First and foremost, Lumbini Child Development Center would like to take this opportunity to thank Rafu Shimpoagain for their generosity and continued support. Lumbini was fortunate to be one of the organizations to receive a donation from the Rafu Charity Golf Tournament that was held on March 25.

Lumbini has been serving the Little Tokyo community with dependable and nurturing childcare for almost 50 years.

In recent years, the changing demographic of those who work and live near Little Tokyo as well as outside forces like the pandemic have led the daycare center to struggle with enrollment.

Lumbini was founded in 1977 shortly after Higashi Honganji was built in its current location on 3rd and Central in Little Tokyo. Rinban Horyu Ito, the head minister at the time, had a dream that families of the temple and community would have a place where their children could grow and learn and be well taken care of while making friends and learning social skills.

His son, the current Rinban Noriaki Ito, sent his children to the school when they were of age, and more recently, some of his grandchildren have attended as well. Many alumni still keep in touch with friends they made at Lumbini even decades later. Many still come back to visit their teachers, notably, Ms. Leslie, who is the current director and still teaches at the school along with two other long-time teachers, Mr. Danny and Mr. Jack.

“Preschool is an important first step in a child’s life. The more they are exposed to, the better understanding they have of the ever-changing world around them. One of my goals is to be able to provide our students with different experiences each year so they can develop and grow into their world, which gets bigger with each passing year,” stated Ms. Leslie, who has been with the center for over 35 years.

“Giving the students the opportunity to get a start on life is important but giving them the opportunity to create everlasting memories is priceless. It is my main goal to be able to give our students a chance to create those warm memories. I want our students to be able to look back later in life and smile as they share their preschool experiences with others. I can honestly say that it is the greatest feeling when former students come back to the school to visit, and we share stories of their days at Lumbini.”

Along with the basic academic curriculum, Lumbini introduces activities related to Japanese and Buddhist culture because of where they are. They are also fortunate to participate in local community programs.

Recently, Lumbini has reimplemented several programs that were lost because of the pandemic and they are happy to be able to offer these extra forms of enrichment for the students again. This includes the lunch program, popular both with students and their parents (who no longer need to send sack lunches every day!), Intro to Japanese with Higashi’s newest minister, Rev. Mayuki Nagamine, and Expression Through Mobility with John Miyasaki of Hereandnow theater company. We hope that these programs will help us grow our enrollment over time and allow for more opportunities in the future.

Lumbini Child Development Center is currently open for enrollment! We accept children ages 2? to 5 years. Please call us at (213) 680-2976 or email Ms. Leslie at [email protected] for a tour, application, and more info. You can also visit our website at LumbiniCDC.org.

We are located at the Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple in Little Tokyo and open year-round Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. (closed on national holidays).

If you would like to support Lumbini, its alumni have launched a Love for Lumbini GoFundMe campaign (https://gofund.me/d214a330) to help raise funds to allow them to explore new programming and potentially increase their enrollment. We need these additional funds to continue to be a support system for the community.

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