06-2 Greetings 2010 from Tachibana

San Diego: March 21st, 2010

Minasan ohayou gozaimasu! (Hi, Good morning, everyone!) Welcome to the San Diego Region 13^th Japanese Speech Contest!

My name is Fumiko Tachibana. I am the director of Japanese Speech Contest in San Diego.

This event is independent from any organizations with the exception of the grant awarded by Mrs. Hisako Coox, the former director of the Japan–US Center which had organized this annual San Diego Japanese Speech Contest since 1996 till 2007 to refresh our fond memory. She is now happy to see us here as one independent event with all who strive for excellence.

I'd like to thank the most wonderful group of judges who are willing to sacrifice their precious time for us: Mr.Makoto Hirose from the Consulate General of Japan in Los Angeles, Dr. Eiko Ushida from UCSD IR/PS and Kyoko Shoji sensei from Notre Dame High School in Los Angeles.

I'd like to thank the local Japanese teachers who are here today, (alphabetically) Hirata sensei, Oskay sensei, Shoji sensei, Takagi sensei, Tsuboi sensei, Umabe sensei, for helping the students. I’d like to thank those students who have volunteered to help us out for today to make this contest more fun, the Soran bushi Dance team from Hilltop High School, Morse High School and Eastlake High school, led by Fukuda sensei, Hasegawa sensei and Eriko Shoji sensei.

Also today’s special guests for entertainment: Don Quinn sensei and Obata san and Kazumi san.

Also I would like to thank volunteers from Palomar College. We’ve met a couple of times at TLC to make this event run smoothly. Many of them are from North County and even further in Temecula which is in Riverside County. Thank you for giving us your time having woken up at around 5 o'clock in the morning.

Last but not least, thank you, all the contestants for participating. You are the bravest ones, because you have decided to compete, and I know that this was a lot of work. I also would like to thank supporters, including Marukai Store in San Diego who generously donated drinks and snacks for the contestants and volunteer students for today.

Lastly, to show our appreciation to the brave contestants and the students volunteers, I would like to present them with this medal. They will be given to the option of having their names engraved on the back for a nominal fee or having it set on this beautiful plaque.

I wish you the best of luck! More importantly, have fun! Minasan ganbatte kudasai!

Fumiko Tachibana

President

SanDiego Japanese Speech Contest Committee