Students Japan

Hiroyuki Tazaki doesn't have full command of the English language, but he didn't need an interpreter to translate his coach's body language after getting thrown out stealing in his first American high school baseball game. "[Tazaki] missed a sign and he took off, trying to steal a base with our No. 4 batter up," Montclair Prep Coach Marc Saraceno said. "He ran us right out of the inning. He obviously knew I was not too happy. Let's just say I was in a little state of unhappiness."

Eastman Kodak Co. confirmed that it persuaded the University of Rochester to exclude a Japanese student employed by its biggest competitor, Fuji Photo Film Co. Wall Street Journal, 8/31/87 Once upon a time, a young inventor from Waterville, N.Y., equipped only with brains and imagination, devised a simple photographic process using dry plates. Subsequently, he invented roll film and a hand camera, and in 1892 he set up one of this country's first mass-production operations.

A San Pedro gang member was convicted in the execution-style murders of two Marymount College students from Japan, crimes that stunned that country and prompted condolence calls from President Clinton and U.S. diplomats. After about four hours of deliberations, a Long Beach Superior Court jury found Raymond Oscar "Mugsy" Butler, 21, guilty on two counts of first-degree murder. Butler faces the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The miles that separate Fukuoka, Japan, and Santa Monica seemed less formidable last week after students from Oki Gakuen and St. Monica high schools met and discovered some common interests: music, sports, pizza and Coca-Cola. "They're just typical teen-agers--just from a different place, a different part of the world," St. Monica senior Kathy Bailey said of the Japanese visitors. About 45 students from Oki Gakuen High School in Fukuoka, Japan, spent the day at St.

For all the attention they received, the slayings of two students from Japan were only two of 25 homicides last weekend in Los Angeles County--and involved only one of more than 300 carjackings that occur in the city every month.

Curt Yarrington remembers having his eyes locked on uniform No. 1 for some time. That particular jersey, he reasoned, might signify many things, especially the fact that he was numero uno as baseball coach at Verdugo Hills High. And, what the heck, it was also his first year. A few days before the 1987 season, players began to place their requests for jerseys. All the popular numbers went fast, those commonly tied to major league stars or ones that older brothers might have worn.

For 24-year-old Yuko Terayama of Sendai, Japan, there was only one place in the world--literally--where she wanted to get married: in a small church in a residential Camarillo neighborhood. So, defying family traditions, the former exchange student persuaded her parents, fiance and future in-laws to fly 5,300 miles to Camarillo for the ceremony. On Tuesday afternoon, Terayama, now an advertising agent for Nissan, fulfilled her dream.

The kid in the back wants me to define "logic. " The girl next to him looks bewildered. The boy in front of me dutifully takes notes even though he has severe auditory processing issues and doesn't understand a word I'm saying. Eight kids forgot their essays, but one has a good excuse because she had another epileptic seizure last night. The shy, quiet girl next to me hasn't done homework for weeks, ever since she was jumped by a knife-wielding gangbanger as she walked to school. The boy next to her is asleep with his head on the desk because he works nights at a factory to support his family.

A seaside resort in France where hotel and restaurant prices are reasonable and where the staffs are actually friendly? Where most of the beaches are still open to the public and free of pollution? Where traffic congestion and the clangor of high-rise construction are all but nonexistent?