Consul General Ihara Thanks CA-TF2

On April 26th, at the Los Angeles County Control Board’s regular meeting, Consul General Ihara offered words of thanks to search and rescue team CA-TF2 for their rescue efforts in Japan after the earthquake and tsunami on March 11th.

CA-TF2 is a special-ops team of more than 70 members of the Los Angeles Fire Department who are specially trained for search and rescue missions. The team was deployed to Japan the following day on March 12th for 8 days to search for survivors in disaster stricken areas.

Several third-generation Japanese-Americans were also a part of the 74-member team that went. After returning home, they have been very active in participating in charity events and other activities to convey the status of the affected areas.

House of An Charity Event

Also on the 26th of the month, the Southern California Restaurant Group, House of An sponsored the Great East Japan Earthquake charity event.

The event was to give guest speaker Masako Unoura a chance to express to an audience face to face what would be to difficult to convey through television what she experience while she was in Miyagi Prefecture when the quake hit.

Unoura spent 16 hours on a rooftop before she was rescued by the Japanese Self Defense Force. She said of the situation at that time that closure is neutral in that words could not express most of what she felt.

A member of the CA-TF2 search and rescue team was also present to speak about the status of the affect areas.

Unoura gave thanks to those who were working from home. The $25,000 in donations raised at the event for the day will be passed on to the Japan-American Society.

Create for Japan

Members of the Torrance Art Museum (TAM) met with Consul General Ihara to hand deliver $7,100 in donations towards the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake relief efforts. These donations were raised at the museum at the open reception of their “Gateway Japan” exhibition.

At the exhibition, was a collection of works from more than 150 Los Angeles based artists and artists from Japan that were sold at $50 each. This project to support Japan relief efforts was entitled “Create for Japan” and is still open, with works of art for sale whose proceeds will go towards the relief efforts in Japan.

Little Tokyo Design Week Press Conference

It’s the futuristic kid robot, Astro Boy!

Astro Boy is the mascot for the first ever Little Tokyo Design Week for which a press conference was held on April 21st. The theme for Little Tokyo Design Week will be “Introducing Japanese culture and cutting-edge design and technology.”

Fashion, Robots, Graphic Design, and Architecture are the 4 themes that will be displayed in facilities and restaurants across Little Tokyo, including the Japanese American National Museum. The going with a 1970’s Japan motif, the event is expected to attract upwards of 75,000 people.

There will also be a host of 20 containers in which artists from Los Angeles and Tokyo can house small museums inside. They will be located along the central streets and the JACCC plaza.

EI Make-up Competition

EI, the world’s first school of professional make-up held it’s annual make-up contest. This year is the 7th year for the contest which, including returning graduates, had 30 entries. This was a timed contest with the purpose of placing students and professionals in the same environment.

This year the winner of the “extreme fantasy” category, which had the most entries, was from Charlene Pabacon. whose design took root from the world of burlesque. Her design used a high degree of skill in make-up application and fed off influences from the areas of LA where she grew up. It was these points that brought her out on top during the judging.

Charlene’s design will be featured in the International Make-up Artist Trade Show in June.