Group Hug
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Sunday August 3, 2008 Shinzen 2008 Day 7 Another Free Day
Decided to let Hiroya sleep in as he seemed to be getting a little worn out from the non stop activities during the week.
If Shinzen was truly meant to show what a typical JA family does, he did not get the real feel for our family as it was not in the midst of baseball or basketball season.
So Timmy and Hiroya ended up goofing around with each other and Thomas
The highlight of his day was going to get some gum for his sister Yukimi to take home to Japan. We did not find the gum, Timmy wanted to get but ended up with giving him Bubble yum to bring home and some trident. Hiroya did not seem like he wanted to go sightseeing.
Timmy and him then had a typical lunch for Timmy, instant ramen noodles, they both agreed that Sapporo Ichi Ban Chicken was the best.
Tonight was the farewell Matsuri Reception to be hosted at the JCCCNC Gym. We once again purchased Chicken Wings and for Kara, Singapore Chow mein. The singapore chow mein was a big hit at the last potluck, so we ordered it again.
Listening to the speeches from the various speakers
This is Timmy doing the combined Soran Bushi with the Osaka YMCA Boys
Start of the farewell Dance
Closing speech
Parting for the night
Takumi ended his meeting with Timmy the same way he greeted him by picking him up
Mr Nakamura, head of YMCA
Coach Shinya
new friends, Ryu, Sho, Timmy and Takumi
Old Friends
more new friends Shoichiro Tomohide and Yuto
Old opponents = New teammates
Ended the trip with a night out for Ice Cream at G Square
One last picture with the ballers from the East with the Ballers from the West
Takashi,Timmy, Max, KGlappy,Yosuke, Kara
If Shinzen was truly meant to show what a typical JA family does, he did not get the real feel for our family as it was not in the midst of baseball or basketball season.
So Timmy and Hiroya ended up goofing around with each other and Thomas
The highlight of his day was going to get some gum for his sister Yukimi to take home to Japan. We did not find the gum, Timmy wanted to get but ended up with giving him Bubble yum to bring home and some trident. Hiroya did not seem like he wanted to go sightseeing.
Timmy and him then had a typical lunch for Timmy, instant ramen noodles, they both agreed that Sapporo Ichi Ban Chicken was the best.
Tonight was the farewell Matsuri Reception to be hosted at the JCCCNC Gym. We once again purchased Chicken Wings and for Kara, Singapore Chow mein. The singapore chow mein was a big hit at the last potluck, so we ordered it again.
Listening to the speeches from the various speakers
This is Timmy doing the combined Soran Bushi with the Osaka YMCA Boys
Start of the farewell Dance
Closing speech
Parting for the night
Takumi ended his meeting with Timmy the same way he greeted him by picking him up
Mr Nakamura, head of YMCA
Coach Shinya
new friends, Ryu, Sho, Timmy and Takumi
Old Friends
more new friends Shoichiro Tomohide and Yuto
Old opponents = New teammates
Ended the trip with a night out for Ice Cream at G Square
One last picture with the ballers from the East with the Ballers from the West
Takashi,Timmy, Max, KGlappy,Yosuke, Kara
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Saturday Aug 2, 2008 Shinzen 2008 Day 6 Free Day with Host Family
As listed before, Hiroya's dream was to see a Professional Basketball Stadium, so you can call Timmy the dream teamer. We took Hiroya to Oracle Arena. and here are the pictures.
Hiroya in the parking lot of Oracle Arena
Hiroya in front of the Coliseum
Hiroya at the entrance to Oakland Coliseum
Picture of Golden State Warriors Plaque of Championship Season
After that it was off to Bay Fair Mall to go to Kids Footlocker as Hiroya is only a size 4.5 or 5 American shoe size.
Hiroya spent most of his money on some Nike Jordans
After that we went onto Mariner's square to look for Jordan Shirts and shorts at Nordstrom Rack but unfortunately we did not find any
We ate lunch at Panda Express, Hiroya ate the goyza but did not especially like the Beijing Beef but ate the Orange Chicken
After lunch it was onto the Great Mall of San Jose to visit the Nike outlet and Burlington Coat Factory that Timmy guaranteed would have Jordan Shirts. We found a couple of shirts and a hat for his friend back home. It was at Marshall's that Hiroya spent the remainer of his money. HIroya found a Jordan sweat shirt, two jordan sweat pants and a Jordan training shirt. This was to replace the two Jordan T-shirts that he wanted to buy at Niketown in SF that were Men's mediums that he swam in and we had him return. Hiroya kept the men's small Jordan shorts in red that he purchased from Niketown.
After a tiring walk thru the mall and finding nothing at Nike outlet, we decide to head to Irene's brothers place where Hiroya could meet Daryl and Deanna from the other side of the family.
