Volcano eruption in Japan

The Shinmoedake in Japan is currently erupting. To read the article click here.

Shark Attack

Not too long after I moved to California I discovered many different things. The first was that everyone spoke with a funny accent. Of course I learned to live with it. But also there were a lot of people who didn’t know how to drive. I mean they actually drove the posted speed limit. They actually slowed down when the stop light changed to yellow. But that relates to another story.

One of the first friends I made when I got to California was John who originally from England. A huge Newcastle soccer fan as well as a great chess player. He could play chess games without looking at the board. His main job was captain of a fishing boat taking people for bay or deep sea fishing as well as catching a few sharks to sell to aquariums across the country.

It was a lot of fun getting up early in the morning to pick up bait, donuts and coffee all at the same place as with going to airports at all hours. That’s when I learned that the food trucks stationed at airport cargo centers have the best foods. Burritos 10 times larger than regular Taco Bells burritos and for the same price. Not to mention a few Chinese restaurants nearby that really served a lot of great food at cheap prices.

On one of my first boat trips with John was with a group of other people as we fished for Halibut in the San Francisco Bay. Everyone is having fun watching planes land at the Oakland Airport. There was one guy showing off a bit but as a way to ease the ones too scared of handling live bait. As one of the people onboard caught a baby shark this person unhooked it and started showing it off like he was recreating a scene from JAWS. But as everyone was having there fun I stayed focus on my fishing line for what I thought was something nibbling on the bait.

So as this guy came up behind me, the shark struggled loose as he clamped down on the side of my neck. The guy grabbed the shark to try and force it to open his mouth, letting me go as nearly all the women are screaming their heads off, men are in shock and I lost the fish I had on my line. The shark did let go and John checked my neck to see how bad it was. It wasn’t too bad but I had to keep it wrapped up for a while. For about a year I had a nice outline of shark teeth marks on the side of my neck.

You Know You're Japanese American If:

Over half of these listed relate to our family.

1. You know that Camp doesn’t mean a cabin in the woods.
2. The men in your family were gardeners, farmers or produce workers.
3. The women in your family were seamstresses, domestic workers or farm laborers.
4. Your Issei grandparents had an arranged marriage.
5. One of your relatives was a "picture bride."
6. You have Nisei relatives named Tak, Tad, George, Harry or Shig.
7. You have Nisei relatives named Keiko, Aiko, Sumi or Mary.
8. You’re Sansei and your name is Janice, Glen, Brian, Bill or Kenji.
9. You’re thinking of naming your Yonsei child, Brittany, Jenny, Lauren,Garett or Brett, with a Japanese middle name.
10. All of your cousins are having hapa kids.
11. You have relatives who live in Hawaii.
12. You belong to a Japanese credit union
13. Wherever you live now, you always come home to the Obon festival.
14. The bushes in your front yard are trimmed into balls.
15. You have a kaki tree in the backyard.
16. You have at least one bag of sembei in the house at all times.
17. You have a Japanese doll in a glass case in your living room.
18. You have a nekko cat in your house for good luck.
19. You have large Japanese platters in your china cabinet.
20. You have the family mon and Japanese needlepoint on the wall.
21. You own a multicolored lime green polyester patchwork quilt.
22. Your grandma used to crochet all your blankets, potholders and dishtowels.
23. You check to see if you need to take off your shoes at your JA friends’ houses.
24. When you visit other JAs, you give or receive a bag of fruits or vegetables.
25. When you visit other JAs, you know that you should bring omiage.
26. When you leave a JA house, you take leftover food home on a paper plate or a Styrofoam meat tray.
27. You keep a supply of rubber bands, twist ties, butter and tofu containers in the kitchen.
28. You have an air pump thermos covered with lilacs.
29. You know that Pat Morita doesn’t really speak like Mr. Miyagi.
30. You’re mad because Kristi Yamaguchi should have gotten more commercial endorsements than Nancy Kerrigan.
31. You know someone who has run for the Nisei Queen Pageant.
32. When your back is sore, you use Tiger Balm or that flexi-stick with the rubber ball on the end that goes, "katonk," "katonk."
33. After funerals, you go for Chinameshi.
34. After giving koden, you get stamps in the mail.
35. You fight fiercely for the check after dinner.
36. You’ve hidden money in the pocket of the person who paid for dinner.
37. You don’t need to read the instructions on the proper use of hashi.
38. You know that Benihana’s isn’t real Japanese food.
39. You eat soba on New Year’s Eve.
40. You start off the new year with a bowl of ozoni for good luck and the mochi sticks to the roof of your mouth.
41. You know not to eat the tangerine on the top of the mochi at New Year’s.
42. You have a 12-pack of mochi in your freezer—that you still refuse to throw away in July.
43. You pack bento for road trips.
44. Your grandma made the best sushi in town.
45. You cut all your carrots and hot dogs at an angle.
46. You know the virtues of SPAM.
47. You were eating Chinese chicken salad, years before everyone else.
48. You know what it means to eat "footballs."
49. You grew up eating ambrosia, wontons and finger Jell-O at family potlucks.
50. You always use Best Foods mayonnaise and like to mix it with shoyu to dip broccoli.
51. You use the "finger method" to measure the water for your rice cooker.
52. You grew up on rice: bacon fried rice, chili rice, curry rice or red rice.
53. You like to eat rice with your spaghetti.
54. You can’t start eating until you have a bowl of rice.
55. You use plastic Cool Whip containers to hold day-old rice.
56. You like to eat your rice in a chawan, not on a plate.
57. Along with salt and pepper, you have a shoyu dispenser at your table.
58. You have a jar of takuan in your fridge.
59. You buy rice 25 pounds at a time and shoyu a gallon at a time.
60. Natto: you either love it or hate it.
61. As a kid, you used to eat Botan rice candy.
62. You know the story of Momotaro.
63. You have a pet named Chibi or Shiro.
64. Someone you know, owns an Akita or Shiba dog.
65. You went to J-school and your best subject was recess.
66. At school, you had those Hello Kitty pencil boxes and sweet smelling erasers.
67. When you’re sick, you eat okayu.
68. Milk makes you queasy and alcohol turns your face red.
69. Your dad owns a Member’s Only jacket.
70. Someone you know drives an Acura Integra, Honda Accord or Toyota Camry.
71. You used to own one of those miniature zori keychains
72. You have a kaeru frog or good luck charm hanging in your car.
73. Your parents compare you to their friends’ kids.
74. You hang on to the illusion that you are superior to other Asians.
75. Your dentist, doctor and optometrist is Japanese American.
76. You socialize with groups of eight or more people.
77. Whenever you’re with more than three people, it takes an hour to decide where to eat.
78. You and your friends call yourselves "Buddaheads," but don’t like it when white people do.
79. You’ve heard your name pronounced a half-dozen different ways.
80. You know that E.O. 9066 isn’t a zip code.
81. You’re not superstitious but you believe in bachi.
82. You never take the last piece of food on a plate—but will cut it into smaller pieces.
83. As much as you want it, never ever take the last—anything. Enryo, enryo, enryo.

