Finding the best of life in every hour!
So often, we highlight tragedy or bad news. Well, today is absolutely a great banner day! I awakened after a good night of sleep. Deciding I should thank my guardian angels, I included this in my morning gratitude list.
Checking my email, I found the draft of a 10-page article I helped write for the COLUMBIA MAGAZINE - out of the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma. Julianna is a terrific editor and has done wonders with pictures and drawings. It is scheduled to come our in the Winter Edition of the quarterly magazine of Northwest History. Ten pages is 1/3 of the magazine. Deciding that family would want copies, I contacted a few cousins to see about a pre-order list.
Next I got a call from Gary, whom I cornered for help on filing my taxes. He came over with my papers and told me I’m getting my deposits back. I told him that we nned to celebrate by having a Sashimi Lunch at Ginza in Bellevue.
Because of our OMOIDE presentation last Sunday on a national TADAIMA on-line October project. I got an email from Hana in Connecticut. She wants our OMOIDE program to be part of a national story-telling endeavor.
This afternoon, I got a call from David. I’d almost given up on my offer to help his wife with some seizure and health issues with a health program that I have successfully used the last 40 years in my program for family and health counseling. David and I now have a date to get together and talk about it on Sunday. It gives me motivation to be patient and continue to share.
I had a dental appointment with my new dentist, Dr. Jennifer Strelow. Instead of going all the way to Bothell with Dr. Carmody, who bought out Dr. David Branch’s practice, I can now go 5 minutes away to downtown Mercer Island. Jennifer was amazed with Sam’s work in my mouth. I told her my bridges are at least 40 years old. For years, I have heard comments about Sam’s exceptional margins and extraordinary craftsmanship. Since her office is across from Mercerdale Park, I got some exercise walking around the perimeter path a couple times.
It’s still only 6pm. There may still be more to this day?? Meanwhile, I’m preparing a Martha Steward weekly delivered meal. The best part of the plan is that it is healthy and the box comes with just the ingredients that are needed. Therefore, everything is fresh and we know what’s been included.
Sam and I took hot baths every night all our married life and I continue. As explained by Samurai Matcha in his podcast, a hot bath is getting a warm hug.
As I cuddled in the warmth, I could hear the girls singing and harmonizing, getting ready for bed, as they do almost every day!
![Zachary Tamusaitis is part of ...]()
Zachary Tamusaitis is part of the UC Santa Barbara Swim Team!
I live too far away to watch his swim meets, but it's fun to be part of the family that gets these kind of pictures and be able to help celebrate.
The last time I was with his immediate family in Burbank, I enjoyed his cooperative nature and the respect he has for his parents, brother, sister and extended family at the memorial of his paternal grandfather. He almost won the card game several of us were playing.
I'm also told that he is a pretty good cook in the house where he is living near UC Santa Barbara campus. I have no idea now, but he had good grades at Notre Dame High School and was recruited to be on this team.
Yeah!!! Zach!!!!
!["HEALTHY CELL" is Goto-Heal...]()
"HEALTHY CELL" is Goto-Health's super-ego like Jiminy Cricket
EGO: unconscious tape recording of past - conscious expression of self
ID is our hormonal instincts - can be influenced by environment
This week I'm enthused about SAMURAI MATCHA and his podcast about 7 Japanese Habits:
https://youtu.be/r1NfP3vdQcY?si=PJJX5Q3vcuv6c4MR
1. VISIT FAMILY GRAVE: Grandpa Nakanishi bought 12 plots in the Kent Japanese Section of Hillcrest Cemetary in 1925 when Japanese were discriminated. Uncle Hiro remembers mowing the grass before it was incorporated into Hillcrest so now they take care, but it is still segregated. In some. ways it makes us special.
2. PICK UP TRASH: When we lived on Seattle's Capitol Hill in the 1960s, the girls and I pulled their wagon around the block on May Day to pick up trash.
3. HARA HACHIBU - eat until 80% full: The girls being conscientious as teens for looking good, this is no issue.
4. GOCHI-SO-SAMA: Respect for the food, the cook, the food sources, nature and work of providers. We started saying ITADAKIMAS before eatging, but can introduce this appreciative ending. We've gotten lax about starting and ending our meals together, but appreciate that most of the meals get everyone there close to the same time.
5. KOTO-DAMA - care in use of words: Use our Healthy Cell/Jiminy Cricket to guide us. So far the girls are pretty good.
6. KEEP THINGS ON TIME: Example is how there is an apology if a train in Japan is even 1 minute late or early. Our family is working to embrace "YOYU" - translated to "extra" when it comes to time for something, money for shopping, preparedness for presentations, space between obligations and rest.