After having a nice BBQ dinner of Chicken, sausage, steak, salad, rice and two different cakes for dessert at Peter and Tency's house, in which Hiroya kept saying Big House, Big House (and not Smokey Gaines big house) we headed home. Interesting part of the day was that according to the homestay information, Hiroya is suppose to be alergic to animal hair and dust among other things. But he told Jerome that he loves dogs and that it was okay to let DeeDee into the house. so in the immortal words of Max "what's up with that"
Before heading home, we took him to Krispy Kreme in Union City and had him sample a fresh made doughnut and purchased some for breakfast on Sunday.
">Not sure if this link works but this is a funny video of the other Shinzen homestay day on Saturday called Hey Max
Hiroya in the parking lot of Oracle Arena
Hiroya in front of the Coliseum
Hiroya at the entrance to Oakland Coliseum
Picture of Golden State Warriors Plaque of Championship Season
After that it was off to Bay Fair Mall to go to Kids Footlocker as Hiroya is only a size 4.5 or 5 American shoe size.
Hiroya spent most of his money on some Nike Jordans
After that we went onto Mariner's square to look for Jordan Shirts and shorts at Nordstrom Rack but unfortunately we did not find any
We ate lunch at Panda Express, Hiroya ate the goyza but did not especially like the Beijing Beef but ate the Orange Chicken
After lunch it was onto the Great Mall of San Jose to visit the Nike outlet and Burlington Coat Factory that Timmy guaranteed would have Jordan Shirts. We found a couple of shirts and a hat for his friend back home. It was at Marshall's that Hiroya spent the remainer of his money. HIroya found a Jordan sweat shirt, two jordan sweat pants and a Jordan training shirt. This was to replace the two Jordan T-shirts that he wanted to buy at Niketown in SF that were Men's mediums that he swam in and we had him return. Hiroya kept the men's small Jordan shorts in red that he purchased from Niketown.
After a tiring walk thru the mall and finding nothing at Nike outlet, we decide to head to Irene's brothers place where Hiroya could meet Daryl and Deanna from the other side of the family.
After having a nice BBQ dinner of Chicken, sausage, steak, salad, rice and two different cakes for dessert at Peter and Tency's house, in which Hiroya kept saying Big House, Big House (and not Smokey Gaines big house) we headed home. Interesting part of the day was that according to the homestay information, Hiroya is suppose to be alergic to animal hair and dust among other things. But he told Jerome that he loves dogs and that it was okay to let DeeDee into the house. so in the immortal words of Max "what's up with that"
Before heading home, we took him to Krispy Kreme in Union City and had him sample a fresh made doughnut and purchased some for breakfast on Sunday.
">Not sure if this link works but this is a funny video of the other Shinzen homestay day on Saturday called Hey Max
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Friday August 1, 2008 Shinzen Day 5
The week has gone by quickly as each day has been jammed packed either with basketball or events.
The group went to visit different organizations in the community, Kimochi, Nihomachi Little Friends, Kokoro Assisted Living, Chibi Chan and JCYC Tomodachi Summer Program
No pictures as I did not attend, if someone load some up to the web I will add them in as they come in.
Hiroya was trying to tell Timmy something and they had to go to Lori to figure out what he wanted. It turns that he dream for this trip is to visit an NBA Basketball Stadium, so on Saturday we are taking him over to the Oakland Coliseum to visit the outside since we cannot get inside.
(They did translate that he could not go inside but he still wanted to go see it and walked around the outside.)
Once again they had coed games scheduled for Friday night. Hiroya, Timmy and Kara team did not win a game all week, so I guess they could be called the goodwill ambassadors
Timmy Kara and Coach Masahiro Ueno
The final game was between Silver and Blue, or Chad, Haley, Max and Yosuke vrs Takashi, Shoichiro, Mitchell and Selena. It was a close game with Bule favored but Silver pulled it out in the end due to the clutch free throw shooting by Haley.
Pictures to follow
The group went to visit different organizations in the community, Kimochi, Nihomachi Little Friends, Kokoro Assisted Living, Chibi Chan and JCYC Tomodachi Summer Program
No pictures as I did not attend, if someone load some up to the web I will add them in as they come in.
Hiroya was trying to tell Timmy something and they had to go to Lori to figure out what he wanted. It turns that he dream for this trip is to visit an NBA Basketball Stadium, so on Saturday we are taking him over to the Oakland Coliseum to visit the outside since we cannot get inside.
(They did translate that he could not go inside but he still wanted to go see it and walked around the outside.)
Once again they had coed games scheduled for Friday night. Hiroya, Timmy and Kara team did not win a game all week, so I guess they could be called the goodwill ambassadors
Timmy Kara and Coach Masahiro Ueno
The final game was between Silver and Blue, or Chad, Haley, Max and Yosuke vrs Takashi, Shoichiro, Mitchell and Selena. It was a close game with Bule favored but Silver pulled it out in the end due to the clutch free throw shooting by Haley.
