September 30, 20122012 Grassroots Summit Flash Report!

The 22nd Japan America Grassroots Summit
in North Texas 2012

The 22nd Grassroots Summit was held in North Texas from August 28 – September 3, 2012.
180 people traveled from Japan to participate in the exchange, including 53 young students and their chaperones
from Miyagi and Iwate prefectures which were badly hit by the earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
Number of people:

180 from Japan (including 158 participants who home-stayed)
Approx. 3200 in total※ Tentative number as of Sep.30(Including the Japanese participants, events attendees, sponsors, volunteers, etc.)

Attending Special Events:Summit Schedule

1) Rangers Game – 7362) Opening Ceremony – 5003) Host families and family members – 2824) Closing Ceremony – 400
5) Volunteers, sponsors, local events attendees, etc, - 1384

8/28（Tue）

Participants travel from Japan to Fort Worth. Grapevine Tour and Rangers Game.

< Hilton Fort Worth>8/29（Wed）

Local Tours. Opening Celebration at Billy Bob’s Texas in Stockyards< Hilton Fort Worth>8/30（Thu）

Fort Worth Walking Tour. Departure for the local session areas<Homestay>

8/31（Fri）～9/1（Sat）

Local Sessions (Homestay Program)<Homestay>

9/2 (Sun）

Participants depart homestay locations. Closing Ceremony in Dallas

9/3 （Mon）

Return to Japan / Post Summit Optional Program

9/4 （Tue）

Arrive back in Japan<Dallas Marriott City Center>

Grapevine Tour (Aug. 28)
The participants who arrived on the early flight on
8/28 enjoyed sightseeing in Grapevine, a city
located near the airport, in the morning and early
afternoon. They enjoyed visiting Vetro
Glassblowing, Grapevine Heritage Museum,
downtown walking, etc. They were invited tolunch by the City and were greeted by a city
council member and staff of the Grapevine
Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Downtown walking

Volunteers and staff ofGrapevine CBVLunch served by the city

Rangers vs Rays Ballgame (Aug. 28)
The Rangers organized a special “Japan
America Friendship Night” game on Aug.
28th, celebrating the 2012 Grassroots Summit.
In the pre-game event, Minamisanriku
Mitobe Shishi-odori group from Miyagi
performed their dance on the field, and Kaito
Suganomata, a 15 year old boy fromIshinomaki, threw the first pitch. Themembers of the Ishinomaki Little Seniorteam enjoyed exchange with the Rangers
players before the game.

Pre-game event on the field))

Shishi-odori
on the field

The Summit participants in the Ballpark

First pitch

FOX News interview

Rangers won!

Local Tours (Aug. 29)
Five Local Tour options were offered to theparticipants, who chose areas they would
like to visit. 155 participants out of 180
travelers from Japan joined one of the tours
and discovered the history and culture ofNorth Texas.
At Cabela’s

Fort Worth museum tour

Pioneer Plaza in Dallas

Opening Celebration (Aug. 29)
The Opening Celebration washeld at Billy Bob’s Texas, theworld’s largest Honky Tonk in
the Fort Worth Stockyards. TheCelebration was full of Texas
atmosphere with a bit ofJapanese taste, such as yukata. MC: Sylvia Komatsu
Interpreter: Kazuko Scott
Consul-General in Houston,The 500 people attending,
JASDFW President, Don Casey
CIE Chairman, Taizo Watanabe
Jota Yamamoto
including the Japanese
Mayor of Fort Worthparticipants, were greeted byU.S.-Japan Council
Betsy Priceseveral welcoming remarks.
The Kesennuma sudent
delegation made a marvelous
Senior Vice President
presentation called “We Are
Kaz Maniwa
Tomodachi” about the Tohoku
disaster of 2011 andU.S. Embassy in Japan
Kesennuma’s recovery withDeputy Chief of Mission, Kurt Tong
Summit Chairman, J. Thomas Schieffer
support from people inDescendant of Commodore Perry
Special Presentation “We are TOMODACHI”
America. After the Ceremony,by Kesennuma Student Delegation
delicious Texas BBQ dinner
Matthew C. Perry
was served, and all theparticipants enjoyed the dinnerand mingling with each other.
Texas line dancing with an*instructor followed the dinner,and both Japanese andAmerican participants had a
fun time dancing together.

Ambassador Schieffer and students from Tohoku

Texas BBQ dinner

Texas line dancing

Local Sessions - Homestay Program（Aug. 30－Sep. 2）
The Local Session program lasted 4 days and 3 nights in 14 different locations in North Texas.
(The numbers of Japanese participants are listed next to the city names in brackets)

1.

Muenster/Lindsay（7）2.

Gainesville（15）3.

Denton（17）4.

McKinney（5）5.

Parker（11）6.

Plano（17）7.

Richardson（16）8.

Southlake（10）9.

Irving（5）

10.

13.

Dallas（14）Waxahachie（3）

11.

14.

Fort Worth (16）Glen Rose（6）12.

Arlington（17）★Comments from Participants★
・It was my first overseas trip, andbecame the one full of surprise,
touched, and appreciation. The
most enjoyable part was home-stay.
I thank my host-father andhost-mother who carefully listened
to my poor English and tried tocommunicate. Their son anddaughter became my good friends
and enjoyed Origami together. I’ve
made up my mind to learn English
more!
S.K.

Closing Ceremony(Sep. 2)After the local sessions, the Closing Ceremony was held at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas. Including
host families, around 400 people participated. It started with songs by the Belle Tones, a female a cappella chorus fromSouthern Methodist University, and greetings and salutations were expressed by guests and organizers. The Mitobe
Shishi-odori Preservation Group performed its gorgeous dance in the middle of the ceremony. The “Globe” was passed
from Robert Whitfield to Asuka Nakahama to show the next Summit will be held in Japan. The Zenidaiko dance and aShimane informational DVD were presented on the stage by the participants from Shimane, the venue of the 2013
Grassroots Summit. After the ceremony, the Japanese participants and host families enjoyed walking in the Arts Districtof Dallas, visiting museums and performance halls.
Mitobe Shishi-Odori Preservation GroupSMU Belle Tones
Mayor of Dallas
Mike Rawlings
Summit Chairman,
J. Thomas Schieffer

CIE-US President

RichardWood
Crow Collection
Director

Consul-General ofJapan in Houston
Jota Yamamoto

Summit Vice-Chairman
John Stich

The Whitfields andthe Nakahamas

Amy Hofland

Globe Exchange

Post Summit Optional Program

Presentation by 2013 hosts from Shimane（Aug. 30-）

After the Summit, while some participants flew back to Japan directly from Dallas, dozens of the Japanese participants
departed for the Post Summit Optional Programs to explore the different cultures of other regions of America and makemore friends.
At the house ofCaptain Whitfieldin Fairhaven

Dinner in Boston
Mall of America inMinneapolis

The Alamo in San Antonio

In the tree shade in Austin

Sponsors for the Summit

Supporters for the Tohoku youth participants
Gloops, Inc., Ichiro Ozawa Office, Japan Foundation,
Tokyo Club, TOMODACHI Initiative, Texas Rangers
Baseball Club, Yu Darvish

Special AssistanceBrounoff Communications, Consulate-General of Japan in Houston,Suzuki Graphic Design Studio

Crow Collection of Asian Art,

Dallas GiveCamp,GRAND AXE 602, 2-12-18 Koujimachi,
Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-0083, JAPANTEL 03-3511-7171 FAX 03-3511-7175
URL： http://www.manjiro.or.jp