JASC’s Kaiwa Club has enjoyed the long days of summer this year. They recently gathered at Wash Park to enjoy a little Japanese style BBQ, picnicking, 日本語 conversation and summer fun. This group of smiling faces has grown over the years with friendships deepening and evolving beyond JASC borders. What a testament to the JASC mission of expanding people to people relationships between Colorado and Japan! The group meets every other Saturday and there is always space for YOU!

JASC has been busy all over town lately! We collaborated with the Denver Botanic Gardens to host an absolutely lovely evening stroll in the Japanese Gardens as Ebi Kondo and Jim Arneill educated us on what we were seeing and the thought behind it all. It truly was a treat to spend the evening with friends and take our time enjoying and learning about the beauty within the Japanese Gardens.

Last week we met up with our JASC Young Professionals group to hear about the ins and outs of global business from Masa Kamimura of Montbell and Rod O’Dorisio of Tea with Tae. Tea with Tae kindly hosted this event and made sure all attendees got to enjoy a delicious cup of tea at their beautiful location on the 16th Street Mall. Participants spent much of the evening networking with peers and mentors and broadening their professional scope.

If you missed JASC at the PACE Center in Parker earlier this month, you can see the recording of Japanese Aesthetics- Bonsai & Ikebana which was part of the Parker Arts Lecture series. Our wonderful Junko Goodwin gave this insightful talk to a group of over 75 attendees.

We hope to see YOU at an upcoming event soon!

Thank you to all our Kaiwa and JASC members who came out to cheer on and support our JASC Dragon Boat team, Nichi-Bei-GO at the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival last month! We had an amazing time racing on the water against some fantastic teams and hanging out at our tent with friends over the weekend as we represented the CO-Japan relationship on the water and at the Festival. Let me tell you, the smiles on these paddlers faces were brighter than the stars over Rocky Mountain National Park at night as the Festival came to an end and Nichi-Bei-GO took GOLD in the 250m Hong Kong Community A Division races. This team shared sweat, meals, early mornings, thunderstorms, laughs, tattoos and camaraderie. Ultimately they learned to paddle as one- a beautiful metaphor for the JASC mission of bringing together two cultures. Nichi-Bei-GO will be racing once more this season and expect more smiles and good times on the water together.

がんばっれ　がんばっれ　日米GO!