Thoughts of a Japanese Seattleite

Attack to my old Email account

2011-12-12T11:21:00.000-08:00

My old email account is compromised. I haven’t been used my old account for a long time. It is my first time since I started using computer many years ago.
My husband told me that he received strange email from me and it seemed that my email account was hacked. If he didn’t tell me about this, probably I would have not known it had happened. Fortunately it was not my current account but I changed my password of all sites. The old password had 11 characters include numbers and symbols. I realized no passwords are safe when cunning smart hackers decided to attack.
I often heard that we needed to change password often. I haven’t changed my password for a long time. There are several website about how often change the password. I like answer from the wiseGEEk:
http://www.wisegeek.com/how-often-should-i-change-my-password.htm
I like to prevent being attacked again. My decision is to change password every 4 month and select strong password. I set my calendar reminder to do so.

Sustainable Seattle tour

2011-11-12T17:30:00.000-08:00

I organized a custom tour in Seattle for Yukie who is from Eco Conscious Japan. She writes blogs and gives lecture about sustainability. She asked me to plan the tour of sustainable places in Seattle. Fortunately my husband, Daniel , is a real-estate broker and took LEED class. LEED is Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. He suggested to take her Seattle city hall, Olive8, and a house which is advertised as the greenest house in Seattle.
Instead of my describing about buildings, here are pointer to websites regarding to each building and places.
Seattle City Hall
http://www.bcj.com/public/projects/project/7.html (The city hall design described in website of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson)
http://www.seattle.gov/cityarchives/Exhibits/cityHalls/panel8.htm (Quest of the city hall)
Seattle downtown library which is not sustainable but is very interesting design:
http://places.designobserver.com/feature/seattle-central-library-civic-architecture-in-the-age-of-media/813/
Freeway Park
http://www.seattle.gov/parks/park_detail.asp?ID=312
http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Freeway_Park.html (This site shows nice photos.)
Olive 8
http://www.olive8.com/
http://www.offbeattravel.com/tji-olive-8-hotel-leed-silver.html (visitor of Olive8 )
City cabin built by Green builder Martha Rose
http://www.citycabins.com (Cabin website)
http://www.martharoseconstruction.com/ (Martha Rose website)
http://www.thehomefunnel.com/(Eco Broker Adrian Willanger’s blog)
http://paper.li/MarthaRose_bldr# Builder Martha Rose’s daily news site
In addition to these buildings, I took Yukie to my neighborhood gardens, Bradner Garden which is organic demonstration garden and Childrens play garden which is created for children with all abilities .
Bradner Garden Information
http://www.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/ppatch/locations/22.htm
http://seattletilth.org/directions/bgardens
Seattle children’s play garden
http://childrensplaygarden.org/index.php
By organizing and accompanying Yukie to this tour, I learned a bit about what make garden and house sustainable.

