LIHUE — The Japanese Little League players — two 12-year-olds, an 11-year-old, and two 10-year-olds — will be playing against a Kauai team Wednesday afternoon starting at 4 p.m. at the Peter Rayno ball park in Hanamaulu.
“Takao Sato, the team’s coach, wanted to bring the entire team,” said Art Umezu of the county’s Office of Economic Development. “But Iwaki City, where the team is from, is still suffering economically from the effects of the tsunami and earthquake. They were only able to send five players — Tatsuki Sato, Tsubasa Yamashiro, Kazuma Matsumoto, Yura Ishii and Yuki Kujiraoka.”
Craig Arzadon, one of the coaches with the Kauai Yankees team that visited Japan earlier, said they will form a select team where the five Japanese players can play and have a game with the Kauai Yankees.
Ishii anchors the team as pitcher followed by Sato being listed as a first baseman. Yamashiro is in left field, Matsumoto anchors center field and Kajiraoka is in the right field.
During their short visit to Kauai, the players will be hosted to a luau courtesy of Kamika Smith and the Smith’s Tropical Luau.
Corey Nakamura, principal at the Elsie Wilcox Elementary School, has invited the players to visit the school ahead of their game against the Kauai Yankees.
The Eleele Elememtary School students wanted to get involved, too, Umezu said.
“They’ll meet the delegation at the Port Allen marina where the students can learn more about the buoy that’s displayed there,” he said. “The buoy is from Iwaki, a victim of the earthquake and tsunami disaster, and put on display after it was retrieved off Kauai’s shorelines by a crew from the Pacific Missile Range Facility. This is the first time the players have traveled overseas. This is also the first time they’re here in Hawaii, and Kauai.”
The players, and their accompanying delegation of two parents, will be hosted to a school lunch at Eleele School before visiting the Kauai Kookie Center and the Kauai Coffee Visitor Center before leaving for Japan on Friday.
The Japanese Little League players are not the only school students from Japan who are on Kauai as the mayor’s office welcomed three students, all aged 14 years old, from Ishigaki City on Monday afternoon.
More students from the Okinawa Prefectural College of Nursing also arrived Monday for a two-week stay, a partnership with the Kauai Community College Nursing Department, to learn about Western medicine and improve their English skills. They spent Tuesday helping the staff and volunteers with the Samuel Mahelona Hospital during the hospital’s end of summer beach outing.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
