Richmond Experiences
As a Japanese immersion school, Richmond is able to offer its students many cultural experiences, both at school and at community events. This page shows many of the events that Richmond students participate in that serve to enhance their Japanese learning and to bring their Japanese culture to their community.
JMP marches in Junior Rose Festival Parade, June 3
The JMP's three schools and alumni, as always, were well represented at the Junior Parade this year. Our themes for the parade reflected Spring and Summer, happy faces, bright colors, and nature. There was plenty of that enjoyed by all as we came together to celebrate our program in Portland.
Sumaura Elementary in Kobe, Japan visits Richmond
 Sumaura students doing traditional fan dance |
 Richmond students doing Yosakoi |
 Valentine's Day in Fukushima-sensei's |
 Yamamoto-san doing tea ceremony |
 Fifth graders drinking tea |
 Mrs. Anderson and Masae-san receiving tea |
Richmond's Oshogatsu celebration, January 16
The PTA's first New Year's Celebration was a rousing success! Thanks to all who attended, ate great food, and supported some wonderful performances.
Now, for some specific thanks to those who worked so hard to make our New Year's Celebration a success:
- Yoko Sato, PTA Special Events Coordinator, for once again organizing an amazing event
- All the mochi makers: Emi Avondstondt, Etsuko Austin, Sachiko Nishikido, Sumika Calaba, Yuko Kesic, and Kayoko Ross who spent 2 ½ hours making the delicious mochi that we all enjoyed!
- Michael and Alison Wolcott for a fun and informative mochi making demonstration!
- Ritsuko Fujiwara for organizing the wonderful Yosokoi dancers.
- Kazuyo Ito for teaching our kids and parents the wonderful art of Taiko, and for performing such a wonderful piece for us.
- The 5th grade cultural exchange for the amazing food.!
- All the parents and friends who helped us clean up and stack an enormous pile of chairs.
- Kathryn Anderson for being our principal extraordinaire and for always being there when we need her!
- All the kids who performed, you were amazing!!!
Richmond at Japanese Garden Kakizome, January 11
Japanese Teaching Garden - The Next Phase
Former Richmond Student Impressed Emperor of Japan with Her Japanese!
Hannah Hogness was a Richmond student from kindergarten through 4th grade until her family moved to Washington in the summer of 2008. In the fall, Hannah and her family visited Japan to be with her grandfather as he received the International Prize for Biology from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). Hannah did a beautiful job introducing her family to the Emperor and Empress in Japanese. The pictures below show Hannah with her father, grandparents and the Emperor. Everyone complimented Hannah for her excellent Japanese and wanted to know where she learned to speak the language so fluently. Her parents credited Richmond with Hannah's excellent Japanese language skills.
The following information was taken from the JSPS announcement about the award:
The International Prize for Biology was instituted in April of 1985 by the Committee on the International Prize for Biology in commemoration of the sixty-year reign of Emperor Showa and his longtime devotion to biological research. The Prize is awarded each year to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of basic research in a filed of biology. The Prize, comprising a medal and a prize of ten million yen, is awarded to the selected recipient, along with an Imperial gift from His Majesty the Emperor.
The Committee on the International Prize for Biology (chaired by Dr. Saburo Nagakura, president, The Japan Academy) of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science decided to present the 23rd (2007) International Prize for Biology to Dr. David S. Hogness, Professor Emeritus of Stanford University School of Medicine, U.S.A.
Dr. Hogness was born in the United States, 1925. He studied chemistry and biology at California Institute of Technology, obtaining his doctorate in 1952. Since he was appointed Professor of Biochemistry in the School of Medicine, Stanford University, 1959, he has dedicated his career to studying gene structure and function and the regulatory mechanisms of gene expression in higher eukaryotes.
The field of specialization for the 23rd Prize is "Genetics." Dr. Hogness established that the expression of many genes is controlled by regulatory regions or cis-elements located on the same strand; and he demonstrated that genes play key roles in animal morphogenesis, so that the absence of a certain gene's function results in a developmental abnormality. These findings extended the frontiers of genetics, molecular biology, and molecular developmental biology; indeed, they laid the foundations for an entire field, which we know today as genomics.
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