Tickets Now Available for Aug. 18 Japantown Tour

Press Release from the City of San Leandro -

The San Leandro Public library is offering a field trip to Japantown in San Jose on August 18, as a part of the California Reads 2012 program. The trip will include transportation, a tour of the Japanese American Museum of San Jose, Japantown landmarks and historic buildings, the San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin and a bento box lunch for a fee of $30.

Tickets are available for in-person purchase at the Reference desk at 300 Estudillo Avenue, San Leandro. Click here for a complete list of library hours.

California Reads is a statewide reading and discussion program developed by Cal Humanities in collaboration with the California Center for the Book and with the support of the California State Library. The theme of the program is "Searching for Democracy." It is designed to animate public conversation on the nature and needs of democracy. 

For the read, the library has chosen the book Farewell to Manzanar about Japanese-American internment during World War II.

The Japantown trip will include a tour of the Japanese American Museum of San Jose, housed in a building modeled after a rural Japanese farmhouse. Its unique collection highlights how Japanese Americans have struggled in their adaptation and contributions over the past century. The permanent exhibit includes farm and community life, a range of World War II experiences including evacuation, incarceration, military service and post war resettlement. Visitors can experience the conditions of a relocation center in an exact replica of the Tule Lake barracks. The Japanese American Museum of San Jose displays the largest collection of farm equipment of the Issei (Japanese immigrant generation) and the Nisei (first born in the U.S.).

Japantown is one of the three remaining in the United States. The tour consists of 29 historic sites both commercial and cultural. Some of the sites to be visited are The Original Dobashi Market (1922), Ishikawa Dry Goods Store (1906), San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin (1902) and the Hori Midwifery Site (1915).

Tours will be led by docents who will share memorable stories of this amazing community from the early 1900's to today.

For more information, call Addie Silveira and Mary Beth Barloga at 510-577-3991.