HIGASHI HONGANJI BUDDHIST TEMPLE | LOS ANGELES BETSUIN

Vol. 67 | No. 7July 2015

NON-PROFIT ORG.U.S. POSTAGE

PAIDLos Angeles, CAPermit No. 24616

HIGASHI HONGANJI BUDDHIST TEMPLE

TEMPLESCHEDULE

JULY 19 10:00am Obon Family Service Pet Memorial Service 25 LABCC Camp to 8/1 25 1:00pm OBON FESTIVAL 26 1:00pm OBON FESTIVAL 26 11:00am Obon/Hatsubon Service

AUGUST 2 10:00am Shotsuki Service 9 10:00am Sunday Service 16 10:00am Sunday Service 23 8:00am Big Bargain Sale 23 10:00am Sunday Service 30 10:00am Sunday Service Discussion Group

SEPTEMBER 6 No Service - Labor Day Holiday 13 10:00am Shotsuki Service

WayThe

OBON HATSUBON SERVICEsunday | 11:00am

MANTO-E SERVICESsaturday & sunday 5:30pm

BON ODORIsaturday & sunday 6:30pm

higashi honganji buddhist temple

OB ONSATURDAY & SUNDAY

JULY 25TH & 26TH, 2015

saturday & sunday 5:30pm

saturday & sunday 6:30pm

HIGASHI HONGANJI BUDDHIST TEMPLE • LOS ANGELES BETSUIN

Volume 67 | Number 7 | July 2015

On My MotherMakiko Nakasone

The Way

(Please see MOTHER, page 4)

Sangha Voices

This article was adapted from a Dharma Talk given by Mrs. Makiko Nakasone at Mother’s Day Family Service on May 10, 2015.

My mother’s name is “Mitsuko,” a child with light. She was the third of six children, three boys and three girls, born in 1938 in Yamanashi prefecture at the foot of Mt. Fuji. I considered her as the glue or the lubricant of the fam-ily. She knew what was going on with everybody.

She was quiet, but had competitive spirits and was very industrious. When she fi rst started working at the Kofu Central Post Offi ce at the age of 16, there was an annual abacus competition. She wanted to win, so she practiced a lot and became known as an abacus expert. While working at the Central Post Offi ce full-time, she started to teach abacus to the children in her neighborhood. At its peak, she had 200 students! I have a tutoring center, and at most we have had 37 students.

Partially because she was so fi nan-cially independent, she did not get mar-ried until she was 28 years old, a very old maid in those days. My father was a year older. Though he was a farmer in a small village, he was liberal and let her continue to work at the Central Post Offi ce even after they got married. By bus and train, her commute to the Central Post Offi ce in Kofu from the village was one and a half hours each way. She only took the allowed three months off when she had me and my younger brother, and she continued to work. I remember her telling me that the laundry froze as soon as she put them on the clothesline before she left the house for work in winter.

According to my parents, they de-

cided to move to Kofu, the capital city of Yamanashi prefecture for our education when my mother was 38 and my father 39. It must have been a big decision for a middle-aged couple to start fresh in a new city with no savings or assets. But my mother did many moonlightings, us-ing her abacus skills, opening an abacus class for the new neighborhood children, keeping books for small merchants on weekends, and so forth. After several years, she looked so happy when my parents could pay off all the debts to purchase a lot and build a house in the new city. She also had savings set aside to cover expenses for at least six months in case of an emergency. So if she were here today, Suze Orman would name her as her model student!

My mother was also very conscious about saving resources. She would use the water from the bathtub to do the laundry, stored rainwater for water-ing fl owers and plants in her garden, went around the house and turned off all the unnecessary lights, purchased good quality merchandise at the best department store, but always when it was on sale.

She saved whenever she could, but she was also very generous and compas-sionate. I remember one night when I was in the middle school, and someone came by unannounced. He and my fa-ther spoke quietly for a long time in the Genkan foyer, and soon my mother put some money in an envelope and handed it to him. Later I learned that he was a distant relative from Tokyo who came to borrow 100,000 yen or about $1,000. My mother as the minister of fi nance in my family without hesitation gave the money when she knew that she would never be repaid.

My mother was always very busy,

but she enjoyed a few programs on TV. One of them was called “This is the Se-cret” on Nippon TV Network, where a missing person would be reunited with a family member after 20 or 30 years of separation for some reason. From almost the beginning of the show, she would start weeping as she learned the circumstances, whether due to the war or unbearable family situation. My brother and I used to tease her that her tear glands were broken because her eyes welled up so easily.

Her parenting style was “hands-off .” She never told us what to do, but rather supported whatever we wanted to do. One of my uncles once asked me how ballet lessons would be benefi cial to me in life, but my mother would just say, “O.K. Let’s go and enroll.” Or when I asked her if I could apply for an Ameri-can Field Service high school exchange program, she would say, “Ganbareshi” or Ganbatte, though it meant that she needed to come up with two months of her salary so I could come to the States.

