Students from Bizen

Junior high and high school students of Bizen, Okayama prefecture visited LA.

This tour was organized by Bizen, Okayama prefecture, and 200 junior high and high school students were selected by lottery to experience American history, tradition, and culture.

The tour was divided into 2 sessions of early and late August.
The second group of about 50 people arrived in LA on August 22nd and visited Little Tokyo to learn about the history of Japanese Americans.

Bizen, Okayama is the hometown of Dodgers pitcher, Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
Therefore, the tour also had the purpose of supporting the Dodgers, and students enjoyed watching a Dodgers game.

Bizen City also established a Friendship City Agreement with the City of Torrance upon their visit, and the two cities will deepen their exchanges in the future.

Ocean Group Seafood Show

Ocean Group, a wholesaler of seafood in SoCal and other parts of the US, held a seafood show in Irvine on Sunday, September 1st.

This is an annual event held by Ocean Group for their customers working in restaurants and supermarkets making this year the 20th time. The event rotates among 6 branch offices located in the US each year, and the event was held jointly by the LA headquarters and the San Diego office this year.

40 companies from all over the world including Japan, Europe, and Asia participated in this year’s event.
They promoted their new and mainstay products by having customers actually try them.

Ocean Group also introduced their own in-house brand products such as smoked salmon.
Other exhibits included a booth for Japanese sake and fish print artwork, and active business discussions took place throughout the day.