Feb 1
by Karen Soo, Newsletter Editor
Happy Valentines Day!!
Just a friendly reminder Valentine’s Day is February 14th. Don’t forget to get your sweetheart flowers, chocolates and a Valentine’s Day card. Date the card!!
Here are some of my favorite “Love” tunes to get you into that romantic mood. See if you remember these hits.
Feb 1
by Karen Soo, Trip Director
SOLD
Nisei Ski Club member Allen Hu has a brand new ski boot to sell. Unfortunately. the boot is too tight for him. Send him an email if you are interested. athu2kus@gmail.com or speak to him at the Jackson Hole Trip.
S/Pro 120 Ski Boots 2020 – Men’s
Item No 935831 Condition – NEW
Size 25.5
Original Price – $699.95
NOW – $379.00
PRICE IS NEGOTIABLE
by Armand Gutierrez, President
Welcome to the Chinese Year of the Dragon! Yes, the Chinese New Year starts February 10th and celebrations culminate with the Lantern Festival on February 17th. People born in the year of the Dragon (1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, etc.) are often considered to be charismatic, ambitious, adventurous, and fearless.
It was with hopeful anticipation that pursuing my skiing pleasures would come to pass before the Christmas holidays, but alas, Mother Nature just wasn’t cooperating. The snow conditions at Tahoe were less than ideal and the three major resorts (Northstar, Palisades, and Heavenly) were only operating 2-3 lifts and only a handful of bunny runs, not quit enticing enough for me to make a 4-hour drive to Tahoe. So, another season is starting late for me. But, recent weather patterns look favorable for more snowfall and an early January trip looks very promising and I need to get on the sticks before Jackson Hole.
2024 NSC Jackson Hole – 27 January to 3 February
Our ski week to Jackson Hole, a skiers mountain, is coming up at the end of the month. Jackson Hole has been receiving some good snowfall and, as I always say, more is better. The Jackson Hole Orientation meeting is on Saturday, 13 January and the Evite has been sent out, so let me know if you did not receive the Evite (president@niseiskiclub.org). Come by if you can to pick up your souvenir jacket, luggage tags from Sports America, and to meet and greet your fellow skiers.
QotM: Every time someone comes up with a foolproof solution, along comes a more-talented fool.
by Jeanne Katsuro, Vice President
VP Jeanne Katsuro is leading a non-skiing weeklong trip to Niagara Falls and Eastern Canada on October 11- 19 2024.
Check out the information below.
Sign up early before April 11, 2024 to secure the cost. Prices will go up after this date.
Collette Trip Insurance:
https://partner.travelexinsurance.com/policy/?plannumber=365ZA-0123
Jan 1
by Karen Soo, Newsletter Editor
Happy New Year! Welcome to 2024
Eating and gathering were always centered around our club and club members.
This year I will be posting recipes from The Official Nisei Ski Club Recipe Book.
Recipes from this book were used at many NSC events. The weekend ski trips, annual picnics and pot luck parties.
The first NSC Recipe Book was written in 1975. This was immediately followed by another book in 1997. Annie Ogata was NSC president 1997-1998 and NSC was celebrating the 40th anniversary.
Just a reminder, we just celebrated NSC 65th Anniversary in October 2023
In 2005, Judy Hom and Winston Fong printed copies of our cookbook and sold copies at Nikkei Traditions. This was a way to raise money for our club.
Maybe we can bring this cookbook back? Who is interested in The Official Nisei Ski Club Recipe Book? Send me an email. newsletter@niseiskiclub.org.
The first recipe is our famous Chinese Chicken salad that we made and sold at the annual Nikkei Matsuri in Japan town in San Jose.
We sold Chicken Salad as a fund raiser. We sold over 2000 bowls of chicken salads.
The preparation took 2 days and 60 members to cook and shred the chicken, clean and cut the lettuce and finally mixing the salad dressing. We had to follow food temperature protocol and made sure the salad is chilled properly before selling to the public.
SO MUCH WORK!!
Bon Appetite – Julia Child and Karen Soo share the same birthday.
Ingredients
Reprinted from the Nisei Ski Club Recipe Cookbook
1976 – 1977 was a drought year and NSC made Chicken Salad for a fund raiser at the San Joe Japanese American Community Bicentennial Celebration. This has since become known as Nikkei Matsuri and NSC made $400.00 from sales of the salad with this recipe!
Preparation Time – 1 day ahead Serving: 4,000 bowls
Ingredients
Dressing
In a 30-gallon pot, mix dressing ingredients vigorously. Stabilizer may be used to make the dressing thicker, approximately 1 cup. Combine salad ingredients just before serving and mix with dressing.
Here’s the ingredients for smaller proportions:
Dressing:
Here are some pictures from the last time we participated at Nikkei Matsuri in 2011, 2010 and 2008
by Karen Soo, Trip Director
Klaus Obermeyer is 104 years old and still telling great ski stories.
While Klaus no longer turns down Buttermilk, he is still present in the office and is active every day stretching and practicing Aikido.
