Yamamoto Scholarship

Haley Bronson, Tessa LaVergne, Jessica Boyd, and Darren Iverson were the Yamamoto Scholarship recipients 2011.

Nick Molenda and Steve Henry in Tamana

The Summer of 2011 was one that I'll never forget. I received the opportunity to travel with my friend and colleague, Steve Henry, to the small town of Tamana, Japan.

The trip itself was an honor and was humbly provided to us by Tomio Yamamoto, Miho Takekawa, Satoru Hamada, Masataka Watanabe, Uchimura Yuki, Tomohide Kodama, Yoneda-sensei, Juri Nishimura, as well as many other of the great people from Tamana. The purpose of the trip was to consult with two high school music ensembles in Japan: Senshu University Tamana High School, and Tamana Girls High School.

However the trip wasn't completely limited to just work. :) We got to witness the Senshu Tamana Baseball Team win one of their regional contests! Gan-ba-te!

We also visited many tourist hotspots including Aso Volcano, Kumamoto Castle, and a couple historic Japanese Buddhist Temples.

During one of our numerous visits to the city of Kumamoto, we enjoyed several amazing meals. Pictured here is my favorite of the entire trip: Horse meat!! :)

I can't begin to tell you how amazing this all was, but even still, none of it compared to getting to work with the wonderful students at Senshu and TGHS. The ceremony thrown for us by those great people was something that I'll never forget, and getting to work with them and watch them perform and achieve in their competitions was very inspiring. Every time I think back to my time in Tamana, I think of what an honor it was to be involved with such a great group of people. I can't wait to go back!