Back in Japan

Back to Japan after making a trip back to the United States.  

I wanted to accomplish a few things while in Southern California.

• Family and Friends
  • My daughter’s birthday is in July and I wanted to spend time with her during the festivities.  Many have asked don’t you miss your family and friends now that you are living in Japan?  I tell them my current plan to be in the United States at least 2 times a year.  Most of my trips are for about a month at a time.  It is my hope that my daughter would visit Japan a couple of times a year as well.  When I’m in the US, I normally stay with my daughter and when she visits Japan she stays with me.  If I were to live in the US, I would probably not see her as often, so in a year’s time I will have much more father daughter time living in Japan.
  • My cousin asked me to help with the creation of a monument that celebrates the lives of the Japanese American Issei that settled in Santa Maria.  As we are currently looking at options for Donor Recognition, we visited JANM to see how they handled this.  While there I took the opportunity to stamp my relatives’ names who were incarcerated in camps during WW2 in the Ireicho.  I had previously stamped my parents and father’s parents but was limited to only four individuals so this trip allowed me to stamp the others.  
  • Catch up with my sister and her family.  My sister’s first trip to Japan was last year and they are now planning to visit Japan later this year and again in 2025 for the World Fair in Osaka.  I get the feeling that they will come to Japan fairly frequently!
  • Meeting up with old classmates.  I have two college classmates that I have known for over 50 years now and try to catch up with them on my trips back to the States. One has a lot to do with why I’m here in Japan.  My college years were some of the most influential years of my development, not only as an Architect but as a person.  My classmates come from a diverse group of ethnicities.  One asked me about my Japanese Roots and to be frank I really did not have much to say.  Well he got into me, telling me I needed to know who I was.  So now 50 years later what am I doing? Trying to figure out who I am!  I cannot believe it’s been this long since I graduated from College and glad to have this friendship.
  • Meeting up with old friends.  The Porsche Club has always been about the people more than the marque that brought us together.  Many now for close to 40 years.  Reliving our times of friendship, catching up with everyone’s families is important in one’s life.
  • The last thing on my list was to visit family members that have passed at the Cemetery.  I wanted to  pay respect and express my gratitude as they were the ones that have allowed me to do the things I’m doing.

• In addition I was called to Jury Duty and I have been postponing it for a while now and it seemed to be an appropriate time to complete.  As it turned out I only had to call in for 5 days and was not asked to actually serve on a jury.  

• I had a few requests from people to meet up and discuss my move and life now in Japan.  Many have expressed an interest in my journey to discover my ancestry and investigations into the country that I have a connection to. Many want to know why and what prompted me to do this.  I’m finding there are many that are looking into the possibilities.  I’m happy that I’m able to share my experiences and possibly help others do the same.

• While in town it was a good time to check up on the progress of my Father’s Truck that I have been renovating.  My father purchased a 1956 Ford F100 Custom Cab Truck to use as his gardening truck in 1957.  My dad was kind of a car guy and kept it spotless, even while working.  I help my father on his gardening route for many years as a young boy growing up in West Los Angeles, every Saturday and everyday during summer break.  I spend many hours with my dad in this truck so it was my time to bond with my father as well as becoming a car guy as I learned to drive.  While I was away at college my father decided that he needed to do a bit of work on the truck.  This included providing a little more horsepower which included putting a small block Hemi and I’m now just learning that my dad was known as “The Hotrod Gardener of West Los Angeles”.   Well now some 65 years later the word had gotten around that I was restoring the “Hotrod Gardeners” truck and the goal is to finish the restoration for an upcoming Exhibit “J-town Cruising” by the Japanese American National Museum. The exhibit is planned for the Summer of 2025 and we are excited to participate and honor my father.

• There are a few things that I have not found in Japan yet so I needed to visit a few of my favorite places, In&Out, Gardena Bowl, TNT, TOT, The Kettle and California Pizza Kitchen.  Any suggestion would be appreciated.

Now that I’m back in Japan, it’s time to plan my trip to Wakayama