"...community is about people who can make each other feel at home"

#sfjapantownstory by our San Francisco Taiko Dojo playing supporter, Christine!

To me, community is all about the people you share it with- people who share experiences, or who share a love of a particular activity, food, or place. Most importantly, community is about people who can make each other feel at home. Japantown is a place where anyone can arrive and feel at home, no matter their background. Through all of my experiences in Japantown over the past 7 years, from belting out karaoke tunes at Yamasho, to helping spread taiko to the masses at Cherry Blossom, to walking around the mall greeting familiar and new faces, to stuffing my face full of Nijiya bento food, I've felt surrounded by a great community of people and felt at home.

I'm connected to Japantown primarily through my experiences with @sftaikoDojo. Because I was able to find such a fine community of people within the group, it was easy for me to want to plug in to the Japantown community. SFTD has a presence in many elements of #Japantown and at many Japantown events (such as @nc_cbf Festival, @nihonmachisf, Sumo festival, and others), so through working and playing with SFTD I've been able to slowly get to know the true variety of the Japantown community.

I hope that Japantown will continue to welcome folks like me (non-Japanese, POC, queer) into the community, and that the fantastic cross-cultural community building I see in Japantown will grow even more. ^___^