Something to say about my family...

I may or may not have ever said this before, but it makes me proud to have a wife that is half-Japanese...a daughter that is one quarter Japanese, and a Baachan for her who had the courage and audacity to leave her entire family in Sendai because she loved a bearded roller skating Canadian man.

My daughter has a Great Grandmother who lives in an entirely different hemisphere, and a Great Aunt Kumi and Saeko, who are surely desperate to meet her. She has a Great Uncle Masashi too, and someday she's going to meet him...and someday she's going to play with her Great Grandmother. She might even kiss her on the face, which would make both her mother and Baachan cry...a lot.


June's Baachan, June, and Giichan - Japan 1997

June is half-Japanese and she's so proud of that thing that you can't help but swoon with pride by osmosis. When we were living in Hawaii people called her Hapa, which wasn't entirely accurate, but it was more inclusive than anything she had known previously. In Honolulu June was accepted as no different then the rest, at least from the impressive Hapa population. It was sigh inspiring. I've never seen her more proud of the way her eyes disappear when she smiles really wide (a genetic hand-off in case you haven't noticed on the Zedder), or the way her hair gives her away almost every time. She is half-Japanese and I love finding that influence in her.

Anyway, that's something I like to say about my family.