How Am I Related to You?

On my mother's side of the family, we know several generations of relatives.  I can't say I really know how I am related to all my cousins, aunts and uncles.  As I grew older, I began to realize that some of my cousins I call Auntie and Uncle are actually not my Auntie and Uncle.  I was just told to call them that because they were adults when I was a child.  I have one Auntie/Cousin who I think actually understands how we are all related.  She says things like, "he is your cousin once removed" (which I don't really know what that means).  I remember at one of my cousin's weddings, when I was a child, I met some distant cousins, around my age, and their father was Mexican-American.  I was so intrigued by that.  I ran to my mother and yelled out, "I have Mexican cousins!".  She later told me when I was an adult, she was embarrassed, but she said she didn't scold me for yelling since she said I was so thrilled at the discovery.

Taking Pictures - How many can you take?

I know it is stereotypical to say Japanese people take a lot of pictures, but, I do confess that in my family picture taking is just a part of our lives.  Every family event, or sports event involving family, the cameras come out.  We always joke that we take pictures of every possible combination of our family at our parties.  I have noticed though, that there are some family members, who shall remain nameless, that take the most pictures and ask us to pose and take a zillion pictures, but quite honestly, I never see their pictures.  I am not sure why they feel the need to take all those pictures they never show anyone.  I will say, one day, I did laugh out loud, when I received an email from one of the "picture takers"  of pictures from about two years ago and those are the only pictures I ever did see,  just that one time.  Oh well, I bet every family has one of those "picture takers".

Family Gatherings

One thing is for sure, if you go to a Japanese American family gathering there will be tons of food.  Recently, my family got together for Thanksgiving and we had about 30 people.  We had two huge turkeys (I made one of them, my first turkey, a 15 pounder, and it turned out! ), gravy, a honey-baked ham, candied yams, mashed potatoes, rice, 3 jello salads, pumpkin pie, apple pie, spinach dip, brie dip, egg rolls, crudites, rolls, creamed corn, cookies and I am probably forgetting some of the other food.

Everyone helped out with the cooking or brought food to the gathering.  It is really nice being with the extended family.  One of my cousins once told me she loves having a huge extended family because she never feels alone.  I grew up always having cousins or relatives come and visit and stay at our house and we did the same on vacations.  I remember once in elementary school, a classmate told me she did not know her first cousins and I was just stunned as I couldn't imagine that.

Grandparents only speak Japanese

When I was a child, every grandma and grandpa or older person my sisters and I  knew, only spoke Japanese.  We all thought that when you became a grandparent you would automatically only be able to speak Japanese.  We worried that we would not be able to communicate with our grandchildren.  I remember one day we were sitting at the kitchen table and we expressed our concern to our mom.  My mom was stunned that we all thought this.  She calmly explained to us that since we spoke English now, we would when we were older and she assured us we would be able to speak English to our grandchildren.  We were all relieved to hear that from our mom.

Generations

If you ask a Japanese American, what generation are you?  That person will probably know.  When I was a child,  my parents explained to me the meaning of the generations.

• Issei - This generation is people that were born in Japan but later immigrated to the United States.
• Nisei - This generation is people that were born in the U.S. and their parents are Issei.
• Sansei - This generation is people that were born in the U.S. and their parents are Nisei.
• Yonsei - This generation is people that were born in the U.S. and their parents are Sansei.
• Gosei - This generation is people that were born in the U.S. and their parents are Yonsei.

Many of the Issei have passed away as this was the generation that came over to the United States before World War II.  Many of the Nisei were born a few years before the war or during the war.  Many Sansei were born during the baby boom.