of at Columbia University. Every year, members from our temple, supported by the ABA, had also joined the walk.

This year the walk will take place again on the USC campus on Sunday, October 7. Info is at http://walkgla.alsa.org/site/TR?pg=entry&fr_id=2770.

In many ways, the merging of the GABA and the YABAs was probably a Dan Shikuma idea. So a few years later, here they are, one group, and still encouraging the next generation of church leaders. If anything, Dan left us a legacy to laugh and have fun. It is not work, if we are having fun. In the last few years, ALS had gotten the best of him, and he had not been around much but even then his spirit still outshined us all. We have been missing him, but we've been ready for that. The funeral service is set for Friday at 10:00 am.

Gassho.

Hollywood Bowl Fourth of July Concert

Tickets for the Hollywood Bowl Fourth of July Concert, "A Tribute to Gene Autry and John Wayne," on Monday, July 2 with fireworks are still available from the Gardena ABA. It is a joint activity with Los Angeles Betsuin ABA. Check with a member for tickets or email me.

If anyone has any news or comments, email me and I'll get them included here.

Southern District Conference Fundraiser

The Buddhist Temple of San Diego and Vista Buddhist Temple, our hosts for the Southern District Conference, have an opportunity drawing to help defray costs. Please email me for information.

Also, each organization is gathering registrants for the conference to be held on September 29, 2007, in San Diego. If you are not a member of one of the church organizations, and still like to attend, contact the church office or email me.

June 17, 2007

Congratulations graduates! We recognized the six high school graduates from our Dharma School during our family service. Also we celebrated Father's Day with the Jr. YBA serving hot dogs for lunch for everyone. Thank you Jr YBA and parents for making that happen. It is real nice to sit down and share a meal with everyone in the Sangha.

We are helping out at the JCI Carnival by selling chirashi this Sunday, June 24, 2007. Anyone who can help with rice-cooking and rice-mixing should call the church office or reply by email here, info@gardenabuddhistchurch.org. We start working at 4:00 am in the morning.

American Pastimes

A film worth mentioning and available on DVD is "AMERICAN PASTIMES," directed and written by Desmond Nakano. A look at the life inside the Topaz Internment Camp of WWII, ironically about the American pastime -- baseball, behind barbed wire and ending with a game between the Japanese American internees and a team from the "outside the barbed wire."

See the trailer http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0825225/trailers-screenplay-E31846-10-2

A schedule for this summer's "Film Programs at the GBC" is coming soon.