by Jill Shiraki | Dec 22, 2020 | Classes & Events
J-Sei At the Movies: An Evening with Kimi Takesue
95 and 6 To Go, a film documentary
Friday, January 15
In “95 and 6 To Go” filmmaker Kimi Takesue captures the cadence of daily life for Grandpa Tom, a retired postal worker born to Japanese immigrants to Hawai’i in the 1910’s. Amidst the solitude of his home routines – coupon clipping, rigging an improvised barbecue, lighting firecrackers on the New Year – we glimpse an unexpectedly rich inner life. As his granddaughter queries his history of love and loss, a stalled film project becomes a collaborative inquiry into mortality and how one constructs a personal narrative with memories that span almost a century.
Shot over six years in Honolulu, this intimate meditation on absence and family expands the vernacular of the “home movie” to consider how history is accumulated in the everyday and how sparks of humor and creativity can animate an ordinary life.
Kimi Takesue is an award-winning filmmaker working in documentary, narrative, and experimental genres. She is the recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in Film. Takesue’s documentary 95 AND 6 TO GO (2016) was nominated for the prestigious 2017 European Doc Alliance Award. The film screened at over twenty-five international festivals.
RSVP with “At The Movies Jan 15” in memo line to receive the link to view the film and join the discussion.
J-Sei At the Movies
Congratulations on the third anniversary of J-Sei At the Movies! We look forward to more creative programming with educational and inspiring Japanese and Japanese American films. We are especially grateful for the up close and personal chats with filmmakers as we learn so much from the exchange.
We love to have a growing and captive audience. You are the best! We welcome any donations to help us offset costs for Movie Night. Thanks for considering this.
by Jill Shiraki | Dec 9, 2020 | Classes & Events
Thursday, December 10th – 6:30 pm
In Conversation with Nina Revoyr
Author of six novels including Southland
Join us for this special honor to meet with Nina Revoyr, notable author. While the dialogue will begin with a focus on Southland, J-Sei’s Book Club recent pick, the conversation will expand to touch on Japanese American community, race relations, neighborhood, and family dynamics through an expanse of time. It’s really a rare opportunity for us to speak with Nina directly. And it turns out that we are ahead of the curve, as Nina and SOUTHLAND are receiving renewed attention in the current context of racial justice and allyship. The online literary journal Alta has just announced SOUTHLAND as one of its California Book Club selections in early 2021.
Though Southland has some of the characteristics of a detective novel, Revoyr said: “I didn’t really conceive of it as a mystery, although I’m delighted that people are embracing that aspect of it…. But this situation … was the mechanism through which [the female character] was going to go back and discover all of these things about her and her family’s past. What I was very intrigued by was … what were the dynamics of the Crenshaw district, and interracial relations, and economics in Los Angeles that could have caused the riots to have happened in the first place…. The real revelation … has to do with some of the relationships between the people in the past; that was always where I was trying to get to.” [Excerpt from Book Sense “Nina Revoyr’s Southland Stakes Out A Different Los Angeles”}
Southland explores the fragile understandings and sometimes painful misunderstandings that occur across the lines of race and culture. It is also the story of an ever-changing city. Moving in and out of the past, from the shipping yards and internment camps of World War II; to the barley fields of the Crenshaw District in the 1930s; to the means streets of Watts in the 1960s; to the night spots and garment factories of the 1990s, Southland weaves a tale of Los Angeles in all of its faces and forms.
NINA REVOYR is the author of six novels, including A Student of History; Lost Canyon; The Age of Dreaming, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Southland, a Los Angeles Times best seller and “Best Book” of 2003; The Necessary Hunger; and Wingshooters, which won an Indie Booksellers Choice Award and was selected by O, The Oprah Magazine as one of “10 Titles to Pick Up Now.” Revoyr lives and works in Los Angeles.
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by Jill Shiraki | Nov 16, 2020 | Classes & Events, Other News
J-Sei’s Virtual Harvest Day Program
Friday, November 20th, 1 pm
This harvest season, we are grateful for the cultivation of the land and the ties we have to the earth from our past to our present. We are grateful for the bounty and the many helping hands that nurture the food that we prepare and serve for our J-Sei seniors. This year, despite all that we’ve endured with the COVID pandemic, we are especially thankful for the supportive community we are at J-Sei.
