MC's

John Sasaki has deep roots in the Bay Area.

He was born in Berkeley, spent most of his childhood in El Cerrito, and attended Berkeley High School. There he was one of the founding members of the school's varsity lacrosse team, which has since won the California state championship.

After graduation, Sasaki attended San Diego State University. During one summer vacation, Sasaki began his career in journalism as an intern for "The Ten O'clock News" here at KTVU Channel 2 News. He also interned at CNN in Washington, D.C. and at KGTV, San Diego's ABC affiliate. He graduated from San Diego State with a bachelor's degree in psychology.

Sasaki landed his first job in news as an associate producer at KNSD, the NBC affiliate in San Diego. He first stepped in front of the camera for Yuma, Arizona's NBC affiliate, KYMA. His stay there was short, and he was lucky enough to miss the 120 -degree summer weather.

He moved to Reno, Nevada as weekend anchor and weekday reporter at KTVN, the local CBS affiliate. In September 1996, Sasaki moved home to the Bay Area to join the Fox 2 news team at KTVU. And this, he says, is where he plans to spend the rest of his career.

Sasaki says he's experienced countless unforgettable things in his career, including major wildland fires, championship sporting events, and executive producer tirades.

Some of his most memorable stories were upsetting, such as when almost three dozen high school students fell to the ground from a broken waterslide in Concord. Other stories were inspiring. One day he reported on the successful effort to rescue a cow that was stuck on top of a home in flooded Manteca. And keeping with the bovine theme, in another story he learned how to be a bullfighting rodeo clown at San Francisco's Grand National rodeo. It was terrifying, he says, but also exciting.

Sasaki is a member of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and in the course of his career, he's garnered several Associated Press awards for excellence in journalism.

He lives in the East Bay city of Pleasant Hill. In his spare time, you can find Sasaki working with a host of charity organizations including the Leukemia Society of America, the Muscular Dystrophy Association, the Children's Garden, and many others. He also spends a lot of time outdoors, playing tennis, golf, and downhill skiing.

Amy (Kimura) Schoemehl attended the University of California, Berkeley, where she graduated in three years with a degree in Rhetoric and a minor in Asian American History with a focus on Japanese American issues.  She is currently an executive recruiter with Google in Mountain View, CA and resides in Oakland with her husband Robert.   Amy was the 2000 Cherry Blossom Queen and now enjoys being a committed member of the Cherry Blossom Festival committee.  She also appreciates reading, traveling, going to Japanese American craft fairs with her mother and grandmother, and spending time spoiling her newborn nephew Kenny.