Students and staff at John Muir Middle School celebrated the twelfth annual Japan Day on Friday, September 19, with visiting students from Rebun Island and the Yoyoka Family Band.
Coordinated by teacher Ted DeVirgilis, the Japanese students enjoyed a day of activities including sitting in on a science, art, English, math or history class with JMMS students, a special luncheon and performing their island’s traditional dance at afternoon assemblies.
DeVirgilis also gave the students a tour of the Muir campus and the finished Muir Peace Monument, which was carved by the Muir Monument Club and Japanese granite artist Masaji Asaga for the 2024 Japan Day. The Japanese characters for Rebun Island are also carved on the large stone monument.
“Over the course of two afternoon assemblies, the whole Muir campus got to meet the Rebun students who shared what they loved about America—from host families, In-n-Out burgers, the sunrise they saw at Death Valley the previous week, and the friendliness of Burbank people,” DeVirgilis said. “They then performed the spirited yosakoi dance, with movements based on the actions of fishing and boating from their island culture.”
“[Principal] Dr. Miller and I presented a slideshow of Muir’s first trip to our sister school on Rebun Island this past June—and the impact that it had on us all,” he added. “Our school friendship has deeper meaning after the warmth that the people of Rebun Island showed us.”
A small group of Muir students and parents, chaperoned by DeVirgilis and Miller, visited Tokyo and Rebun Island, with plans to visit again in coming years.
The Yoyoka Family Band also performed at the assemblies. Daughter Yoyoka shot to internet stardom for her drum performance of “Good Times, Bad Times,” by Led Zeppelin, when she was eight years old. The family moved to America for her career three years ago, which prompted her mother Rie to pick up the bass.
Members of the Yoyoka Family Band spoke to the students about life as Japanese citizens who moved to the United States to make a living playing rock music. Now fifteen, Yoyoka has released a solo album and recently completed her first European tour with professional musicians.
“You can see that she enjoys playing with her talented family, too, especially her brother Shido, a seventh-grader who is quite the quitar-playing prodigy himself,” commented DeVirgilis.
“The question I put to the school was ‘How can learning about different cultures make us better friends, classmates, or citizens?'” DeVirgilis also said. “Judging from the positive response from Muir and Rebun students and staff, experiencing each other’s culture has made our two pockets of the world just a bit kinder these days. We are lucky to have our friendship with Rebun.”
The two-week Rebun International Exchange Program is supervised by Dr. Akiko Agishi, president of Creative Enterprise International (CEI) Inc and creator of the Aurora Foundation/Japanese Language Scholarship Foundation.