7. TIDINESS: This is a daily hassel in our home.
![https://tinyurl.com/omoidewriti...]()
https://tinyurl.com/omoidewriting
Here's the link to register for the Oct 15, 3pm Zoom
![Me, Margaret, Chuck and Del R...]()
Me, Margaret, Chuck and Del
Reflections are because Sam took the picture, from our deck, outside the kitchen window
Last Thursday, organized by Mary Abo, with her daughter Julie, Kimiko Marr recorded our OMOIDE (memories) stories for a national broadcast on October 15th.
OMOIDE at the JCCCW (Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington), the “J”, is our writing group. OMOIDE was started in 1991 in my kitchen with Del Uchida, Margaret Yasuda, Chuck Kato and myself. We gabbed, had refreshments, sometimes included our spouses and did some writing. Christmas 1993, we used Pagemaker, went to Kinko for copies, folded and decorated construction paper covers and self-self-published a bunch of Christmas presents for family. We did that two more times.
In 2003 we became a program of the newly created Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington. Ats Kiuchi joined the program and helped us get a Kip Tokuda Civil Liberties grant from Washington State to publish OMOIDE IV. Aki Sogabe donated her Kirigami cover and my husband Sam Goto did the story illustrations. OMOIDE V is a compilation of OMOIDE I, II and III. Now, we are getting organized for OMOIDE VI.
For 20 years we have met on the third Saturday of each month, except December, from 1 - 4pm at the J. It was virtual during Covid. We have hot water from the kitchen and share refreshments between readings and kibitzing about our 500 word stories of incidents (two-minutes is the average attention span without another incident) from our memories. Directed to 5th grade, adults are telling us how much they are enjoying the stories.
Stories are important, getting together is important, and psychologically it is fulfilling. My purpose in life is sharing good heritage values with my kids and future generations. It’s a lot of fun!
Go to jcccw.org and the Hosekibako (jewel box) to purchase OMOIDE books.
Nothing like having teenagers around to liven up our rainy week here in the Pacific Northwest.
Yes, she turned 16 and now I don't have to drive her to 6am Drill Team practices 4 mornings a week and pick her up after school. But yes we have to negotiate for the use of my car.
Mom is constantly reminding, "You can't go stay overnight or have anyone over unless your room is clean! Take out the garbage! Time to take out the recycling...."
Mostly, we are proud of watching them learning to find who they are and want to be; trusting both good and faulty decisions are part of learning.
I'm grateful to be close by and enjoy the activities!!!
![HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEA!]()
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEA!
Last night I went to Bea's 60th b-day celebration. She's from Hungary and a lot of her dance group friends were there. Her husband, who is also from Hungary, put together the music and lighting. My picture shows just women, but plenty of the men participated in the round dances. Lots of food! Loved it.
Our Japanese ethnic gatherings are much more subdued. But now I'm remembering my father-in-law. He enjoyed his parties in the "old days". He often got up and danced and sang, to the embarrassment of all his kids and wife.
After last night, I have a new appreciation for our parents and their dance parties. Sam and I got up and danced the jitter bug at our neighbors wedding one time. That wasn't someting we did much. When we first married, we used to have banquets at the end of the bowling season with dancing. Too many of us Japanese heritage individuals continue to worry too much about sticking out, "the nail that sticks out gets pounded down?"
Now that I'm 84-yrs, I might be willing to try looking a little stupid and doing more dancing???
This is one of the most inspiring interviews I've heard in a while. As explained in the beginning, Tom Brady opens up about not having been a naturally gifted athlete, but was naturally gifted with the will and determination to achieve all his record breaking feats.
Why I pass this on to my grandchildren and others is because Tom Brady is famous and most of us admire some or many parts of his accomplishments. I like being inspired to accomplish my own small goals.
I have no desire to be like Tom. I just want to be inspired. His life is not balanced as evidenced by his not having time for his marriage partners. I'm just using this example to have fun in my life! I like watching football and I like being inspired.
![I'm in the second row above t...]()
I'm in the second row above the D in FORWARD.
Yesterday, I had the privilege of spending the afternoon at the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma, Washington. It’s located on Pacific Avenue next to the old Union Station. I remember Thanksgiving weekend 1955, I arrived on the train from Ontario, Oregon.
Our Japanese immigrant parents regularly organized youth conferences and sports activities to enable us to meet other young Nisei. My grandpa and parents often gossiped about the wayward children who dated or married someone outside the Japanese community (of course discrimination played a role).
