Japan fundraiser Saturday in Arlington Hts.

A few tickets are still available for Saturday’s fundraiser in Arlington Heights, intended to help victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

The Mid America Japanese Club, which normally holds the popular Japan Fest in June of each year, has decided instead to scale back this year’s event and turn it into a fundraiser for the Japanese Red Cross Society for Eastern Japan Earthquake Disaster Relief Fund.

The show begins at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the Forest View Educational Center, 2121 S. Goebbert Road, Arlington Heights. Doors open at 12:30 p.m. Tickets, which are $10, and information are available at www.japanfest-chicago.org.

For the event, called “Let’s Do Our Best, Japan,” the club has eight performers lined up, including the rising Japanese star Uchida Aya.

Aya is coming from Japan for this event and is volunteering her time and talent. She released her first CD last year, which was successful, and has her own weekly radio program.

For the fundraiser in Arlington Heights, Aya will sing original songs from her CD: “Mahalo” (“thank you” in Hawaiian); “A Blue Sky of My Home”, “Last Train,” and others. The songs are composed by Jo Yamanaka, her accompanying guitarist, and English verses have been written for the first two songs especially for this event.

Aya is presently working on a new CD, which she recorded in Branson, Mo.