Tribute to my mother

2011-07-11T20:22:00.000-07:00

It is almost three months after my mother passed away. I would like to write my last blog about my mother, Shizuko. I wanted to see my mother to ask her about her life.
After her death, I found some photos show her life from her childhood to recent years. I asked my father to show me her photo album. I took digital photos of all her old photos, selected several and organized by the age. It was interesting experience seeing my own mother being a baby, young child, then grown up. My younger sister was not interested in seeing her photos as I was until I showed my slide show of her photos.
Shizuko was born in 1934 as oldest daughter in 4 girls whose father was sailor. Shizuko helped her mother grow their own vegetables and take care of house chores. Her father wanted her to get a good education while her mother was conservative and didn’t want her to go to even high school. Young Shizuko protested to go to high school and finally allowed going to vocational high school one year later. After graduating high school, she went to sewing school to learn how to sew custom garments and dresses. I heard that her mother had borrowed money to buy nice Kimono and clothes. Shizuko sew nice garments for her mother and sisters to save money while she taught at a sewing school. She was very fashionable herself and dressed nicely. She met my father in young single volunteer group in the small town of Saka where they had grown up. They got married in 1958. It was unusual for them to fall in love and married back at the time. Most her friends got married by arrangement.
When I was young, other students praised my mother’s good looks. She was tall for a Japanese lady and good looking. She worked hard to send her two daughters to university. She sew custom-made clothes to send two daughters to private university while her conservative husband didn’t believe girls should be educated. She was proud of us. She liked my American husband, Daniel. She loved her two grandsons. I saw similarity between my mother and Daniel. They read all the time and know many things. Last time I went back to Japan with my American family, my mother told my sister and I to dig and to bury the kitchen compost to the vegetable garden, but we didn’t understand what she wanted us to do even after she described it twice. We asked Daniel and he seemed to understand perfectly what my mother wanted without asking her. The work was done as she wished.
She died on April 22nd, 2011. I got to her funeral on time while my husband and children were too busy to accompany me. Her spirit seemed to visit my husband and my youngest son. While I was in Japan, my husband called me that something pushed him very hard to wake him up early in the morning. At the same time, all lights in his bedroom turned on and off. He doesn’t believe in ghosts or anything after death but he felt this had something to do with my mother. My younger son saw her in a dream in which she was walking around her room. She may have wished to see him one very last time.
I had many things which I wanted to ask her and share much time with her. If your mother is healthy and can tell you about her life, I hope she could tell you what her life was like in her childhood or before you knew her.

My mother’s Death and ceremony

2011-05-06T08:20:00.000-07:00

I thought I would never lose my mother so soon. She seemed to be better when I saw her in January. I planned to see her April 28th. According to my mother’s youngest sister who stayed her bed side until her death, my mother was looking forward seeing me and planned to stay alive. My mother fought against lung cancer as much as she could, but she was not able to make it. She passed away on April 23rd.
Her passed away about 1:30am. I caught an air plane from Seattle as quickly as possible and sat by my soulless mother’s side at 10:00pm on the same day. I wished I could have seen my mother alive. She was gone and only her small lifeless body lay in front of a small Buddhist altar. At least she looked very peaceful and pretty.
The next day many people came to see her. People viewed her peaceful face and touch her face. I heard young wives in the neighborhood came to see her, cried and said that my mother taught many things to them. My mother must have been very kind and helpful to her neighbors.
Two days after I had slept in the room next to where her body lay, we hold wake or Otsuya in Japanese. This is Japanese custom that people keep vigil all night by the body of the deceased before the funeral. My mother’s body was moved into the coffin and covered with bright white Kimono. The coffin was carried by the hand carriage to the specially made car which is to carry the coffin but not hearth. My father, my sister and me rode with my mother and got to the funeral hall around 3:00pm. The ceremony was held at 6:00pm. My mother’s friends and relatives came to attend the ceremony. Buddhist monk read a long sutra and people went front to close to alter which was decorated with flowers and offering and my mother’s photo, bowed, light a stick of incense and prayed. About 250 people attended the ceremony. After the ceremony, 6 of relatives including my father and I went to a room with my mother’ coffin. We took turn to stay by my mother’s body; 3 slept and 3 awake.
The next day, my sister and I were dressed up with black Kimono which our mother had prepared for this day. At noon the funeral was held. Buddhist monk read sutra. Each of attendants went front and bowed, offer incense and pray. At the end of the ceremony the coffin was open. We saw her face very last time and offer fresh flowers around her. She was surrounded by a lot of white and colorful flowers. I cried and cried for my mother. I could not stop crying. My sister who sat next me told me that I made her cry.
After the ceremony, my father and I rode her hearth to the crematory. Over 70 relatives and friends of my mother went to crematory to say the last good-by to her. Her living form was carried into the room to be burned. 2 hours later, the announcement told us that we are ready to collect her bones, In a large warm room, we gathered around my mother’s skeleton which was just burnt. An attendant directed my father and me to hold couple of large sticks at first and she passed each bone to us to pick up and put into the white container. We took turn to collect my mother’s most bones. The container was full and closed. The attendant wrapped the urn around white clothes. I carried it in my arms. It was still bit warm and very heavy although it was just bones without flesh. My father and I carry her urn home. In the evening, another monk came to the house to read sutra. Our relatives attended this last ritual of the long day.
7th day of her death another 7th day ritual was held at our parent’s home. Buddhist monk read sutra and made small talk about death. Our relatives attended and had vegan dinner together.
There would be every 7th day ritual until 47th day. Someone told me that the dead person would be still between living and dead during this period. After 49th day of the death, the person goes across the river between living and dead.

