The Master of Ceremony was Gordon Kadota, for those who can recognize him. Among the guests were Consulate General of Japan, Hideki Ito, JCCA's president Ron Nishimura, VPD Mounted Squad, RCMP, and representative from National Nikkei Centre. Tom who had placed the wreath represented Seicho-No-Ie was among the few representing its own organizations.
The SNI people who had attended the ceremony were Mrs Akitaya, Tom, Mr. Kitasaka, Mr. Wada, Sachiko, Ruby and Bernie. We all met at SNI church by 10:00am. Sachiko, Bernie and I got a ride with Akitaya-san in her car and Tom gave ride to Kitasaka-san and Wada-san. Since Akitaya-san and Tom had previously attended the Remembrance Day at Stanley Park, they knew where to go.
It was my very first time participation for the Japanese Canadian War Memorial although I've attended others in the past. Therefore, we were warned beforehand to dress warm. I wore a long-john underneath my thermal pants, knee high boots, undershirt, turtle-neck sweater, water-proof windbreaker jacket, wool hat, leather gloves and an umbrella.
As in most years, during the memorial service it rained then when it was over, rain had stopped!! Following the ceremony, we were all invited to a reception at Vancouver Rowing Club. I thought that we were just going for a hot coffee or tea to warm ourselves but we were served futomaki, age zushi, sandwiches, manju, cakes and other sweets, much to our delight !!!!
I'm planning to do this again next year, rain or shine!
Thank you very much!
Ruby
(written on Nov 12, 2011)
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