But without the opportunity to visit, Yoshida, 19, has kept in touch through the Internet video-chat program Skype. While all her family members who live in Hiroshima are safe, the situation for residents of Sendai, such as her cousin, is not as good.

(Yoshida is a student in EMU’s Intensive English Program, in which international students focus full-time on English classes, building language skills through immersion in a new culture.)

The city, about 500 miles northeast of Hiroshima, was pummeled March 11 by the tsunami created by the offshore earthquake. To make matters worse, residents there have been told to remain indoors because of radiation leaking from a nuclear power plant in the Fukushima province.

“It was lucky because my cousin bought all this stuff before the nuclear [radiation levels spiked],” Yoshida said Thursday. “She has a little bit of food to survive for a few weeks. After that, they’re not sure what they’re going to do for food. Even though they can come out for a little bit of time, the stores are closed.”

Yoshida came to the United States in January to study at 草莓社区. While Japan likely will be dealing with disaster for several months, she’s looking forward to summer break, when she plans to visit.

“I’d like to see how it is,” she said.

Despite the distance that separates her mother and father, Emi Yoshida, 49, and Tadayoshi Yoshida, 56, from the hardest-hit areas, media coverage of the event has been so extensive and emotional that she limits how much she keeps up with events through news outlets.

“I worry about it every day, even though I know Hiroshima is very far” from the center of the disaster, she said. “Whenever I see the news, I see young people who are the same age as me sitting on the street. They’ve lost their family, so it is very bad. But I try not to watch any of the news.”

But the news coverage is a mixed blessing because it has surprised and encouraged her that the disaster has shown the concern that other nations have for hers.

“I didn’t know people from other countries would care this much about things,” she said.

First-year Yuki Onodora (Photo by Chelsie Gordon)

The distance between Ebetusu, Japan and Harrisonburg, Virginia is roughly 10,000 miles. First-year Yuki Onodora is worlds away from what the place he calls home, but he is adjusting well. He says, “The transition is not difficult; I like the people and the food.”

It is not common for a small Division III college like EMU to have someone come from so far away to play a sport, but Onodora is here and he is ready to do it like “Dice-K” Matsuzaka, the Japanese pitcher for the Boston Red Sox.

Baseball runs in his blood; it has become a part of who he is. He has a passion for the game that glows within him, and his dedication to the sport shows when he is perfecting his pitching form. Onodora says, “Yeah, I have a passion for baseball. I want to be a pro baseball player in Japan.”

There is more to his life than baseball, though. Says Onodora, “I want to experience other things I can’t experience in Japan. Like Halloween, we don’t do anything for it in Japan. And I want to get good friends in America.” Maybe this year he will put on the costume of Dice-K and light up the ODAC.

Most people who heard about Onodora’s plans to go to a small school in a small city were surprised or confused. However, he has a good reason for coming here. His idol, Naoya Washiya, an outfielder, did the same, coming from Japan to the U.S. to play baseball. Onodora’s comments on Washiya, “I have respect for him. He plays for the Nationals. He used to go to Community college in California. Last August, I met him and was inspired.”

Onodora came here to improve his baseball skills, and to improve his chances and experiences in hopes that it will help his chances at going pro in Japan. During his time in America, he wants “To get better English and improve baseball skill.”

If you go to the gym often enough you will see Onodora throwing an invisible baseball at a mirror. He says it is a training technique that he uses to make his form feel routine. According to Onodora, “It improves my form. It adapts the muscle to pitching form.”

It is not just his training that people might not be used to; his pitching might seem unusual when compared to typical pitches from other players in the U.S. People do not see a pitcher with such jerky movements every day.

“I think my form is ordinary for Japan, but it’s different from America,” explains Onodora. It could work to his advantage. When hitters are not used to this type of a delivery, it can confuse them and cause them to be less effective until they figure it out.

If you can not think of any of the many reasons to go to a baseball game at EMU, go to see Onodora do what he does best. He will be fun to watch this year. His unique delivery and intimidating expressions will make the games he is in interesting.

In 10 years, who knows? You could say you saw the great Yuki Onodora throw fire for the Royals.

Japanese Mennonite poet Yorifumi Yaguchi will offer his words of poetry about beauty and pain of life at 草莓社区.

He will read from the recently published book, "The Poetry of Yorifumi Yaguchi: A Japanese Voice in English" (July 2006, Good Books), as well as other works, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 2, in Martin Chapel of the seminary building at EMU.

The new book features 150 poems by Yaguchi, who studied at Goshen (Ind.) Biblical Seminary from 1962 to 1965 to earn a bachelor of divinity degree. The collection of poems spans Yaguchi’s life, from a childhood shaped by World War II to a career as a poetry professor, editor, Mennonite Christian pastor and internationally-recognized Japanese poet.

Yaguchi is best known in the West for his 30 poems in "Three Mennonite Poets" (Good Books, 1986), but his published work in English includes nearly 300 poems in five volumes. His poetry bears witness to the evils of militarism from Shinto nationalism to Hiroshima and then extends to Vietnam and the aftermath of September 11, 2001.

Copies of the poet’s new book will be on sale at the reading.

Admission to this special "" program, sponsored by EMU’s language and literature department, is free.

Trivia test: Who is famous in Japan, lives in a rural Virginia city, teaches at a small Christian university and had never visited Japan before this summer?

Until a few weeks ago, Howard Zehr would have said, “I have no idea.”

National Coverage

Dr. Zehr, co-director of the at 草莓社区, made his first trip to Japan this summer and was amazed to find himself facing crowded lecture rooms almost every day for two weeks. He also received coverage from the two leading national newspapers and the three weekly Christian newspapers. The resulting articles reached the hands of more than 10 million people.

“My stuff is being used in Japan a lot more than I knew,” Zehr said in an understatement that is typical of his style of speaking.

Japan

By Luanne Austin, Daily News-Record

Barbara P. Fast is a patient woman.

She

"Cooking with Kozo," an exhibit of Asian papermaking by Barbara P. Fast, chair of the art department, will go on display Sunday, Nov. 7, in the .

A reception for the artist will be held 2:30 p.m. that day in the gallery located on third floor of EMU’s .

The primary medium in the exhibit is kozo, the dried inner bark of paper mulberry trees and the most common fiber for Japanese papermaking. Fast hand-processed the bark into strong, thin paper and ultimately, works of art. Approximately 28 pieces will be displayed.

The exhibit will be open for viewing daily during regular library hours through Dec. 10. Admission to EMU’s public art gallery is free.

Gallery hours:
Mon.-Thur., 7:45 a.m.-11 p.m.
Fri., 7:45 a.m.-5 p.m.
Sat., 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Sun., 2-11 p.m.