Prune Kitchen constructions

2011-02-08T14:49:00.000-08:00

Checkout the slide show above to see Prune kitchen construction from start to end.

Last month, building permit of my private kitchen addition was finalized. I like to write about building my new kitchen, named Prune kitchen.
Because my first son moved out of Seattle to attend university and a tenant moved out, we decided to move back to our previous house. It was the house where I met my husband,Daniel, and got married 20 years ago. We had wedding party in the backyard of this house. The move was to celebrate our 20 years of our marriage in addition to cut our expenses.
We decided to move to the downstairs 2 bedrooms and 2 baths portion. It was good enough for a couple with one teenage son. The kitchen downstairs was very small. It is too small to store all my kitchen tools and extra food. So my nice husband decided to design a kitchen addition. We discussed how kitchen should look like. I wanted a kitchen where I can cook with others and teach cooking classes. Kitchen need to have a lot of storage which I can find ingredient easily. We decided to make our kitchen practical as commercial kitchen but is still for our private use. He submitted the plan in April and the construction started quickly. He hired contractors to build foundation and frame of the house, do electric wiring, and dry walls. Our roof was done by a neighbor next-door. Daniel did much work by himself to save money. I selected the color of interior and outside house and bought paint and building materials. Our weekends’ family activity was to paint the house inside and out.
Daniel bought used 3 compartment sinks and commercial starless steel counter top. Kitchen addition was mostly completed in September and we moved to current house.
Daniel called inspectors for the final plumbing and building permit last month and the building passed the inspection. I love my brand new large kitchen. We named this kitchen Prune kitchen because we had to cut our favorite Italian plum tree in order to build the kitchen addition. I have been using my kitchen for various cooking events. I will be writing about it to food blog soon.

Sightseeing around Hiroshima in One day

2011-02-06T18:35:00.000-08:00

These are the photos and a video from my trip.

My parents live in a town called Saka, 20 minutes train ride from Hiroshima. During my visit to my parents’ house, my best friend in Tokyo came to see me. This was her first visit to Hiroshima. I planned sightseeing trip with her to go to interesting place to visit while we could talk.
We met at Hiroshima JR(Japan Railway) station at 10:00am and took JR train and short ferry ride to Miyajima. (http://www.miyajima-wch.jp/index_e.html You can watch interesting video on this site.)Miyajima is famous for Historical Shrine and Torii gate built in the water. We walked around and ate roasted oyster and cooked conger eel on the rice which are caught locally. (http://www.miyajima-wch.jp/en/tradition.html) We visited Old Shinto Shrine and a large old Buddhist temple.
Next we went back to Hiroshima city to the Peace Memorial park. http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3400.html). We walked around A-Bomb dome and the park. We had leave without seeing Peace memorial museum and it will be her next visit.
Finally we went back to the JR Hiroshima station. Hiroshima is famous for Okonomiyaki(Checkout http://www.japan-guide.com/r/e100.html0. We went to the second floor of the station building to have the Hiroshima style Okonomiyaki at Reichan2 where local Hiroshima residents’ favorite Okonomiyaki restaurant.
We were full and happy spending nice time together. We departed to catch our train home at 6:00pm. My friend called me and told that it was one of her best days in her life.

Life is very long.

