We ate our way into the new year!

Thank you to our guests who purchased tickets and joined us for our first New Year’s Eve dinner following the Joya-E service. It was a wonderful evening filled with great food, drinks, and an exciting dessert auction! 

A special thank you to our planning committee—Marty and Kim Sakata, Sandy Kataoka Fong, Audrey Seo, Marty Matsuda, Gordon Nitta, Cheryl Inouye, Bobby Tanaka and Christine DeCamp—for bringing this event together. And heartfelt thanks to our volunteers who set up, cooked, sliced, plated, served, and cleaned—your teamwork made the evening possible.

Shout-out to our co-auctioneers, Koichi Mizushima and Rev. Matt Hamasaki, for hosting a fun, competitive, and exciting dessert auction! It was a joy to watch the bidding soar for the Frank Fat’s Banana Cream Pies and the Real Pie Company’s Blackberry & Blueberry Pie.

Mark your calendar for December 31, 2026, and stay tuned for more details later this year. With the overwhelmingly positive feedback we received, this may be the start of a new annual community tradition.