My hometown, Kofu is famous for “Karakkaze” or bitter cold North wind in winter. I used to take English conversa-tion night classes at the YMCA when I was in high school. When I came home, riding my bike for 20 minutes in this Karakkaze, she would rush out of the

Submissions for The Way are due the 10th of each month for the following month’s issue. Articles and announce-ments for our September Issue are due August 10th, 2015. Submissions may be subject to printing restrictions and staff approval. Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you!

SUBMISSION DEADLINE!

The WayPage 2

E-Mailinfo@hhbt-la.org

Betsuin NewsAugust Services

Our deepest con do lenc esto the family and relatives of …

Mr. Ray Shigeru Kayano (102)March 29, 2015

Mr. Hideo Nakayama (89)April 17, 2015

Mr. Harumi Roy Sameshima (90)May 31, 2015

Mrs. Barbara Ann Hirota (66)June 1, 2015

Mr. Sasuke Teraoka (94)June 3, 2015

Mr. Tomoyuki Hasegawa (87)June 15, 2015

Namu Amida Butsu

After Obon, we will resume services with our Shotsuki Service on Sunday, August 2nd. The Betsuin will be con-ducting Sunday Services each weekend throughout the month of August, how-ever, there will be no Dharma School. We welcome you to join us for Sunday Services. Dharma School will resume in September.

HIGH SCHOOLLAUREN KOJIMA

South Pasadena High SchoolUniversity of San Francisco

CY MIYAKEDiamond Bar High School

University of Utah

MIDDLE SCHOOLRYAN HARADA

Foothills Middle School

TAKUMU OSAMacy Intermediate School

ELEMENTARY SCHOOLRYLIE HARADA

Highland Oaks Elementary5th Grade

KATEY KAMIMURAPotrero Heights Elementary

5th Grade

TOM KOMATSUArlington Elementary

5th Grade

RINAKO OSAPotrero Heights Elementary

5th Grade

PRESCHOOLYUNA KANAMARUShirayuri Youchien

There will be no

DHARMA SCHOOL+ SANGHA TEENS in August! We will resume

classes in September!

Shotsuki ServiceSunday, September 13th

10:00am

HELP AT OBON!we’re looking for volunteers

to fi ll various roles at our Obon Festival! If you would

like to help out, please contact the o� ce!

213-626-4200info@hhbt-la.org

Congratulations Class of 2015!

Become aware of CRV items and learn how to sort your recycled

materials appropriately!

GOING GREEN in 2015

JULYTip of the month

visit our website atwww.hhbt-la.org

and “like” us on facebook athttp://www.facebook.com/hhbt.la

WEDDINGANNOUNCEMENTS

Stephanie Jitosho &Mario GonzalezMarch 14, 2015

Lindsay Ogino & Ryan Fiske

June 6, 2015

CONGRATULATIONS!!

Page 3The Way

saturday & sundayjuly 25 & 26, 2015

1:00pm - 9:00pmwww.hhbt-la.org

MANTO-ELANTERNS

OBON GIFTCERTIFICATES

Orders are now being accepted for Manto-e Lanterns for our Annual Obon Festival. If you have not received an or-der form, they are available in the temple offi ce. Please call to reserve your lantern at your earliest convenience. The cost is $20 per lantern. Please let us know if you would like to pick up your lantern after the Obon Festival so that we can be sure to set yours aside. We will hold all reserved lanterns until September 1st.

Obon gift certifcates can be pur-chased for $5.00 each. They are great to give to friends and family to use over the weekend. Gift certifi cates can be used toward the purchase of food at our Obon only and are available through the temple offi ce. If you would like your gift certifi cates mailed to you, please be sure that we receive your payment by Friday, July 17th.

HIGASHI HONGANJI 56th annual

O B O N FEST

IVA

L

a message from our

OBON CHAIRSHere at last! The long-awaited event

of the year is next month!We are your one-stop, most unfor-

gettable cultural, culinary, gardening and entertainment capital of Little Tokyo, L.A.!

Witness the pageantry of dancers from all over our county!

You may even go home a winner with one of our many raffl e prizes!

Please mark off the weekend of July 25 & 26! Observe with us! Celebrate with us! Join us at our Higashi Obon 2015! We will not disappoint!!!

obon rafflePlease invite your family and friends

to join us in participating in our Annual Obon Raffl e drawing. We have many great prizes including our top seven prizes, which you need not be pres-ent to win. In addition to these great prizes, we have others donated by our members and friends in the community. We are requesting a donation of $3.00 per raffl e ticket or $15.00 for a book of fi ve tickets. Be sure to send in your raffl e tickets so you can have a chance to win one of these great prizes. Extra raffl e tickets are available in the temple offi ce and throughout the weekend at the Obon Festival.