2010-03-01T00:17:00.000-08:00

I realized that I will likely live to 80 years old. I looked up CDC website to found life expectancy of US is 77.7years. Though I am not senior yet, I have several old friends and often think about how I like to live my life when I am 70 or 80 years old. Since I am Japanese descendants my life expectancy probably even longer.( see about.com)
I went to two parties to celebrate longevity of Japanese American seniors yesterday.
One was a late New Year’s party of Hyakudokai. Hyakudo means hundred years and still active. We were one of few attendants under 60 years old and my husband was one of few non Japanese descendants.
4 seniors were awarded to be 80 years or older. One awarded man was 96 years old and was in a good shape.
Another party was for our friend and ex-neighbor, Jake, whom I invite to our Japanese dinner Thursdays. The party was to celebrate his 90 years old birthday. About 100 people were at a Chinese restaurant. His families, friends, and his church members were there. People spoke about Jake how they met Jake. Jake built his church with his wife, taught and helped many children of his church members. 6 ladies played music for Jake. Jake played harmonica with his best friends. Jake looks very happy and told everyone that he get younger and younger every day.
This is an example of someone who has many friends live long and happy life.

Happy New Year from Seattle

2010-01-05T12:12:00.000-08:00

On the eve of 2010 New Year, my new friend invited our family for champagne and some food by Space Needle. It was the great location to view the fireworks. I had to take video and share it with world although I was not planning to take fireworks video for the third time.

Christmas Music by Garfield High School students

2009-12-20T12:11:00.001-08:00

Enjoy holiday music played by the High school students.

Seattle Mount Baker Fire house Groudbreaking

2009-12-10T11:37:00.001-08:00

I went to attend the ground breaking celemony of Mount Baker fire station in the cold morning of December 10, 2009.
Mayor Greg Nickels attended this events along with neighbors and Seattle Franklin High School’s principal Ms Wiley.
Please see the photos.

Japanese monster video:GeGeGe no Kitaro

2009-10-31T13:10:00.000-07:00

When I was young, "Ge ge ge no Kitaro" was one of my favorite show on TV.
I found "Obake Night Baseball" with English subtitle posted YouTube.
It was a old version of the show and black and white.

Cougars (WSU) Marching Band

2009-10-23T10:25:00.000-07:00

I went to visit Washington State University (Cougar) for Home coming events on second weekend of October. I saw Cougs against Arizona State University. I love the marching band and videotaped the Cougar marching band from their warming up to their performance at Martin Stadium.

Seattle All-City Band at West Seattle Parade

2009-07-18T22:36:00.000-07:00

I had opportunities to see our own Seattle’s All-City Band marching at various grand parades. I loved their performance. I took video of their marching at West Seattle Hi-Yu Festival Parade and posted on YouTube.
They will be marching China town parade on Saturday, July 19th tomorrow and Sea Fair Torch light Parade. They also will perform with couple bands include one Canadian Bugle band on coming Friday. Please check out All-City Band website:
http://www.allcityband.org/

Seattle Japanese Garden Gate House Ground Opening

2009-05-19T01:25:00.000-07:00

I went with my friend to take video of her Koto performance for Gate House Ground Opening at Seattle Japanese Garden on May 4th. I posted 4YouTube Videos and 3 videos show complete Koto performance. Taiko performance was nice and posted two short ones combined.
My friend and Master Takamura made excellent Koto performances.

Seattle Cherry Blossom Festival

2009-05-15T23:31:00.000-07:00

Cherry Blossom and Japanese Culture Festival was held last month. I went to take video of my friend's Koto performance on April 19th. I took video of Japanese traditional Dancing and music performance. A month later, I organized my video and I posted three YouTube Videos. I have more opportunities to listen Japanese traditional music now than when I lived in Japan.