Pictures to follow
Friday, August 1, 2008
Thursday July 31, 2008 Shinzen Day four Great America
This picture was actually taken at the end of a wet and wild day
Well we all had a hard time waking up on time to get to great america.
It was a tough start of the morning that got tougher. Hit traffic on Sunset Blvd,
Hit traffic at 101 until past Foster City (yea)arrived at GA at 10:35pm
We did not arrive too late to hold up the games but were met at the gate by Donna and Jennifer.
They started the day with a ballon toss
won by Chad and Haley
Then they had some other games which ended with a busting of a basketball pinata.
Lunch was all you could eat hamburgers, hot dogs and ice cream and soda.
Hiroya ate lunch with Brenden and Alex T and Takashi the baller
After lunch they were allowed to ride rides and go to the prize area.
It was funny that some of the kids from Osaka did not like to ride rides, especially Yudai, who was very big for a 12 yr old.
Here is a picture of Brad and Yosuke on the Grizzly
Hiroya was supposed to ride with Bman but when we all got on the ride, instead of sitting in a seat he ran to the other side and this is a picture of him saying no
Funniest part of the day is that all the younger Osaka YMCA boys did not like to ride rides so they spent most of their time at the basketball shooting area and had to have spent large coin on the game. They won over 20 balls. Brenden won Hiroya a Lakers Ball and that later on Hiroya won another three balls. one Celtics, Heat and Cavs at the smaller basketball hoop
Here are Yudai and Hiroya resting after dropping big coin
Here are Tomohide and Hirofumi with Hiroya and some of the balls
Ryan, Hiroya and Takumi waiting to take off on the last ride
These are the balls that Hiroya won, Brenden won the Lakers ball for him or so I was told. Hiroya kept this ball at the bottom of the backpack all day and every time Alex T or Brenden or Thomas would ask play with it he would rush over and protect it.
For the rest of the week he slept with the Laker ball.
Well we all had a hard time waking up on time to get to great america.
It was a tough start of the morning that got tougher. Hit traffic on Sunset Blvd,
Hit traffic at 101 until past Foster City (yea)arrived at GA at 10:35pm
We did not arrive too late to hold up the games but were met at the gate by Donna and Jennifer.
They started the day with a ballon toss
won by Chad and Haley
Then they had some other games which ended with a busting of a basketball pinata.
Lunch was all you could eat hamburgers, hot dogs and ice cream and soda.
Hiroya ate lunch with Brenden and Alex T and Takashi the baller
After lunch they were allowed to ride rides and go to the prize area.
It was funny that some of the kids from Osaka did not like to ride rides, especially Yudai, who was very big for a 12 yr old.
Here is a picture of Brad and Yosuke on the Grizzly
Hiroya was supposed to ride with Bman but when we all got on the ride, instead of sitting in a seat he ran to the other side and this is a picture of him saying no
Funniest part of the day is that all the younger Osaka YMCA boys did not like to ride rides so they spent most of their time at the basketball shooting area and had to have spent large coin on the game. They won over 20 balls. Brenden won Hiroya a Lakers Ball and that later on Hiroya won another three balls. one Celtics, Heat and Cavs at the smaller basketball hoop
Here are Yudai and Hiroya resting after dropping big coin
Here are Tomohide and Hirofumi with Hiroya and some of the balls
Ryan, Hiroya and Takumi waiting to take off on the last ride
These are the balls that Hiroya won, Brenden won the Lakers ball for him or so I was told. Hiroya kept this ball at the bottom of the backpack all day and every time Alex T or Brenden or Thomas would ask play with it he would rush over and protect it.
For the rest of the week he slept with the Laker ball.
Wednesday July 30 2008 Shinzen Day 3 The Game
Thomas took off from JCYC to participate in the Shinzen Friendship Tournament, which featured past and present Shinzen players.
Hiroya was on the Orange team, he had Mitchell, Shelly, Stevie, Harlan, Kevin and Coach Shinya Uemura
Thomas was on the silver and timmy on the green, they started off the tournament by playing each other's team. Timmy had Takashi, Kevin O, Hirofuji, Cole, Shelly,Lynsay on his green machine. According to him once, Lynsay came they never won another game and they had a good team but Takashi got too tired and Kevin passed too much.
After all that they had Yamato Flight Kitchen Bento box lunches. they then hung out on the common area outside of Mission Bay Community Center for a while. It was a beautiful sunny day. At about 1:30pm they decided to start walking to AT&T park to visit the Giants Dugout, then onto Old Navy on Market and then up to Niketown on Stockton and Post. They finally arrived back at JCCCNC around 4pm.