Thanksgiving 1955, I was 16, living in Ontario, an eastern Oregon farming community with about 5,000 population.
The annual Japanese Methodist Northwest Youth conference- held every Thanksgiving weekend- drew about 100 youths from Spokane, Tacoma, Portland, Seattle and Ontario. The previous year, my friends came back from Spokane with pictures, wrote letters and talked about the cute guys they met.
The 1955 conference was scheduled for Tacoma. I was excited to attend. My family was poor, so I believe our church must have paid my way.
I borrowed a suitcase and packed my only party dress. I wore my one Pendleton skirt, cashmere sweater with matching socks and saddle shoes. My friend Margaret, Reverend Fujimore and I boarded the Union Pacific passenger train in Ontario and headed west. Six hundred miles later, we got off at Tacoma on Puget Sound.
Margaret and I were assigned to the Shintani house with Patti Warashima from Spokane. The latter is now a famous Seattle sculptor and taught at the University of Washington art department. Roger Shimomura did the conference graphics and became a nationally-known artist. He retired as a University of Kansas professor.
Margaret later became a national JACL queen. She drew a lot of attention from the boys. She is currently a high-end San Francisco fashion designer.
I don’t remember the religious messages, but I do remember Frank from Tacoma, along with Spencer and Gary from Spokane. For most of the three days, we noticed each other and played coy but ended up exchanging addresses and corresponding for a while after the conference.
After completing my nursing studies in Oregon, I moved to Seattle to enroll at the University of Washington. I was hired by the UW’s Library Special Collection in 1970 to document the Nikkei experiences in the Pacific Northwest.
I found similar social experiences spanning the generations in my own family. There are photos from the 1930 Young People’s Christian Conference. My dad, Sago Miyamoto, is in one of the pictures from a Tacoma gathering. Hana Masuda, wife of Dr. Min Masuda, PhD, who began the Japanese Collection in 1970, told me stories of the fun she had at these church conferences.
Going forward to 1980, our daughter, Lynette, is in one of the photos of the GYOP (Group of Young People) conference hosted by the Seattle Methodist church. Many young delegates made the reverse trip from my 1955 trip in 1980 - to Ontario from Seattle.
Each young people’s conference was highlighted with social events. Non-Methodist local youths came to the skating parties and the Saturday night dance after the concluding banquet.
At the dances, the guys were on one side of the church gymnasium and the girls on the other. Mostly, we girls sat and waited for the guys to come all the way across the room to ask us to dance. Glenn Miller’s “In The Mood” or Eddie Fisher’s “Dungaree Doll” were the most popular songs then. Once in a while, two girls would get up and dance on their own.
I met and danced with Chuck Kato at the 1957 Portland conference. Forty years later, in the 1990s, Chuck helped start our Japanese Cultural and Community Center’s (JCCCW) Omoide (Memories) project and writing group. The group is still documenting and preserving stories of our heritage values for the children of the future. You are welcome to join us. We meet every 3rd Saturday of each month.
Spritual settings remains a strong cornerstone for creating community and connections. I am thankful for bringing back memories for a fulfilling life!
![LOVE IS THE REASON WE AR...]()
LOVE IS THE REASON WE ARE HERE
The reason I’m choosing to learn from Robert E Grant is because I’m dealing with a situation this last few weeks that I don’t like. As Grant describes, the happenings could be understood with music and mathematic ratios. The major third octave is “love” and the inverse is “heart break”.
A dramatic story is being enacted in that my good friend has been kidnapped. None of her friends or piano students know where she is. There is major heart break involved for some, and maybe I have done all that I can. I can take the music to the next octave and let it go.
LOVE is a big word. Everyone deserves love. I like the definition that takes out the emotion and gives me the feeling of being spiritually centered. According to Grant, there are rules and geometry that can accept this criminal activity as practice in life lessons. I can send healing energy into the universe for the benefit of all that are involved.
![WASHINGTON STATE #1 IN BES...]()
WASHINGTON STATE #1 IN BEST STATES RANKING
When I talk to out-of-state friends and relatives, I brag about how we have the best weather despite a lot of rain in Seattle. It’s always cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter than most other places around. I learned a long time ago that places like New York City have the same 36+ inches as we do here in the Seattle area.
I'm working to form a daily habit of writing out my daily GRATITUDE LIST.
The US News rates Washington State as being named No. 1 in the states most desirable to live and is the first state to earn the top spot twice in a row.
Education, Energy and Economy Lead Washington to Top Spot in Best States Ranking.
This is the kind of information I am sharing with my granddaughters as we work to lead a life of appreciation!
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