Romantic places to go in Whidbey Island

2009-02-02T22:34:00.000-08:00

I spent a romantic evening at Whidbey Island with my husband this weekend for my birthday. He took me for a drink to captain Whidbey Inn which is very old Bed and Breakfast Inn. A lady who manages the Inn and is a bartender greeted us and showed us inside the inn. Although the building is over 100 years old, it is kept nicely. It would be an interesting experience staying in this Inn and waking up in the morning.
The lady told us Inn’s restaurant will be open for a dinner soon and there is live-music on Sundays. We will come back the Inn to listen to my husband favorite Celtic music soon. After we had a glass of red wine and listen to the conversation of the bartender and a couple of our age who have lived in the area, we left the Inn.
My husband then took me to a French restaurant ‘Oysteratcher’ located in downtown Coupeville. Their website shows delicious food they serve. The restaurant was small enough that we could hear other customers’ discussing enthusiastically interesting topics. I was excited going a nice restaurant serves delicious food since I rarely go out to eat. I wrote my experience dining at Oystercather in Yelp.
If someone wants to visit Coupeville, Whidbey Island with a special person, these two places were good places to go in addition to other places in the area.

Happy New Year.

2009-01-01T21:59:00.000-08:00

My husband and I went see New Years Eve fireworks at Space Needle.

Happy holidays from Snowy Seattle.

2008-12-25T01:44:00.000-08:00

Unusual heavy snow in Seattle

2008-12-20T01:20:00.001-08:00

Seattleites have experienced freezing snow days. Because it was very rare occasion, I took video and posted YouTube. The bridge shown on the video is Interstate 90.

Thanksgiving

2008-12-04T01:01:00.000-08:00

My family and neighbor family across my house had Thanksgiving dinner together. I cooked some food and the neighbor cooked others. It’s nice to celebrate holidays with others.
I don’t think of any similar celebration in Japan. Japanese people view full moon in fall for moon festival. The moon is called harvest moon. People put Japanese pampas grass and rice cake offerings by the window. According to http://www.sci-museum.kita.osaka.jp/~kazu/index.phtml, this custom was originated from China and because it is the harvest season of taro-roots and people in China have taro for the moon festival day, the origin of the moon festival started in order to celebrate harvest of taro. Thanks are probably given the god of nature not to people.
It is nice to give thanks to others and share meals. I think people in America generally have a big heart and generous. Homeless or poor people can find some place to eat free. I read and hear stories that some restaurants offer Thanksgiving dinner to homeless people, and that volunteer collect free food for needy families. I have never heard homeless people in Japan can go some place to eat free.
We should always be thankful to food which we eat, people who grew, and to share meals with other people. But we don’t. Thanksgiving Day is the good occasion to remind me of this.

My experience on the day of 2008 presidential elections

2008-11-05T22:43:00.000-08:00

On Nov.4 2008, the presidential Election Day, I worked at a poll place near my house. It was rainy dark morning before sun rise, I walked to the location. About 6:00am, I started setting up private booth, posting signs, and etc with other poll worker which consisted of 3 high school girls, 3 African American ladies, 3 white ladies(2 workers and a inspector), two Asians(a young Chinese speaker and me). There were 3 more workers than the previous elections.

At 6:30am, one man entered the place wanting to vote. It was a half hour early to open the poll. So he had to wait until 7:00am. As soon as we opened the door at 7:00am, voters flooded into the place. This is my forth time to work at this location. Before this election, we had only few voters showed up. At this one, the lines of voters were long early in the morning. I heard bad traffic was caused by voters driving toward to the poll place. Many people said that this is their first time to vote. They were not only 18 years old new voters but older voters. Many families came to vote together.
I have never seen observers here on the previous elections although my husband told me there were always some observers at his voting place. At this time, there were three observers there. Two of them were there from early in the morning until the poll closed. One even took notes how many voters voted the location and how many incident reports were recorded.
There was a person who took photos. 7 private booths were occupied and voters filled their ballot on the extra tables.
After 6:30pm, only few voters came. It was almost 8:00pm. One of fellow workers took a short break and saw her text message learning that Obama won the election. I saw fireworks when I was collecting VOTE signs. There were 8 times or more voters in this poll came to vote than the previous elections. I could read one or two chapters of my book while I was waiting for voters the previous elections. I had merely enough time to say hello to some acquaintances at this time. We were lucky to have done all closing process smoothly and head home around 10:00pm. It was the long busy day.
The next election, people will mail their ballot and there will be no more poll places in Seattle. I love being a poll worker to be a part of the election process. I miss meeting and working with fellow poll workers and greeting my neighbors. I am grateful to be here to experience these all excitements of America.