Then it was onto the main event, the Osaka YMCA Boys team vrs the Shinzen 2008 Boys team. It was a close first quarter, sorry but I forgot the scores, and at the half it was about six or eight pts. The Osaka team was led by the two big boys, Takashi and Yosuke, they both can rebound and handle the ball. Takashi has pretty good range and is a demon on the drive whether it's coast to coast or a quick slash.
Shoichro was the main guard and had a pretty good outside shot but our guards, especially Chad were too much for their guards.
Late 2nd quarter action posted on You Tube
Here is the 4th quarter posted on youtube
Post game picture of Takashi
It's me on a break away
After the game with had dinner with Kirk and Lyn at OutBack Steakhouse. Hiroya loved the blooming onion, green beans, did not like his prime rib but did like the Joey Sirlon. Kirk and Lyn gave him a t shirt and some pins with from SFPD
After dinner we went home and got him dressed in some under amour and sweat pants and took him down to Ocean Beach to join the rest of his team for the bon fire to roast marshmallows.
Hiroya was on the Orange team, he had Mitchell, Shelly, Stevie, Harlan, Kevin and Coach Shinya Uemura
Thomas was on the silver and timmy on the green, they started off the tournament by playing each other's team. Timmy had Takashi, Kevin O, Hirofuji, Cole, Shelly,Lynsay on his green machine. According to him once, Lynsay came they never won another game and they had a good team but Takashi got too tired and Kevin passed too much.
After all that they had Yamato Flight Kitchen Bento box lunches. they then hung out on the common area outside of Mission Bay Community Center for a while. It was a beautiful sunny day. At about 1:30pm they decided to start walking to AT&T park to visit the Giants Dugout, then onto Old Navy on Market and then up to Niketown on Stockton and Post. They finally arrived back at JCCCNC around 4pm.
Then it was onto the main event, the Osaka YMCA Boys team vrs the Shinzen 2008 Boys team. It was a close first quarter, sorry but I forgot the scores, and at the half it was about six or eight pts. The Osaka team was led by the two big boys, Takashi and Yosuke, they both can rebound and handle the ball. Takashi has pretty good range and is a demon on the drive whether it's coast to coast or a quick slash.
Shoichro was the main guard and had a pretty good outside shot but our guards, especially Chad were too much for their guards.
Late 2nd quarter action posted on You Tube
Here is the 4th quarter posted on youtube
Post game picture of Takashi
It's me on a break away
After the game with had dinner with Kirk and Lyn at OutBack Steakhouse. Hiroya loved the blooming onion, green beans, did not like his prime rib but did like the Joey Sirlon. Kirk and Lyn gave him a t shirt and some pins with from SFPD
After dinner we went home and got him dressed in some under amour and sweat pants and took him down to Ocean Beach to join the rest of his team for the bon fire to roast marshmallows.
Tuesday July 29 2008 day 2 of Shinzen
Fed Hiroya sausauges, fruit and cereal, not too bad of a time to wake him up.
We picked up Kara, dropped off Brenden, took Thomas to JCYC, and dropped Kara, Timmy and Hiroya at JCCCNC. Left a box of fruit snacks for the team.
They stayed at JCCCNC and worked on the posters and had volley ball games. Timmy and some of the other boys think the teams were rigged so that someone had a stacked team but I told him I did not think so.
At 5:00 they started the Co Ed games, Timmy's team sucked badly. They had Kara, Maxine, Bradley and Timmy. They got blown out of each game, will be interesting to see if they switch teams around but I doubt it as the rest of the games were pretty close.
The games ran pretty long and we did not get out until 8:30pm
We decided to eat at Iroha since Hiroya wanted to eat ramen, Mitchell and Hirofumi along with the Lowes also decided to eat there.
Hiroya enjoying his teriyaki steak and sashimi dinner
Mitchell and Hirofumi enjoying a ramen feast
Went home and let Hiroya play a little basketball and then a shower. Not much time to do anything.
Air Hiroya going in for the score
We picked up Kara, dropped off Brenden, took Thomas to JCYC, and dropped Kara, Timmy and Hiroya at JCCCNC. Left a box of fruit snacks for the team.
They stayed at JCCCNC and worked on the posters and had volley ball games. Timmy and some of the other boys think the teams were rigged so that someone had a stacked team but I told him I did not think so.
At 5:00 they started the Co Ed games, Timmy's team sucked badly. They had Kara, Maxine, Bradley and Timmy. They got blown out of each game, will be interesting to see if they switch teams around but I doubt it as the rest of the games were pretty close.
The games ran pretty long and we did not get out until 8:30pm
We decided to eat at Iroha since Hiroya wanted to eat ramen, Mitchell and Hirofumi along with the Lowes also decided to eat there.
Hiroya enjoying his teriyaki steak and sashimi dinner
Mitchell and Hirofumi enjoying a ramen feast
Went home and let Hiroya play a little basketball and then a shower. Not much time to do anything.
Air Hiroya going in for the score
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