Temjin TV director Hiroshi Masuda, right, and cameraman Shigeo Nakaya, second left, pose for a photo with Rotarians David “Uncle Dave” M. Sablan, left, and Hiroko Stewart after the Rotary Club of Saipan’s meeting on Tuesday at Hyatt Regency Saipan’s Giovanni’s Restaurant.
A TELEVISION crew from Japan is here to make a documentary for NHK on coffee farming in the Northern Mariana Islands.
Temjin TV Director Hiroshi Masuda and cameraman Shigeo Nakaya met with retired business executive and Saipan Rotary Club’s first president, David “Uncle Dave” Mangarero Sablan, to ask him about the history of coffee farming in the NMI.
In an interview, Masuda said the documentary will focus on coffee farming on Rota. In 2018, Japan’s Ueshima Coffee Co. expressed interest in the quality of the “organically grown Rota Island Mountain Coffee.”
Masuda said they know that coffee farming has a long history in the NMI, beginning in the Spanish time.
During the Japanese administration of the islands, there was a coffee farm on Rota.
“Uncle Dave has some memories about that era, so we came here to interview him,” Masuda said.
They flew to Rota on Wednesday to see the coffee farm there.
Uncle Dave said he also brought Masuda and Nakaya to the coffee farm on Mount Tapochao, and introduced them to his fellow Rotarians during the Rotary Club of Saipan’s luncheon meeting Tuesday at the Hyatt Regency Saipan’s Giovanni’s Restaurant.