Daniel recommends you to attend these four one act plays.

2008-10-19T22:51:00.000-07:00

Daniel wrote :

I went with Fumiko this Sunday to see Act One, Six Sundays, put on the by Theatre 9/12. These are four original one act plays which are interesting and thought provoking. Our set of plays started off with, Canyon's Edge, which is played in part by my favorite Actress Kate Szyperski, who plays the role Kathy. If you have not ever seen Kate cry, this is the time to see a convincing

expression of emotion. You just want to ask her what is wrong, and as I was sitting in the second row, I felt bad that she was crying and I was not doing anything to help. In watching the play I saw the actors, but not all the actors were being seen on stage. I saw the pieces but failed to put them together correctly. Fumiko explained it to me afterwards. I am curious to know what you think? The next play was "Duty, Honor, and Profit". This play contains the most actors of all the plays and spread out over multiple years. By investigating the "unnatural" death of his college friend, the play investigates if "Honor" of a solider is being lost in Iraq. After a short intermission in the very nice ACT Theater building, in which the performance was being held in one of the side rooms, PC Panic took Place. The audience was transformed into an active participant, in the play. No one in our group took up the bait, but I wonder if other audiences become more participatory then ours? This play takes place in a Post Office, in Southern California. The title is "PC Panic." From the title I thought it had something to do with Personal Computers, but the meaning is the other "PC". This entertaining play, demonstrates that there are different ways in dealing with Political Correct issues. Direct Confrontation, or call it something else, and everyone some will believe. The final play, of the afternoon was "Ibsen's Note", as the title suggests, this is not a comedy. The three actors discuss issues about "love", and how it weighs on life and death decisions. Do you think that the quality of love you have prepares you to make life and death decisions about the ones you love? I recommend that you see these plays while they are showing, and I recommend that you call ahead and make reservations, as this week's afternoon showing had only two vacant seats.

Fumiko Wrote:

I loved the play. I asked Daniel write about it. I took some photos to share. If you want to see Kate in her play, you have to go and see it.

Back to Japan 3: My sisters wedding in Tokyo

2008-08-29T22:09:00.000-07:00

My sister had her wedding ceremony when my family went back to Japan.
She was married legally last winter. She and her husband waited to have their ceremony to have my family from Seattle to participate. Their wedding ceremony was held July 11th. It was humid and very hot typical Japanese summer day. Temperature was about 93 Fahrenheit and humidity 80 percent in Tokyo. The ceremony was at “Teppozu Jinja“which is old Shinto-Shrine two blocks away from their apartment. My sister left her apartment around 9:00am to get ready. I joined her to be dressed up traditional Kimono. When I went upstairs of the shrine, my sister was dressed up white wedding Kimono. She was pretty and looked happy. Then the lady started working her hair and make up.
I have worn my Kimono when I graduate my university in Japan and my wedding reception. This is my third time. The lady used 3 or 4 cord and couple belts to dress me up Kimono. My waist was larger than typical Japanese ladies but my old Kimono still fit me and the dresser managed to dress me up nicely.
My sister and I were dressed up with layers of Kimono in the room without air conditioner. The room was cooled by two large blocks of ice and an electric fan. The ice was melting too fast and the water was overflowing from the ice bowl. The hair dressers had to stop their main job to clean up the mess. Strangely when I worn my Kimono, I didn’t feel heat although I had hard time walk or sit.
The ceremony started. It was my first time to attend Shinto wedding. In this occasion, even my two sons had to wear nice suites at their first time. The gloom and his family member and his friend sat one side and the bride and her family members and friends another in front of the altar. After the gloom and bride sipped sake three times each from a set of three cups, the both family drank a cup of sake. Then my sister joined to the gloom’s family. And so on. The ceremony was over and the picture time. It was sacred ceremony and my sister looked beautiful and happy.
After the wedding, my sister and I changed western cloths. We headed to the reception dinner at the restaurant in the tall skyscraper. We socialized with the both families and friends having full course dinner created for the wedding reception. Everyone was happy including my parents and the gloom’s parents. I am happy that my sister found her companion for life. Please view more of her wedding photos include my family. Click here to link Picassa web album.

