Thirty teams made up of families and friends enjoyed an evening of lively competition at Kizuna’s second annual “Family Showdown 2013” on May 18 at Gardena Valley Baptist Church. With Helen Ota of Cold Tofu and Keye Chen, formerly of LCC Theatre Company and Spring Sing Company, serving as emcees, the teams took on a variety of timed tasks.Showdown battles included an origami competition.A “Cowboy, Ninja, Bear” sudden-death match, a variation on Jan Ken Po, was hosted by Fukui Mortuary.Raffle tickets were sold by 2012 Nisei Week Court members: (from left) Princess Erika Fisher, Miss Tomodachi Kaitlynn Sakurai, First Princess Crystal Hanano, and Princess Marci Asao.A one-handed tofu-eating contest with chopsticks was hosted by Mutual Trading Company.The event was co-chaired by Jessie Kikuchi, Kizuna secretary, and Mickie Okamoto-Tsudama, Kizuna board chair.The games also included a natto-eating contest (pictured), a penny-counting contest hosted by Union Bank, and bingo hosted by F.I.A. Insurance.For the Little Tokyo Sky Tree competition, teams had to make free-standing towers out of balloons and tape.For the “final exam,” the teams answered trivia questions based on an issue of The Rafu Shimpo.Top honors went to Team Tofu, featuring actor Aaron Takahashi. The program also included a few words from Kizuna Executive Director Craig Ishii and Program Coordinator Paul Matsushima. For more information, visit www.kizuna-la.org.
