Waiting for the wasabi to kick in, I took another bite of
homemade sushi while dining in the social hall of the Morgan Hill
Buddhist Temple on Wednesday afternoon. It was a gathering of the
South Valley Japanese/American Senior Group together for a special
summer session to welcome visitors from abroad.
Waiting for the wasabi to kick in, I took another bite of homemade sushi while dining in the social hall of the Morgan Hill Buddhist Temple on Wednesday afternoon. It was a gathering of the South Valley Japanese/American Senior Group together for a special summer session to welcome visitors from abroad.
Riugi Hanamoto warmly greeted me, helping to spell his name, which by the way, means dragon and second son. Riugi has lived in the Madrone area of Morgan Hill since 1946 and bought his current residence in 1952. Before retiring and growing six acres of kiwi fruit, Hanamoto worked at ITT testing lunar modules. Hanamoto’s group was given the engineering task of working the relay for the lunar module’s soft landing (all this while helping his parents build and organize the Morgan Hill Temple through the Nissei Service Group).
Another greeting from Brian Shiroyama, self-assigned go-fer and chauffeur for the visiting Japanese dignitaries from Morgan Hill’s sister city, Mizuho Machi and lunch was served. Judy Little stopped her scurry long enough to make sure I knew I was welcomed to the good eats spread across four serving tables. “Go on, stop writing and eat,” Little said with a momma-knows-best-you-better-eat-the-fish tone and a husky laugh.
Merv Little gave me the look like I should listen to his wife and not argue. You don’t have to ask me twice to eat! Especially when the array of food is screaming “home-cooked.” I like the way Karen Anderson’s spaghetti slid right in between the Asian noodles and the sushi rolls (you never know the combinations you’ll get with potluck).
School Superintendent Alan Nishino and his wife Akiko attended the event along with Mayor Dennis Kennedy. Mary Wakatsuki of San Martin sat next to me, coaching my spelling of names along with some translation from her parents Ted and Tamako Kubota.
John Faggioto, chair of the Morgan Hill Sister City Commission, escorted the mayor of Mizuho Machi, Kouemon Ishizuka, and his entourage to the head of the center table. “Faggioto,” says Karen and Einar Anderson, “has invigorated the sister city group!” After the luncheon, Shiroyama planned more chauffeuring of the group down to Monterey, Carmel and Pebble Beach. Good choices, Brian. Their huge lunch should last days.
Days turned into hard nights when The Sun Kings played a gig at Bonfante Gardens strumming tunes for a Gilroy Rotary fundraiser last Saturday night. The Sun Kings are a tribute band for Beatles tunes, right down to the Lennon small glasses worn by the lead guitarist, Drew Harrison. With a repertoire of more than 200 songs, the band kept the Rotarians and their guests dancing well past the 10pm ending time.
Larry and Chris Mickartz took a night off from their new B&B venture. The Mickartzes have successfully opened the only B&B in South County, hosting their first guests July 1. They are happy to report a full booking (of both rooms, with a third to be added soon) for the upcoming Garlic Festival and Larry proudly (and humbly) told of the first breakfast menu that consisted of a prosciutto and asparagus strata.
Hungry for action Saturday night was event organizer Dr. Greg Martinez, who liked playing the game “sneak up Ninja-style” with Assistant Gilroy Police Chief Lanny Brown. The rough-and-tumble game was quite amusing when joined by David Cox. Good thing Maxwell Silver was not around.
The balmy Gilroy night put everyone in a festive mood, especially Linda Trelut, sister of Bonfante Gardens founder Michael Bonfante. Trelut danced throughout the night at the foot of the stage with hands up and smile on. Mouths could be seen open singing all the words to the songs, each song getting an even louder reception.
Steve and Marisa Mitchell took a break to walk around the gardens while the band recharged, but Marisa said with a smile, “I’m a baby boomer, and I’m really enjoying the Beatles tribute.” Also seen at the party were Cathy and Peter Katavich, Ricardo and Sara Espinosa, City council member Russ Valiquette, Cricket Rubino (a few Morgan Hill Rotarians came to party with their southern cousins), Anthony Garcia, and Brad and Robin Nye. The President of the Board of Directors of Bonfante, Bob Kraemer, was reported to be in attendance, but I must have missed him somewhere in the mosh pit. At last count, more than 200 tickets were sold for the event. Gilroy loves the Sun Kings, yeah, yeah, yeah!
A voice from the community called today to announce the new ownership of Suzanne’s Music School in downtown Morgan Hill. The relatively new owners of the Music Tree have purchased the school and plan to offer piano, voice and early music classes. The tentative new name is The Tree House. I like it, guys, and you never know, maybe South County will produce their own Fab Four some day.
Ciao for now.
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