Back to Japan 2-Trains

2008-08-22T18:20:00.000-07:00

In Japan, I often take trains mostly Japan Rail way trains. Trains are safe and very punctual. When my train was 5 minutes late due to the broken bar at the train crossing, 5 minutes delay seems like big deal. The apologetic announcement was made at the station to the passengers several times. Since many trains run so frequent, this 5 minutes delay probably affected more than 1 train schedule.
I always buy Japan Rail pass either for 1 week or 2 weeks when I go back to Japan. With this pass we can ride Shinkansen (Bullet train), local trains, JR buses and ferries as much as you like for limited days. This pass saves us money. Without JR pass, the ticket from Tokyo to Hiroshima costs about $300 round trip. 1 week pass cost about $300 and I can ride more than one round trip and local trains. I travel more places in Japan using JR pass than my friends who live in Japan.
Lastly I will tell you unfortunate side of the trains. I noticed there were gates at the platform at train stations. I heard the shocking story. My Japanese friend told me that she witnessed suicide. She thought it was strange to see a young woman sitting on the platform. At the moment when the train approached to the station, the girl jumped down to the train track. The train couldn’t stop on time. My friend was so shocked and ran away screaming. The girl was 15 years old. SAD. If the these gates were at the station, the girl may not be able to sit at the end of the platform and still alive.

Back to Japan 1 : Sizes

2008-07-21T00:17:00.001-07:00

Photo on the right is my husband standing by the door in the train. His head is higher than the top of the door of the train.

I came back to Japan to stay with my parents and attend my sister’s wedding ceremony. I decided to write about Japan. When I arrived to Tokyo Narita Airport with other Japanese, I always realized that I grew much larger than other Japanese people. I was bit tall but my weight was average as Japanese woman before going to Seattle. However, now I am big around stomach and heavy. I went to store to buy my clothes near my parent's house and found that my size was in the large size section. When I went to Costco to buy my pants in Seattle, I bought the size which was somehow smaller size than several years ago. I don't think I lost weight. American sizes seems to get bigger. In US, I don’t have to go big size section and my size used to be large but now is medium. Japanese people are still smaller than American although the large sizes can be found in the store.
I realized that if I live in Japan, I will walk to train station and everywhere without my car and eat mostly Japanese food. It will make me loose some pounds.

Marie's funeral

2008-04-27T21:52:00.003-07:00

The photo above is young Marie.

The other day, I went Portland with my family to attend the funeral of my husband best friend’s mother. Her name is Marie. I didn’t know her well. I saw her when she and her husband came to Seattle to join the parties of her son, Peter, and when we attended two of her sons’ wedding ceremonies. I remember she invited my family to her house several times and she cooked nice healthful meals for us. She welcomed everyone who visited to her house. She always smiled and said to whomever she met that she was pleased to meet her/him. I remember her as a beautiful old lady and brighten the mood around her. I imagine her like pretty white flowers lighten up the room. On 19th of April, 2008 she died at the hospital surrounded with her seven children with their spouses and her nine great-grand children who loved her very much. She was 79 years old and 6 months to be 80 years old. She was married to her husband, Art, for 52 years. Marie and Art hardly fought. Peter only remember his mother was very angry at her husband when she suspected her husband flirted with some lady. Then Marie was so furious to throw things around her at Art. She was deeply in love with Art. I heard that Art loves her very much that when he dies, he will be buried holding Marie’s ashes in his arm.
Her public funeral was held at the Catholic Church in Portland. Her life was celebrated with many attendees whom her life touched. She completed her life with full of happiness and love.

