Nikkei Matsuri 2024

Phenom of the Nikkei Matsuri, held on April 21, in Japantown, was Austin Powers' live performance with the Wesley Jazz Band. Can you guess who that is??? None other than our very own Trent Ueunten. He stole the show with his rendition of YMCA and stepping with Japantown community leaders and kids from Lotus pre-school.

Yummy! And I do mean really good Teppan Tacos which is a new addition to the Nikkei Matsuri Festival. Marinated and stir fried pork (see below) with special sauces and cabbage. Mmmmm!

Byron Longmire, Scott Haneta, Hector Acuna, Bob To and Ed Gibo show off their culinary skill.

Judy Yasutake, Carmen Cook and Joy Baylor sell, sell, sell.

Gaylynn Robinson, Bev Lovaas, and Judie Kanemoto put it all together for this delightful festival treat.

Still, the crowd’s favorite festival food was our Church's Nikkei Dogs (Teri and Suno) and the line, of course, was the longest. Melissa Murillo our youth served up this tasty treat.

The Murillo boys prepared delicious dogs for sale.

The Wesley Ukulele Band provided delightful entertainment with Hawaiian and Japanese songs with beautiful and graceful Hula dancers to keep the crowd uplifted during the heat of the afternoon. While earlier, the Wesley Jazz Band (below) provided spirited uptempo popular jazz numbers with Shizuko Adachi, shown below, singing Besame Mucho in Japanese.

Our "Get Out The Word" booth to the community about our church had folks coming by to check us out and especially of interest was our Rummage Sale and our famous Wesley cook book, Soup to Sushi shown here by Cynthia Fukuda, Terri Koike and Bobbie Ueunten.

Our Scouts were out recruiting and hoping to let the world know that Scouts isn't just for boys. Here is Larry Inouye, Scout Leader, inspiring the kids.