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.

Japanese Inventions

Here are some interesting Japanese inventions. Very creative!

Reading Japanese

When I was in elementary school, every Saturday, I had to go to Japanese School.  I thought it was such an injustice to have to go to school on a Saturday!  We learned to read and write hiragana.   Hiragana is a set of Japanese characters that were usually taught first when I was growing up since it is simpler to read and write.   My mom was taught katakana first, which is set of characters used for non-Japanese words.  I also was taught katakana but I think because I was taught hiragana first, I know those characters better and my mom said she knows katakana better.  Kanji is the more complicated characters, which I know a few, but not enough to read and write.

I have relatives that live in Japan and when they write my family letters, they write in hiragana since it is simpler for us to read.  Since I can read hiragana better than my mom,  I read the letter out loud in hiragana but I don't really understand what I am reading, but my mom understands the Japanese so between the two of us we can understand the letter.  I was talking to my cousin the other day and she said she does the same thing with her mom.

Just find it interesting to be able to read a letter, but not necessarily understand its meaning.

Koden - A Practical Tradition

I have always thought the custom of giving Koden, a monetary gift, at funerals is a very practical way to show a family support in a time of greiving.  The money is often used to pay for the funeral.  People provide envelopes with their address on them with the monetary gift so that the family can send them a thank you card.  People are assigned to collect the envelopes at the funeral, usually in a box, on a table. It is customary to give the same amount or more, than the person gave you,  if you attend a funeral for one of their family members.  Japanese-American funerals are typically big events and everyone attends.

I learned what to do with Koden from one of my uncles, who presided over the Koden process at many of our family funerals.  I remember the first time I was allowed to sit at the table and participate in the process.   After the service and the meal that we always have,  my uncle brought the Koden envelopes, filed in the boxes by family name, to the table.  We were assigned jobs.  We separated checks into a pile to be deposited later and the cash in another pile.  We had some people addressing envelopes and putting on stamps on the envelopes.  At the end of the evening, the gifts were recorded, the checks were ready to be deposited, all the thank you cards had been written and envelopes stamped and ready to be mailed.  The efficiency in which my uncle ran this process was impressive and I'll always remember how he led us.  He has since passed away but that is a memory I will always have of him.

Chiune Sugihara, The “Japanese Schindler”

My Aunt told me today about Chiune Sugihara (January 1, 1900 – July 31, 1986).  I had never heard of him.  He was a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania during World War II.  He issued thousands of transit visas to Jewish refugees in Lithuania so that they could travel to Japan.  He saved thousands of lives. He later became known as the "Japanese Schindler".

There is a book entitled "Visas for Life", an autobiography written by Sugihara's wife Yukiko, and a documentary called "Conspiracy of Kindness."  Here is a touching video about Sugihara.  Amazing - what bravery and compassion.

Being Happa Here: a NEW blogger has Joined

Being a minority is one thing, but being two parts is another.  I'm a new voice, a racial enigma understood by few and accepted by many.  I am also somewhat of an exception: I'm a black girl who can't dance, and a Japanese girl who doesn't like sushi.  Among my friends, I stick out.  And that is saying something because of the wide racial diversity of the people I choose to be around.  Today, being mixed is normal. It's not all different. I didn't like it at first. In elementary school, I would pretend to not be mixed. People didn't understand.  In high school, I began to see more of me. More biracials.  They understood. They just got it. Now, I love telling people I'm of mixed race.  From two different worlds colliding to form one fusion of diverse beauty that  is me.  I love teriyaki chicken and hip hop music.

Gambatte - Inspiring Word

Gambatte is a Japanese word, that I find really inspiring. When faced with adversity, in my family, we will say "Gambatte", which means to persevere, do your best, go for it. I think of it as buckle-down and face adversity head-on.  It's up to you. Don't feel sorry for yourself.  I really like the phrase, since it motivates you to move forward in a positive way.  We also use Gambatte to describe an attitude i.e. that person has a great Gambatte attitude!

Arnold Schwarzenegger in Japanese Commercial

This is somewhat bizarre and amusing.  Not exactly sure what I think about this ad.  Looks like it has Korean subtitles.  If you like to see Arnold in Japanese Commercials just check out YouTube. There are a slew of them.  A lot of American movie stars will do ads in Japan but not in the United States.  They are paid a ton to do the ads.

Asian American Blog Conference

I just started blogging about my Japanese American experience and was curious to see what other Asian American blogs were out there.  I found out there is an Asian American blogging conference "Banana" that is going to be held in Southern California at the USC campus on November 21, 2009, 4-6pm.  This is the first conference of its kind.  I am not going to be able to go, but I am really interested to find out how this conference goes.  Here is more information about the conference: