July is here and we have officially stepped into the second half of the year. I’m not sure how the British celebrate Independence Day but I’ll bet it’s not with the same gusto and élan as here in the states. So do your part on the 4^th of July by raising Old Glory high above and into the field of blue

NSC Initiatives From Last Season

Last year I presented two initiatives for the upcoming season: Family Memberships and the FWSA Website Award. A proposal for the Family Memberships is being developed, and our website is about 65% of meeting the FWSA requirements. Both initiatives are still a work-in-progress and will take a little bit more time to complete.

Mt. View Obon Festival

The Mt. View Obon Festival is on 20-21 July at the Mt. View Buddhist Temple. Yes, there is a slight conflict because our Annual Membership and Luau Picnic is on the 21^st. In the past NSC members volunteered to work various booths, with the Beer Booth the most coveted prize. If interested in volunteering then go to https://sangha.mvbuddhisttemple.org/obon/ and see where your talents can best be used. Rest assured that there will be a variety of delicious cuisine, carnival-style games, cultural events, lots of people, the famous Beer Booth, and try not to bring home any goldfish in a plastic bag. For more information visit their website at https://obon.mvbuddhisttemple.org

NSC Annual Membership Meeting and Luau Picnic

The NSC Annual Membership Meeting and Luau Picnic is on Sunday, July 21st, so mark your calendars. As usual the club will be providing beverages and a lunch entrée and you can bring a favorite side dish. Details will be on the Picnic Flyer

2025 NSC Ski Week

There has been a date change for the 2025 NSC Ski Week at Sun Peaks, BC and is now 1-8 February. So mark your calendar and start planning on a ski week to Canada’s second largest resort with 4,700 skiable terrain acres. Also, check your passport’s expiration date. Air Canada no longer carries skis when flying to Kelowna, but fortunately we have 25 seats available on Alaska Air, and 7 additional seats if you’re not taking any skis. That’s the gang at Sun Peaks in 2014. Take a look at the flyer in this newsletter, fill it out, and send it in to secure your spot on the trip.

Sports America has posted the Epic/Ikon links for the 2024-2025 season and is offering a 6.5% trip rebate (based on pass price) if you purchase the passes from Sports America and go on the Sun Peaks trip:

Use this for Epic passes: https://www.sportsamerica.com/epic-nisei

Use this for Ikon passes: https://www.sportsamerica.com/ikon-nisei

Password: snow

Questions: contact president@niseiskiclub.org

QotM: Don’t let the fear of striking out hold you back. – Babe Ruth

by Karen Soo, Newsletter Editor

In honor of our country’s 247th Birthday Celebration, Happy 4th of July.

Have a great time with your family and friends. Be safe and watch out for those fireworks.

by Karen Soo, Trip Director

Please join us on Sunday, July 21st at Las Palmas Park in Sunnyvale for our annual Nisei Ski Club Luau Picnic.

Time – 12:00pm – 5:00pm

You will receive your Evite invitation sent out from Armand G.

Please RSVP no later than July 18th, so we can order the right amount of food for the picnic.

NISEI SKI CLUB LUAU PICNIC INFO

Join us and meet your fellow members.

by Karen Soo, Newsletter Editor

Come on out and volunteer your time to help the local community.

Mountain View Buddhist Temple is having their annual Obon Festival.

Dates – Saturday, July 20^th and Sunday, July 21st. Sorry , The NSC Picnic is also Sunday , July 21st.

This year, the Mountain View Buddhist Temple (MVBT) Obon Festival bazaar committee members had developed an online volunteer sign-up page for the various activities and booths leading up to the bazaar and during the two-day bazaar on Saturday, July 20^th and Sunday, July 21^th.

 https://sangha.mvbuddhisttemple.org/obon/

In the past years Nisei Ski Club members had volunteered at the Obon Festival Beer booth. You know how that goes. A little pour, a little taste on the side. BURP..

Here is the link for the BEER BOOTH- Hurry before it gets filled up.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QckOVYsOJPz8RGsCpTcKptgqLAyikNJCPb4AJ54J3QQ/edit?usp=sharing

Thank you for stepping up to the plate to VOLUNTEER!

Send in your deposit to hold you space.

by Sandy Kiyomura, NSC Member

As part of the “end of summer” celebration gathering, Sandy Kiyomura will give lessons on Cha Cha and the Swing. Sandy has been an instructor at the Mastick Senior Center in Alameda for several years. Come practice, get tips and have fun. 

You’ll have the opportunity to learn about Nisei Ski Club, meet club members, find out about future events as well as next year’s planned week-long Sun Peaks ski trip and a Japan Fall Trip! 