Join us for an afternoon to see the many faces of J-Sei classes, the volunteer kitchen crew, and hear personal reflections from Leslie Tsukamoto, Joyce Nakamura, and Pat Yamamoto, and special songs prepared by the J-Sei choir directed by Emiko Katsumoto and Carol Newberger.
Enjoy an easing of the soul with a meditative photo slideshow by Alan Maeda and soothing sounds by special guest, jazz guitarist Hideo Date.
RSVP for the link to the program.
by Jill Shiraki | Nov 11, 2020 | Classes & Events
Japanese Movie WATCH PARTY
Saturday, November 14th, 6:30 pm
Please join us this Saturday, November 14, at 6:30pm, for a JAPANESE MOVIE WATCH PARTY! We will watch a Japanese film via livestream, and we can comment in real time on the film in Chat while viewing, as well as have a short discussion afterward. We have not selected the film, but it will be Japanese (in Japanese with English subtitles), probably about an hour long, and it will transport us to a place where presidential elections are not of concern. And we can engage in a bit of armchair tourism. How does that sound?
If you’d like to participate, please RSVP by email to Jill (
jill@j-sei.org) with “J-FILM WATCH PARTY” in your subject line. We’ll send you a Zoom link before Saturday.
SPECIAL BENTO THIS MONTH!
Chef Yuji is preparing an extra special
obento for us this month, which will make all of us
unagi fans really happy. He’s making UNATAMA DONBURI, which is unagi (freshwater eel) omelette with mixed vegetables over rice. Yum! Because this bento features unagi, the price for this special bento is $20. Pickup will be at J-Sei, with staggered pickup times between 2:00 and 3:30pm. To place your order, please go to
MY FRIEND YUJI on Tock:
https://www.exploretock.com/myfriendyuji/
SPECIAL BENTO THIS MONTH!
Chef Yuji is preparing an extra special
obento for us this month, which will make all of us
unagi fans really happy. He’s making UNATAMA DONBURI, which is unagi (freshwater eel) omelette with mixed vegetables over rice. Yum! Because this bento features unagi, the price for this special bento is $20. Pickup will be at J-Sei, with staggered pickup times between 2:00 and 3:30pm. To place your order, please go to
MY FRIEND YUJI on Tock:
https://www.exploretock.com/myfriendyuji/
by Jill Shiraki | Oct 29, 2020 | Classes & Events
Sake Brewery Tour of Hachinohe Shuzo
Thursday, December 3rd, 6 pm
Hachinohe Shuzo, producers of the Mutsu Hassen brand of sake originated almost 300 years ago. Today, Hachinohe Shuzo is one of the most progressive and creative sake breweries, emphasizing environmentally-friendly, locally-sourced Aomori ingredients. Mutsu Hassen can be described as being elegantly aromatic with a full and rich ginjo style and a light, clean, refreshing finish.
Our program will feature a video tour of the brewery We will also get some insights about Hachinohe, a sea port town with so much history and culture, and of course, excellent seafood. Following our video tour, we will have a discussion with representatives of the brewery, so get ready to ask many questions about the sake making, the industry, the history or anything else sake. Sake expert David Sakamoto will host the program.
Sake tasting kits will feature four premium Mutsu Hassen sake for $30. Sign up to reserve your sake tasting kit.
by Tara Kawata | Oct 20, 2020 | Classes & Events, Other News
Medicare Presentation
Thursday, November 5th, 1-2 pm
The annual enrollment period is now underway October 15 – December 7. It’s easy to make mistakes when signing up for Medicare that can result in lifelong penalties or coverage gaps. HICAP counseling is here to help!
We Will Cover :
- Important information on changes to the Medicare Prescription Drug (Part D) Plans and Medicare Advantage (Part C) Plans in the coming year
- An overview of eligibility, costs, benefits, and changes in Medicare Parts A and B
- Options for supplementing Medicare and getting help with medical costs (including the Extra Help program)
RSVP for the webinar
A free presentation by the
Health Insurance Counseling and Advocacy Program (HICAP) of Legal Assistance for Seniors
HICAP provides free and unbiased community education, individual counseling, and advocacy to Medicare beneficiaries about Medicare, Supplemental Insurance, Prescription Drugs and Medicare Advantage plans, Long Term Care Insurance, Medicare Appeals, and Low Income Assistance programs.
