A year ago, my sister and I started a project to exchange American and Japanese cultures to strengthen ties between our two countries.
I grew up teaching and learning about the wonderful American culture and education. And I have a Japanese identity and know about the wonderful Japanese culture. I thought I could give that back to the U.S. and make the bond between the U.S. and Japan stronger and stronger.
I started by teaching English to children from disadvantaged backgrounds in Japan.
Then we visited the senior living at Palo Alto with these children and shared them with traditional Japanese dance, singing, and rakugo.
We also sold matcha green tea drinks and origami boxes and bookmarks at the Campbell’s Farmer’s Market to collect donations, which we donated to Stanford University.
Total donations to date are $1460.
