We have video greetings from two different groups. Thanks!  🙂

• The Lebanon High School Japanese Art & Culture Club (JACC)
• The Kings Firecrackers, a jump rope team from Southwest, Ohio

We’ve been busy! Here are links to photos from some recent events:

• OSU Japanese Spring Festival (4-19-2014)
• U.C. JASS Last Meeting for 2013-14 Year (4-16-2014)
• Asian Culture Festival 2014 (4-13-2014)
• U.C. Japanese American Student Society (JASS) Bake Sale (4-3 & 4-3 2014)
• U.C. Japanese American Student Society (JASS) Bake Sale (3-31-2014)
• U.C. Japanese American Student Society Bake Sale (3-28-2014)

We have good news! We can build a playground now. However, there has been a change that we wanted you to know about.

With the third anniversary of the tsunami coming on 3/11, we felt it was important to ask those living near the park to make a decision and a meeting was recently held in Ishinomaki with the neighborhood leader, city officials, our volunteers and Playground of Hope. With the money raised so far, would we could build a commercial Rainbow playground this spring or we could continue to fundraise for the U.C. design, which may take another year or so (in order to raise the several hundred thousand dollars.) Those in Ishinomaki decided for us to go ahead with the commercial Rainbow playground for this spring which may be completed at the end of May. (More details to come.)

While the U.C. designed playground is incredibly inspiring, we know that time is an important factor for those in Ishinomaki. Our goal from the very beginning was to create a safe and meaningful place where the children and families could play. And we can achieve this goal this spring.

We are excited to move forward into the building phase of the Ishinomaki Playground Project. We will continue to fundraise for landscaping and outdoor exercise equipment for seniors to make this an inter-generational playground, and ask for your continued support as we move into this new and exciting phase.

From Miya:

hello! my mother recently showed me about this picture of her mom and me in kimonos with fans and purses. I did not realize how cool this looked when she showed me the two pictures together. I believe i live through my grandma Sumiko. =(^.^)= meow!

Two cultures brought together my mother from Ishinomaki and my father from Ohio. I miss them so, so much and wish they were here to see their granddaughter Miya and her love for both countries.