Date – Saturday, August 24th

Time – 12 pm – 3 pm 

Where – Sandy’s house in Harbor Bay, Alameda.

Cost: $5 for Members and Non-members. Bring a potluck dish to serve 6-8.

Beverages will be provided. 

Space is limited to 20 sign-ups. Pls RSVP by

August 19

We can also do a 5-mile walk/bike on a car free path nearby. 

Sandy will give you the address upon receiving your RSVP.

RSVP to Sandy Kiyomura at dance2@niseiskiclub.org 

We hope to see you there!

by Judy Hom, Janet Gee, NSC Members

If you missed the inaugural NSC Mahjong event in 2023, here’s a repeat event on

Saturday, September 7^th., 2024

Do you want to learn how to play mahjong or get more practice playing? Then, sign up for the NSC Mahjong event and potluck! Judy Hom, Janet Gee, and our coaches can teach you the basics if you don’t know how to play or coach you if you already know to but want more practice. We will focus on the Cantonese style where we play with 13 tiles and flowers. We will also explain how to score: HK and Classical Chinese style scoring. If learning more about mahjong is on your bucket list, then sign-up! When you sign up, you will receive a cheat sheet and a list of mahjong resources. We know that all NSC members like to eat so this is also a potluck event. 

Date:            Saturday, September 7, 2024

Time:           11am – 3:pm

Where:         Judy and Winston’s backyard, 18995 Carlton Avenue, Castro Valley

Cost: $5 for members and $10 for non-members. Bring a potluck dish to feed 4 or more.

Beverages will be provided. 

Space is limited to 16 sign-ups. Pls RSVP by August 31st

Please fill out a form for each person that is attending. For more information, please email Judy at mahjong@niseiskiclub.org.

SIGN UP HERE: MAH JONG

Will we see one of these Mah Jong Tables at Judy’s house?

by Karen Soo, Newsletter Editor

Its summer time and my friends in the neighborhood are showing off their summer garden. They’re growing tomatoes, mesclun greens, zucchinis, cucumbers, banana peppers and kale. My friend Connie gives me a weekly bag of organic home-grown veggies. This is perfect for me since I eat a huge salad for dinner. I call it my go to “rabbit food”.

This week she gave me a bag of dinosaur kale. YUMS. Once they are cleaned, I use them for my smoothies. For this batch, I will used them to make Kale Pesto. We are so use to making our own basil pesto if we can find basil or we get that jar of Pesto sold at Costco.

This Kale Pesto is made with just kale. Without the basil, it’s a more cost-effective way to make pesto. It’s also one that you can enjoy all year round, when basil isn’t as plentiful in the supermarket (or garden). 

Enjoy!

Bon Appetit – Julia Child and Karen Soo share the same birthday.

Total Preparation time: 15 minutes

Servings: One pound of your favorite pasta

Ingredients

• 8 cloves garlic (peeled, ends trimmed)
• 1/4 cup pine nuts or walnuts
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese (plus more for topping)
• Juice of 1/2 a lemon (if you’d like it extra lemony, use the whole lemon)
• 1 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 10 packed cups curly kale (about 8-9 ounces/225-250 g)
• 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
• Red pepper flakes

Directions

1. Set a large pot of salt water to boil on the stove for the pasta.

• To the bowl of a food processor, add the garlic, pine nuts, parmesan, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and the kale. Depending on the size of your food processor, you may need to make this in multiple batches or add the kale in a handful at a time.
• With the food processor running, slowly pour the olive oil through the feed tube. The pesto should come together relatively quickly, but let the food processor run for 1-2 minutes to make sure everything is thoroughly pulverized.

• By now, your water should be boiling. Cook your pasta according to the package instructions. When the cooking time is almost complete, reserve 1 cup of pasta cooking water in a heatproof measuring cup. Drain the pasta, and transfer to a large skillet over medium-low heat.

• Add half of the pesto (you’ll have the remainder to freeze for another day!). Stir the pesto into the pasta, adding a little pasta water as you go to make a silky, “creamy” sauce.

• Sprinkle the pasta with grated parmesan and some Aleppo chili flakes. You can also top with some zest from that lemon you juiced for the pesto, if desired. Serve!

TIPS & NOTES:

Note: Recipe makes about 2 1/2 cups pesto. Use half for 1 pound pasta, and freeze the remainder (about 1 1/4 cup) for another day!

To freeze, transfer to a pint container, pour a thin layer of olive oil over the top, cover, and freeze. 