Is Seattle dangerous city ?

2008-04-12T19:24:00.000-07:00

I have lived in Seattle for 19 years and became a victim of crimes three times. I was brought up in Japan and lived there for 30 years and was never encountered crime. Does it mean Seattle is dangerous city or US is the dangerous country?
My first incident was two months after I came to Seattle. It happened in the morning on the way to the bus stop. A man came across the road and grabbed my bag. I tried to hold on my bag. He was stronger than me and took my bag and ran. I went back and my host father reported the incident. I was very afraid going anywhere by myself for a long time. The mugger was never caught.
The second incident happened when my first son was about three years old. We lived in rough neighborhood of Rainier valley. Our house had security alarm. In the day of the incident we forgot setting the alarm. When we got home in the evening, the front window of our house was broken. We found that someone stole our computer. Our house was no longer safe place. My son was afraid going home. The police recovered our computer by stopping gangs’ car and caught the thief several days later. The thief was the neighbor’s eleven years old son who lived three houses away. Our neighbor was from Cambodia and didn’t speak English and he showed my husband a stack of business cards from police officers.
The third happened the last month. Our house was broken into at about 2:00am in the morning. Being tired and sleepy my husband and I forgot locking the doors of our house and turned all the lights. I never expected that someone came from the back door after going through the fence. When my husband woke up by our cat jumping down from our bed, he saw the shadow of the man. He yelled at the person.”Who are you? What are you doing my house? Get out my house.” I thought he was a sleep talking. But I woke up and found our two laptop computers were gone. I wanted to run after the thief. But my husband stopped me going out. He was still half a sleep. I phoned police immediately. The police officers came to our house with their dog about 10 minutes later. They found my husband’s camera on our drive way. The dog sniffed the trace of the criminal to only couple blocks from our house. You may think we live in the bad neighborhood. We live in the nice neighborhood. We walk around our neighborhood safely at night. We have some view of Lake Washington and our neighbor’s house was sold close to million dollars. Our house is small old three bedrooms house while the houses across the streets have better view and are new and large. I don’t know why the thief decided to come to our house instead of other fancy houses.
Fortunately no one was hurt and nothing important was stolen. The both laptops were repaired by the computer technician and were not in good shape. One of my stolen laptop computers had been infected by virus and another have problem turning switch on. The thief may have hard time to sell these old imperfect laptops. I haven’t heard any news from the police. After this happened, my cat which used to sit by my laptop disappeared couple of days and she have never sat her old place again.These are my bad experiences since I came to Seattle. Although my carelessness somewhat contributed to the incidents, I feel unsafe even my doors locked. It seems somebody is watching us and s/he takes advantage of an unguarded moment.

Are jeans American uniform?

2008-04-09T14:56:00.000-07:00

Recently I went to two big events around Seattle and recognized that many people worn jeans.
One event was North West women’s show. As the name indicates, the attendants were mostly women. It was held at QWEST field. As you see in the picture on the left, the more than a half of the women in the picture wore jeans. Another event was Hops & Props at the museum of flight. This was the beer tasting event. More men attended to this event than women. While I was waiting to entering door in the long line, I observed the people in the line and saw so many legs with jeans. I didn’t realize so many people wear jeans. Then I remembered when my father visited me from Japan, he mentioned that everyone wears jeans. He used to wear his trousers until he realized that he look different from others with his gray pants. He started wearing his only blue jeans which he hardly worn in his house in Japan. He wore his jeans every day until the day he left Seattle.
I used to wear Blue jeans often. Recently I seldom wear my jeans because I like to look better by wearing other pants when I go out.

By the way, my sons don't wear jeans. They wear sweat pants instead.