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Sister Cities Ep 6: Dances and Barbecues

By Ben Mirin, CIR

For now, please enjoy the purely English version of this week’s episode.  We’re a little behind in the subtitles, and will upload the final version (with Japanese subs) as soon as possible.

I had a lot of fun making this.  Hope you have fun watching.
Interviewees: Sae Tamura, Hitomi Shihoya, and Riho Ahiko

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To submit suggestions for future content, please email concordnanae@gmail.com. Thank you for visiting ConcordNanae.org.

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Sister Cities Ep 5 Minuteman Park with Akiko Tsushima

By Ben Mirin, CIR

Some fun facts:

  1. (Video time: 04:01): Akamatsukaido (Red Pine Street) is Nanae’s central road.  Its name honors the majestic Japanese Red Pines that line both sides for several kilometers.  The trees were planted for two respective visits from the Emperor Meiji, in 1876 and 1881.  Although nonnative to Hokkaido, some 1200 to 1300 trees still stand today.  These trees are featured in “This is Nanae!”, a documentary by former CIR, Bobby Kargula.
  2. (04:13) Nanamitsuki: Nana, meaning seven, refers to Nanae.  Mitsu refers to the sweet, golden flesh at the center of certain apple varieties, such as the Red Gold.
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Trailer: “Sister Cities” Web Series by Ben Mirin, CIR

By Ben Mirin, CIR

Ten weeks.

Ten episodes.

Ten in-depth interviews with citizens of Nanae, Japan.

Join me on Friday, MARCH 2nd for the premier of my new web series, “Sister Cities,” here on ConcordNanae.org and on YouTube!

Please consider leaving a comment on this post in the comment section below, or subscribing to the RSS feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader.

To submit suggestions for future content, please email concordnanae@gmail.com. Thank you for visiting ConcordNanae.org.

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The Mirin Family Visits Nanae

By Ben Mirin, CIR

As seen in The Concord Journal column, “The Japan Connection.” Stay tuned for pictures on Concordnanae’s Flickr Photostream and Photo Gallery!

July 4, 2011

Hold the bachi at your navel. Is it touching the surface of the taiko? If not, go lower.

With this mantra in mind, I assumed an increasingly strenuous stance alongside the rest of my family as we merged mid-song into the ranks of Nanae Danshaku Daiko Sosakukai, the Nanae taiko drumming ensemble. Before an audience of nearly one hundred Japanese town office workers, English students, and high-school students, the latest delegation from Concord, MA, struggled to keep the beat.

Like every other day in Nanae, tonight was another chance for my family to be a part of something extraordinary. Eight days had passed since their bleary-eyed arrival at Hakodate Airport. Now, at the farewell potluck party in Nanae’s Bunka Center, Japanese friends from every part of my multifaceted life in the sister city had converged in one place, to treat us one final time as special guests in their community.

The days leading up to the farewell potluck were filled with a rich variety of events and excursions. At the center of the schedule were the routine responsibilities of the CIR. My family visited four of my six English conversation (eikaiwa) classes, toured the town office, ate dinner with Mayor Nakamiya, and made origami with the children of Donguri Kindergarten. With incredible help from Koji Teraya and Emi Kimura (International Relations), we also managed to go sightseeing in Onuma Park and Hakodate. We played park golf, went fly-fishing in Nanae’s Ookawa River, and went bird watching in Onuma and southern Kameda. We even attended a big-band jazz concert in Hakodate’s Public Meeting Hall, and enjoyed a fabulous cooking class with my eikaiwa student, Yoko Sato.

Our final day in Nanae began with a visit to Nanae High School, where we arranged to have a special meeting with Principal Kogoshi before attending the Tea Ceremony and English clubs and the brass band rehearsal. Enthralled by the brass band’s final piece, a stellar rendition of the Super Mario medley, we barely made it to the Bunka Center before Nanae’s Vice Mayor, Shuichi Baba, began his official address to open the Mirin family potluck party. Continue reading “The Mirin Family Visits Nanae”

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The Concord-Nanae Student News Exchange Begins

By Ben Mirin, CIR

April 25th, 2011

Hitomi Shihoya

On April 11th, Concord-Carlisle High School’s student newspaper, The Voice, published its first article submitted by a student from Nanae High School.  Second-year student (high school junior) Hitomi Shihoya of the Nanae High School English Club wrote about her experience of Japan’s terrible earthquake last month and her reflections on its aftermath.

“I was very surprised because I had never seen such a large-scale earthquake in my whole life,” Shihoya writes.  “I came back to everyday life in a few days, but I am very anxious because I don’t know when the next natural disaster will happen. I am also very worried about more aftershocks, and the nuclear radiation in Fukushima.”

Shihoya’s article also expresses personal gratitude toward the US and other foreign nations that contributed to Japan’s relief efforts following the disaster. The complete text of her article can be seen on The Voice‘s website.

This publication marks the launch of what will hopefully become an ongoing exchange between high school students in Concord, Carlisle, and Nanae.  The projects’ orchestrators–the CIR and the faculty advisors to The Voice and the English Club–hope eventually to establish a written cross-cultural dialogue between students in both towns on at least a monthly basis.

Concord-Carlisle High School and Nanae High School are officially sister schools.  Official visits and home-stays between the schools’ bands and the CCHS Sci-Fi Club have been centerpieces in the rich history of the Concord-Nanae sister city relationship.  The Student News Exchange, as the project is tentatively titled, is intended to bring two more student organizations, the English Club and The Voice, more deeply into that framework. Continue reading “The Concord-Nanae Student News Exchange Begins”

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Nanae Students Visit Concord

By Ben Mirin, CIR.

On October 11th, 2010, eight students from Nanae High School and Middle School began a week-long visit to Concord, Massachusetts.  All were select members of Nanae‘s annual delegation to Concord, and most had never traveled outside of Japan.  Together with the help of the CIR, Ben Mirin, and staff at Concord-Carlisle High School, they produced a 10-minute documentary about their experiences and initial impressions of CCHS and its people.

Continue reading “Nanae Students Visit Concord”