Read his incredible story here.
by Karen Soo, Trip Director
During the time I worked for Marmot, we would attend the annual sales meeting at Lake Tahoe. After the meetings, we would mingle and talk to the sales people. Dinner and drinks led to the our shot ski competition. Basically taking shots from a shot glass that was attached to the ski. The goal was to take shots without spilling any whiskey. 3 people standing shoulder to shoulder.
Breckenridge just broke the record for the longest Shot-Ski with 485 skis connected together, 2469 feet long and connecting 1377 people.
by Armand Gutierrez, President
Tahoe ski resorts are open, although they have very few lifts and runs open. But still, I guess it’s better than bare slopes. Tahoe resorts were hoping to open early this year (by Thanksgiving) but lack of precipitation didn’t bring the Winter Wonderland, and more snow is needed if they want to get this skier to spend four hours of driving time (one-way) up to Tahoe. Next to Thanksgiving perhaps the Christmas season is my favorite time of the year. There’s nothing like listening to Christmas music (old standards and new versions), watching the neighbors put up Christmas lights and decorations, and everyone getting into that Christmas spirit that permeates the atmosphere. And then again, it also means that the ski season is starting and the white slopes of Tahoe will once again become my playground. This is when Mother Nature does some of her best work, laying down a carpet of endless snowflakes and transforming the hillsides and mountain vistas into a true Winter Wonderland
2024 NSC Jackson Hole – 27 January to 3 February
Everything is in place for the Jackson Hole trip in January. Unlike last year with our Breckenridge trip there will be an Orientation Meeting in January and you will be notified with an Evite in early December. There will be a Potluck Dinner on Tuesday and a Farewell Dinner on Thursday. Since our group is spread across three buildings it is probably prudent to have each building host a potluck dinner. Info about the Grand Targhee day trip on Wednesday is forthcoming; just want to confirm the pickup points. Hopefully you will get a chance to get a few days of skiing in before the trip. You know, just to limber up those legs and find out what hurts and what doesn’t hurt.
Christmas Greetings
This has been a good year for NSC with the altitude-challenging Breckenridge trip, the annual Luau/Membership Meeting picnic, a 65th Anniversary Reunion dinner, several Pickleball events, and a Bowling event. On behalf of the NSC board I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year.
QotM: If you’re going to try cross-country skiing, start with a small country – Victor Borge
by Tina Woo, Membership
Our 2nd Annual Nisei Ski Club Pickleball Social was held on Saturday, November 4 at the Sunnyvale Tennis Center. Rain was originally forecast but we had a sunny, gorgeous, “blue bird” day. 16 players signed up for the event, which included 12 NSC members and 4 non-members. Our group included experienced players and some completely new to the pickleball sport. The stadium courts were reserved from 9-11 am which kept our group together without interruption from other players and clubs. There was no “waiting time” and all players were on the courts for the full two-hours of instruction and play. Cindy and Steve, the Lifetime Activities “Pros” provided instruction, drills, strategies and critique of play. We had two groups of experienced players and two groups of beginners and advanced beginners.
There was one minor crash but no injuries in the advanced beginner group. Everyone enjoyed the event and had a good time playing. Steve stated he enjoyed teaching our group and played with the beginner group. It looks like the instructors enjoyed themselves as well because they were contracted for one hour of instruction but spent two hours with us.
Participant comments included:
“It was a real pleasure to meet you all and reacquaint myself with the Nisei group. I had so much fun learning how to play pickleball for the 1st time. Instructor Cindy was very hands on with great tips and cheered us on when we had good technique which was very encouraging. Would definitely play again.”
“Cindy provided really good drills and suggestions. She is enthusiastic, knowledgeable and shares her great positive energy.” Very knowledgeable and unafraid to step right in with drills and suggestions for improvement.”
“There were enough players at the same level to drill and play with. It was nice getting a different perspective on strategy. The drills were different than the ones I know and I learned some new tricks. If only I could incorporate them into my game.”
“We really enjoyed today’s pickleball lesson and play. Steve’s instructions were very straightforward and easy to follow. Furthermore, he went over the game basics, player positioning and scoring.”
After the pickleball event, a group of seven continued with the lunch afterwards at Bonchon in Sunnyvale for Korean fried chicken, Bulgogi fries and tacos!
An enjoyable fun event for all. Hope you can join us at the next one.
by Jeff Honda, Board member
Do you remember that 70’s TV game show Bowling for Dollars? The game show took place at a real bowling alley where local people could play the sport of bowling to win cash and sometimes prizes based on how well they bowled.
Well Nisei Ski Club members had their own bowling competition.
Strikes were cheered and gutter balls loathed as the Nisei Ski Club hurled bowling balls down the lane at Homestead Bowl, Cupertino on November 10th.
Nine club members (Alex Kami, Carol Takeda, Wendy Low, Curtis Otaguro, Roland Lee, David Tom, Bev Lee, Jeff Honda and Armand Gutierrez) and one guest (Karen Moreland) participated in the event.
Roland had the high score for the day, but Karen proved to be the most consistent with the highest pinfall over two games.
After the 10th frame, the group went to lunch at Dish n Dash to closed out an enjoyable and relaxing event.
Everyone had a great time. We hope to see you at the next bowling event.
Curtis’s concentration pays off.
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