Learning about Japanese culture

[CoyoteChris]

I am blessed to be able to travel out and about and learn about other cultures. The hit this year so far was talking with Haruka , who teaches Japanese culture at the Heart Mountain interpretive center. She was gracious enough to spend 15 minutes with me on my last bike trip there. She likes it in Wyoming and they love her so she is trying to get her visa extended. Hope to see her again on my trip there next year.


Haruka Takaku is from Kanagawa prefecture, Japan. She joined Heart Mountain in August 2024 through the Japan Outreach Initiative (JOI) program. Haruka holds both a B.A. and an M.A. in International Studies in Meiji Gakuin University. She spent her school life traveling around Japan and abroad during every long vacation. After working at the International Peace Research Institute affiliated with the university, she joined a travel agency specializing in study tours. She was involved in planning, arranging, escorting, and selling the tours she was in charge of. After that, she worked as a conference coordinator for medical conferences and seminars.

 

[CoyoteChris]

Interesting fact about Japanese culture.
"Haruka Takaku offered her prayers according to Buddhist traditions; Buddhism is the largest religion in Japan.

There is no way to know if the men were Buddhist at this point, but Takaku said there is a saying in Japan, “Born Shinto, married Christian, die Buddhist.”

The phrase reflects the cultural tendency for Japanese people to participate in rituals from different religions during major life events, rather than adhering to a single faith, she said. Interestingly, despite the prayers being offered in silence and this being their first time together at Crown Hill, both revealed after the ceremony they were praying that the three men “rest in peace.”

 

[CoyoteChris]

Thanks to Midori Tanada for being a docent /ranger at the Minidoka National Historic site.
Hi, my name is Midori (she/her/hers)! I’m a yonsei (fourth generation Japanese American) from the Portland, OR area. I went to undergrad at Beloit College in Wisconsin where I studied anthropology and Japanese. In school I focused on cultural anthropology so I got to take courses focused on immigration/migration, language, and politics of care.⁠
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I feel very lucky to work at Minidoka National Historic site, not only because of its cultural significance but also because of my family’s history there. My grandpa and his family were incarcerated at Minidoka and though my grandpa passed away before I could meet him, I feel I have a responsibility to share the incarcerees’ histories. ⁠
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Some things I am excited about in working at Minidoka are the opportunities to educate younger generations on the incarceration camps and to be working with others who are passionate about these kinds of histories. My favorite location on the site is the visitor center. More specifically, the area where we can help you find where a person or family was placed in Minidoka. We provide records of the incarcerees and can sometimes find them in the Interlude where there are pictures of everyone from each block.

 

[CoyoteChris]

People like Midori are so important to learn about culture.

https://www.seattletimes.com/life/travel/historic-idaho-site-is-essential-to-seattles-history/