Parking will be available at the Medical Building on 3rd Street across from the temple at 420 E. 3rd Street, LA 90013. The lot entrance is on Boyd Street. Higashi Honganji Obon visitors will receive a discounted maximum daily fee of $5.00 plus a complimentary Obon raffl e ticket valued at $3.00. In order to receive your discount voucher and raffl e ticket, please bring your stub to the Raffl e Booth at the entrance to our Obon Festival. Please note that the parking lot hours are from 10:00am to 10:00pm on both Saturday and Sunday.

OBON parking

First Prize

$1,000 Cash

Second Prize

4 Disneyland Park Hopper Tickets

Third Prize

Microsoft Surface 3

Fourth Prize

Apple iPad mini Wi-Fi 16GB

Fifth Prize

Bose Soundlink MiniBluetooth Speaker

Sixth Prize

Apple TV

Special Prize

$500 Travel Certifi cate(courtesy of New Japan Travel Center)

and many other valuable prizes

Go GREEN at OBONby bringing your own REUSABLE BAG and WATER BOTTLE!

The WayPage 4

(MOTHER, con’t. from page 1) Lumbini Child Development Center

Class of 2015KINDERGARTEN GRADUATES

Annalisa Berlejung

Isaac Braun

Leia Braun

Breanna Gonzales

Venice Irvin

Karissa Liu

Rider Soloman

Nolan Tagawa

Sho Yang

TRANSITIONALKINDERGARTEN GRADUATES

Kaylee Chen

Lauren Marx

Kori Matsumoto

Hiro Patterson

PRESCHOOL PROMOTIONCeleste Berlejung

Mateo Gravesteyn

Duncan Hernandez

Keiji Higashi

Moka Kawai

Masaki Kwon

Andres Leon

Juno Matsui

Ethan Quan

Jaden Soong

Ethan Yoo

Andrey Zokhrabyan

June is an exciting and sad month for us at Lumbini. We are very proud of our new kindergarten graduates who have learned and accomplished so much during their time with us, but we are sad that they’ll be moving on to new schools. We’ll miss all of our friends!

Be sure to come see us at Obon! We’ll be performing on stage with the help of our friends from hereandnow and hope you’ll come join in on the fun! We will be hosting the Bake Sale, so come visit us there also and support Lumbini! See you at Obon!

Summer is a busy time for odori as we all prepare for the summer. At Hi-gashi’s Obon, all the kids ranging from age 4 through adult will be performing for our home crowd. Some of our new-est and littlest kids will be dancing for the fi rst time and look forward to shar-ing what they have learned. Be sure to come see our performance on Saturday, July 25th at the Higashi Honganji Obon Festival!

LUMBINI CORNER

Fujima Kansei Odori Kai

LUMBINICHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTER

Applications availablecontact us for a visit!

FOR CHILDREN AGES 2 1/2 TO 6 YEARS

TEL: 213-680-2976

FAX: 213-626-6850

EMAIL: missleslie_lumbini@yahoo.com

WEBPAGE: http://LumbiniCDC.org

open year round:MONDAY through FRIDAY

7:30am to 6:00pm

closed national holidays

kitchen to the Genkan foyer to greet me, wiping her hands with her apron, and would say, “Okaeri. Samukattsura!” or “Welcome home. Oh, it must have been cold!” My fatigue from riding my bike against the North wind disappeared as soon as I heard her words.

My mother would have been 87 this year. She would have enjoyed watching Michael and Ken grow to become such kind hearted young men. As I struggle fi nding the best way to raise the boys, I often think of her because she was always on my side even when I made mistakes. What advice would she give me? As I attend this temple, I often think of her, too, how generous she was to the small Higashi Honganji temple in Yamanashi with her donations of vases, candleholders, and other items.

My mother passed away when she was 65 years old, eight months after Michael was born. But she was reunited with my father last summer in Ojodo, the Pureland.

Thank you for giving me the op-portunity to remember my mother and share with you my gratitude to her today. Hap py Mother’s Day to all the moms, including my mother-in-law, Kay Nakasone, who is here today.

The Way invites you to express your voice by sharing your thoughts about Bud-dhism or your experience at the temple with our readership. Please send submissions to info@hhbt-la.org.

Opinions expressed in our SANGHA VOICES column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Way and Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple.

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voice by sharing your thoughts about Bud-dhism or your experience at the temple with our readership. Please send submissions to

Opinions expressed in our SANGHA VOICES column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Way and

2015 Temple Members will receive the following ben e fi ts upon request from the offi ce •10% off coupons - Fugetsu-Do - Mikawaya - SK Uyeda - Toyo Miyatake

Membership dues for 2015 are $300.00 for couple/family and $150.00 for single members. We no longer send out mem-bership cards. Please keep your receipt as proof of membership. Thank you for your con tin ued support.

MEMBERSHIP Update