Welcome to the Denver Takayama Sister City Committee
activities page
Our coming events, background, some past activities, related organizations
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Galaries and Past Activities
Pictures from 2020 events
Pictures from 2019 events
==> The Yatai project
Pictures from 2018 events
Pictures from 2017 events
Pictures from 2016 events
Pictures from 2015 events
Other organizations activities
Calendar for all Japanese orgs.
Volunteer opportunities
While many committee activities are on hiatus due to the coronavirus, we have a web page that encourages you to share thoughts and creations with the committee.
2020 Denver Takayama Sister Cities Culture Day
We are holding our 3rd Annual Culture Day event via Zoom this year by working with Takayama City Office in Japan.
We'll have a virtual tour of the Old town of Takayama and a cooking demonstration of the local cuisine at a
traditional style house, with a "half time" Rajio Taiso!
Further information in our Coming Events section (below).
Register for Culture Day via Zoom.
Steve Comstock, chairman of the committee, accepts an award on behalf
of the committee from Midori Takeuchi, the Consul General of Japan
in Denver. The award is a special commendation to our committee,
jointly with the Takayama Denver Friendship Association, "for outstanding
contributions to strengthen US-Japan relations through their joint
activities over the last 60 years", awarded on July 29, 2020.
If you are planning on traveling to Japan, with our group or on your own, it would help to have some background information. Here is some useful information about traveling to, and within, Japan
Got that craving for Japanese food? Want to support your favorite Japanese restaurant? Hakken Denver and the Japanese Arts Network maintain an excellent spreadsheet listing our favorite Japanese restaurants (some you may not even know about) including name, location, phone, hours of operation, web - as well as describing their takeout and delivery options. A great resource!
Click her to get our daily coronavirus update
Coming events / activities
Regular monthly meetings have been moved online until further notice; see below for online activities
Denver-Takayama Sister Cities Culture Day
Saturday November 7th 7:00-9:00pm MST; location: online via Zoom.
The Culture Day Event this year will focus on three areas:
- Learn about Japan and Takayama (with Q&A)
Join us for a virtual walking tour of Old Town in Takayama, Japan. This year our guide is Mika-san of Japonisme (japonisme.jp), a tour service that provides both virtual and in-person tours. The buildings and houses of Old Town date from the Edo Period (1600-1868) and its streets are filled with shops, coffee houses, and sake breweries. Mika-san is familiar with the culture and history of Old Town, and she received special permission to film during the COVID-19 pandemic, which made it possible to capture beautiful, unique views of the empty streets. - Learn about unique local cuisine (with Q&A)
Denver and Takayama are both mountain cities known for cattle and the production of delicious, high-quality beef. We will join Mika-san in her traditional Hida Takayama style home for a cooking demonstration of Hida Beef (the area’s version of ‘Wagyu’ beef, best-known in the US from Kobe), Hoba Miso (meat and vegetables cooked over a clay grill on a magnolia leaf marinated with miso), and other local cuisine. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to offer samples through Zoom, but if you are interested in a taste of Takayama, come travel with Denver Sister Cities. Please watch for our travel announcement or contact us at takayama@denversistercities.org. - Learn how to do Rajio Taiso or daily radio calisthenics, a gentle set of warm-up exercises with music
Many Japanese people have grown up with Rajio Taiso and know the routine by heart. NHK radio and TV broadcast Rajio Taiso several times throughout the day. Young, old, or in-between- -everyone is welcome to participate, and there are different levels of Rajio Taiso if you find the standard routine too strenuous. Come learn how to join in this healthy cultural habit, which also teaches basic counting. Soon you’ll be shouting “ichi, ni” (or “1, 2”) with the rest of us! - Special Appearance from Japanese Consul General of Denver
For more information, email us at JapanCultureDay@DenverSisterCities.org
Registration: Register for Culture Day via Zoom.
Virtual book club meeting
Tuesday November 10: 7:00-8:30-ish; location: online via Zoom.
Informal get together to discuss the book "I Am A Cat" by Natsume Sōseki, selected by Michele Quackenbush.
Information and availability via Good Reads Website.
Email Steve Comstock
to request the Zoom meeting info (If you have trouble, simply send an email to steve@trainersfriend.com.)
Wikipedia has an article about the book.
There are two live action movie adaptations, "Wagahai wa neko de aru" (1936)
and "I Am a Cat" (1975), and one anime adaptation
(Japanese language, no subtitles) on YouTube.
The book for December 1st meeting will be chosen by Colleen Thumm.
Click here to see who has already signed up to come
Regular monthly meeting
(Our monthly meetings are held on the 3rd Tuesday of each month)
Tuesday November 17th: 6:00-7:00-ish; location: online via Zoom.
Rough agenda: Financials / Culture Day followup / Middle School Connect / Shokawa Event / Movie updates.
Click here to request the Zoom meeting info (If you have trouble, simply send an email to gilasakawa@gmail.com.)
Click here to see who has already signed up to come
Find out about the Committee calendar, budgets, and so on ...
A look back at activities and
involvement of members and friends during 2019 - a retrospective
(.pdf document) (Last updated 11 January, 2020)
And a look at the impact of our committee in the
community in 2019 - (.pdf document) volunteer hours and dollars spent doing our work.
(Last updated 11 January, 2020
Minutes of the last meeting (.pdf document) (Last updated 25 August, 2020)
Plans for 2020 (.pdf document) (Last updated 17 August, 2020)
Why Denver Takayama is relevant to the larger community - Japanese, Japanese-American, all interested in Japan - in Denver and Colorado (.pdf document) (Last revised 1 February, 2017)
Denver / Takayama: the first 50 Years an historical record in English and Japanese. (.pdf document) (Last revised 23 August, 2010)
Technical paper on emails
(.pdf document - Some thoughts on how to make email safer from hackers and more effective)
(Written 26 March, 2015)
Getting a gun in Japan
(.pdf document) - No matter where you fall on the gun control issue, this article
I found on Facebook has some intriguing ideas.
(Uploaded 11 March, 2018)
Japanese Horror Movies
... Various evenings, 7:00 p.m. ...
Aurora Sister Cities is hosting showings of four Japanese horror movies; next up is on Thursday, October 29, 2020.
The whole series is described here (a pdf flyer).