Pixiv

My wife has been posting a few of her drawings, such as this picture here, on a Japanese website called PIXIV. To see all the pictures you have to register free first. Click here

My Silver Lining

As my oldest son continues to ask for help with his homework has brought back many memories I had at school. Some good and mostly the rest. My son is great in math and has no problem in that area of development but the rest he still struggles with. Recently he has been studying the American Revolution to even this day I can still remember. Of course unlike my son, I was great at History to the point I actually got my revenge on one of my teachers.

In choosing classes for my junior year at school, I wanted to take a college level History class. Which in all my previous World Civics had maintain an A level unlike my other classes which averaged out to a C+ which the teacher teaching the class I wanted to be in felt I was not even qualified. I was forced to take the average History class that was by chance, being taught by the same teacher.

Needless to say as the school year went on, I not only had the highest grade point average in the class room but for all the classes she was teaching in. And at a few times I stood so far out even she realized her mistake. At one point everyone had to give an oral report in class on a period of history that we were learning about. Everyone gave their report and turned in to the teacher the written version for further grading. As I stood in front of the class presenting my report I did feel like the king of the world.

After I finished my report, the teacher requested my written report to which my response left her speechless. I informed her that my report was still on my desk which as I retrieved it and presented it to her leaving the whole class, as well, to realize that I had recited the whole report from memory. I did get an A for the report but the teacher did admit that I should have been placed in the college level class.

By the time the midterm exams were finished, I was given another cause to celebrate. In all of my teachers’ classes, I had the highest test score. None of the other students in the college level class came close to my score. Not only did I get all the questions correct but I also correctly answered the extra credit ones as well. It was a huge victory for me in proving my teacher wrong. And as an added celebration, I was able to hear testimony from many of those in the college level class inform me that she keeps talking about me in class.

About my oral reports without notes of any kind, the high test scores and especially my ability to recall key points in history in great detail. But the cherry on top moment came as we were getting ready to take our final exams for the year. Our teacher calculated everyone’s grade average to so the students could see what they would need to make of the final exam to pass the class. As expected a few students were doomed to repeat the class again while many others had hope. In front of the whole class she read out everyone’s grade averages as with the grade they needed to make on the final exam.