Roland Lee NSC Board Member

The group consist of 8 riders met at 10:00am in Corte Madera. Everyone came with different riding experiences. One rider suggested a new title “A BEAUTIFUL DAY in PARADISE”.

Beautiful because it was a gorgeous day for a bike ride. The temperature was in the 80’s. There were minimal wind and no white caps visible in the bay.  The San Francisco Bay gave us a stunning backdrop.

We assembled at PIXLEY Park in Corte Madera. Everyone signed the NSC’s Release and Liability form. Name Tags were distributed and everyone was ready to roll out for the 20-mile trip. The group took off while I was looking for my bike gloves and pumping up my tires. I guess I became the “Sweeper”. The first 35 minutes of the ride was an uphill battle. When I finally caught up to the group, I asked them to wait at the top of hill so we can ride as a group.

At Chapman Street and Camino Alto, we started the descent. Camino Alto is a moderately busy road.  You can pick up a lot of speed going downhill on the curves. Caution, there’s a Stop light at bottom of the hill. On arrival to East Blithedale, everyone turned left.

The “Sweeper / Me ” had to made sure the last person has made the turn towards the correct path. We rode at the underside of  Freeway 101, around quiet Richardson’s bay . You can see the San Francisco skyline in the background climbing up Seminary Drive.

On our way to Tiburon, it was an undulating ride with very few difficult sections. After about an hour we arrived in picturesque Tiburon Downtown and stopped at Caffe Acri Coffee shop at #1 Main Street.

We stopped for coffee and a snack. After snacks, we took a group picture near the ferry station. A beautiful place for photos with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.

 24^th Annual Tiburon Classic Exotic Car Show

The car show had about 30-40 cars from Land Rovers to Jaguars.  I’d like to give honorable mention to Elaine Graves  and her husband Gary for making the long commute from San Ramon to make it to the bike ride.

Elaine who injured her ACL, has been rehabilitating her ACL and MCL knee injury which she suffered on the first day of last season. She missed out on the NSC Jackson Hole Trip and the entire season. Three cheers for Elaine! We wish her the best this season.

Lunch at Corte Madera Shopping Center

When we arrived back to Corte Madera about 2:30pm, we had lunch at Starbird Chicken, a fast food restaurant loacated at Corte Madera. They advertised themselves as having the “Best Fried Chicken Sandwich’s in the World”.  

A very bold statement to make. We all had some sort of fried chicken meal.

However, I noticed that Miss Burger-Mistress did not partake in the fried chicken judging adventure.  I guess she was saving her stomach for a better dinner. She earlier had a Hamburger to tie her over.

I would like to thank our lead guide Alex, who took point position to lead group throughout the trip. I took “Sweep position”

We’ll see you next year’s bike ride.  “ A GOOD TIME WAS HAD BY ALL !! “

by Tom Ryugo, NSC Member

I showed up at the Corte Madera Community Center at 9:30 sharp – and nobody from NSC was there.  Thought I went to the wrong place or maybe nobody decided to bike.  Turned out people were just late.

Roland Lee was our fearless leader along with his son Alex, made sure everyone’s bike was up to snuff and then off we went. 

There were eight of us altogether – myself, Roland, Alex, Elaine, Gary, Carolyn, Xieng, and Dave.  Roland had said it would be a 2.5-hour ride.

Our route went south through Camino Alto Open Space and then over 101 through Strawberry and Belvedere.  Went over some slightly strenuous hills but nothing that would kill you if you use low gear.  Then it was down along Tiburon Blvd until we got to the Tiburon Ferry terminal where we stopped for coffee at Caffe Acri .

There was a classic car show going on Paradise Drive and we had to walk our bikes through.  Then resumed riding around Tiburon past multimillion dollar houses along the Bay.  Because of the car show that blocked traffic on Paradise Drive, there was virtually no traffic going through that part of Tiburon.  Eventually, the route flattened out or was downhill – which suited some of the riders just fine.

At the end of our ride, Roland suggested lunch at Starbird Chicken in the Corte Madera shopping center.  By then, it was 2 o’clock – so much for just 2.5 hours to ride!  The rumor was Starbird Chicken had the best chicken sandwiches in the world.  To be sure, the sandwiches are excellent.  After the long ride in the warm day, that hit the spot. 

Debbie Stewart, FWSA, VP of Int’l Travel

Greetings!

Now that we’re approaching the end of ski season and are looking towards adventure travel…

We are still accepting registrations for the FWSA 2024 Africa trip…tell all your friends and come join us!

I have attached the flyer and registration packet.

Please let me know if you have any questions.