To many in the classroom it felt humiliating as to others it removed a lot of pressure in knowing they were going to pass no matter the test results. The worst student had to make over 200 with many others having to make at least a D grade to pass the class.  Then she came to me. My grades were so high that I could not take the test and still have an A+ average in the class. But to prove a point I chose to take the test. And as predicted, I passed. I answered every question plus the bonus ones correctly. But the test I took was not the one everyone else in my class took.

As the teacher passed out the same test to everyone in the classroom, she instead had given me the advance level test instead. Whether to show I wasn’t that smart proving that I weren’t ready for collage level classes or to truly challenge me seeing as throughout the whole school year that I had showed that I could have taught the class just as good as she did.  Either way, I proved my point. Even the students in the college level classes didn’t even come close to the grades I made or the knowledge and understanding of everything that was taught.

 I did all this before computers were widely as they are today. While cable TV channels only carried movie channels, MTV and the Disney Channel were on pay per view. I read a lot of books and magazines, watched a lot of PBS programs and basically used my imagination to recreate many events and people in my thoughts so I could easily remember them later. Nowadays I watch a lot of the History Channel, Science Channel, as with other similar channels but I still take the time to simply read books. With technology the way it is today I have the pleasure of carrying many books all digitized to the size of a notebook.

I went through hell all through my school life so having something that I can claim a victory such as this is the silver lining for me.  But now I can take all that knowledge and use it to teach my son to better understand his history lessons and hopefully inspire him with the love of reading and proving that one can do anything when other say you can’t.

Kitten Love

This is a love story of the feline kind. In March 2009, one of our female cats had her litter of three kittens. A month later our second female cat had her liter of five kittens. Over time all the kittens were getting along together like one big happy family. With the exception of a little kitten from the first litter named Whitie. She is partially blind and diagnosed with no hope of any improvement. She is still very small and frail looking than the other kittens but has a fiery spirit when the other kittens want to play around. Many times we have to literally carry her to the food so she can eat as well as go to the bathroom which in itself is another grand adventure for all of us.

Enter Garfield, a kitten born from the second mother cat. Named for the fact he looks like the comic strip character. As he grew he developed a real interest towards Whitie. He would follow her around, eventually guiding her like he was her personnel servant. Over time we didn’t need to carry her to her food or the sandbox for Garfield would guide her to these places. Wherever she slept, he was not far from her. He would always clean her fur and made sure she didn’t hurt herself. At Christmas time she truly loved playing with candy canes. Whenever she lost sight of the one she was playing with Garfield would retrieve the candy cane for her.

Before Garfield watched over her, Whitie would just stay in one area as the other kittens and cats ran around the yard. Barely moving at all. She would simply sniff a few feet around her and use the bathroom while waiting to be carried back inside the house. We knew this when she would meow almost nonstop as if she felt her life was in danger. But with Garfield by her side she slowly but surely started moving freely around the yard as he stayed within her limited eyesight. When Garfield entered the house, Whitie was always a step behind him.

While inside the house Whitie still has difficulties getting into the sand box which ended up with her leaving behind a huge mess for us to find in the morning. We have come to live with this by laying a towel or newspapers around the sand box for easy cleaning but one cat is making it very difficult to keep this simple plan from working efficiently. His name is Garfield. As Whitie will arrive at the sand box, unless we are there to put her into the sandbox she will proceed to do her functions. But as Garfield has appointed himself as her protector, he would wait until she is finished with her business, then enter the sandbox and proceed to dump out large quantities of sand onto the area she had relieved herself in an effort to cover it up.

Large quantities of sand all over the floor and positioned methodically all around the spot where Whitie had messed up. For a while it was very difficult to deal with constant cleanups and the possibilities of simply keeping her permanently outside but over time with Garfield staying by her side, we realized that a love story has been growing between these two catss from the time of their birth until now. With love stories of such as the one between Johnny Cash and June Carter, separate these two became unthinkable. The more and more time they spent together, Whitie would challenged her limitations as Garfield appeared more as the classic Victorian gentleman whenever they are together.

She still bumps into furniture and takes what appears forever to jump down from the couch but Garfield is always there to lend his support for the woman he loves. Watching them together is like an old married couple. The sound of her meowing proceeded by the sound of the other running through the house to answer her call. The moments when Garfield will let Whitie start eating first. As Garfield is running around playing with the other cats, he will always make a trip by Whitie to let her chase him around. These are just a drop in the bucket on how these young cats spend their time together. To feel judged by their relationship can easily be said and felt but more importantly seeing them together is experiencing a living poetry of love.