These are friends that have stayed at our home at various times and that we have visited them in their home in Japan.
Yasuko (on the left) became a very close part of our family about 10 years ago. She lived with us for several years and now has returned to Japan to continue her life. What she is looking for is some good
looking marriageable man who is a U.S. citizen of or has a "Green Card" for this country and then she can return. She became an American girl while she was here and I think that she would prefer to live here. Visas to live in this country are very
difficult to get so she had to return to Japan. She is working in a full time job in Tokyo and still lives with her parents in Yokohama, commuting every day.
She and her best friend Keiko (picture on the left) do some traveling and scuba diving. They recently went to Mexico and came back through Los Angeles, Michiko and I and the two kids went down to spend a couple of
days with them and went to Disneyland. Then she and Keiko came to Washington, DC for a few days to visit our Capitol and they went out through San Jose so we spent an hour with them at the airport. Keiko is working full time and she has spent some time
in Mexico learning Spanish. She has enjoyed it there and we always got to see her when she was going in or out. She is a delightful young lady. I don't know what is wrong with the men - these are both very beautiful and alluring young ladies.
Yasuko has been Michiko's best friend while she was here. They loved to do things together. The kids and I love her very much - we all miss her and would like for her to return to this country. Anytime we are in Japan we plan on visiting her and her family. Her father acted as Michiko's father and walked down the isle with her at our wedding. We always enjoy spending time with the family in either country, the girls do their thing and her father and I talk computers and go shopping at the computer store.
Maki was our first graduate of University of California at Berkeley. She came to this country to go to school and answered an ad to do some baby sitting for us for Daniel. She immediately became family.
After graduating from Berkeley she went back to Japan and is living with her parents and grandmother in Tokyo. When we come to Japan we are very fortunate because they always have a place for us to stay in Tokyo. Wonderful people! She is working full
time for a real estate company. She uses her English everyday in the business. It is always nice to spend time with her and the family. Grandma is a wonderful old lady who can talk about the war days in Japan and her and I can exchange stories of the
days when I was in Japan in 1953 and 1954. We hear from Maki by phone every once in a while - but not often enough.
Don and Maki ---- Two other important members of our family are Osaka Maki and Naoko from Wakayama (Japan). They were best friends in college and both have spent some time with us here in the U.S..
They are part of the "must" people we visit when we go to Japan. Both are now out of college and are working full time. As many friendships do, theirs has grown apart because they live in different areas, but the friendship is still there. It is
always fun to get them together when we visit. The parents always meet us when we come and manage to spend time with us. Maki's father has been our tour guide (even blowing out a tire in the process). Maki's father has retired now and I think he may be
having time to do some painting which he is quite good at.
Naoko ---- Naoko's father is involved in real estate around Wakayama. One of the times we were there he had a number of real estate friends over for dinner and we compared the real estate business in
Japan and in the U.S. Last time the family was there, Naoko planned a special dinner for us, and Maki and her father, Naoko had enough food to feed an army. FUN.
Naoko and I send faxes back and forth on a regular basis, Maki just doesn't write to me in English very often but they always are nice letters when she writes. When I went to Japan in March of 1997 I spent the trip mostly with Naoko. For the story of that trip see Don's Trip to Japan - March 21, 1997. Naoko is going to join us for a year starting in September, 1997. She will go to school to better learn English conversation.
Megumi came to us through a friend of ours that also was a friend of her mothers in Japan. She wanted to continue her music education in this country. At that time she had just finished her sophomore year
of high school. She and her mother came and stayed with us for a home stay and we then visited them in Japan. They decided that we were OK and arrangements were made for her to start school here in her Junior year.
Megumi then lived with us for a little over a year until she turned 18 and she decided to move into her own apartment. Since then we have stayed in contact with her and we wish her well on her next venture to Peabody.
She is just another one of our many very special friends from Japan.
The following press release is what Megumi uses for publications.
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Megumi Yanai, 18 was one of the two soloists selected as winners of the California Youth Symphony Young Artist Competition for 1997. She began her music studies at the age of three in Japan. She came to the USA in 1995 when she was 16 years old, she left
her family in Japan to continue both her academic and musical education here. She is currently studying with Professor Hans Boepple at Santa Clara University.
Megumi has won many prizes and awards. She was given a Superior rating and did a command performance at the California Music Educators Association Bay Section Music Festivals in 1996. She received an honorable mention in the Piano Solo competition of the Music Teachers' Association of California in 1996. She placed first in 1996 and received the Celia Snow Lindstrom award in the Olympiad of the Arts, classical piano competition. She also appeared at the awards celebration sponsored by West Valley I Mission colleges. Megumi was also the winner of the Sherman Clay Prize in the finals of the 1996 San Francisco Young Pianists Competition. As a additional prize she was featured in "Friday Recital Hour" at San Francisco State University . At Lincoln High School in San Jose, she was in the Advanced and Chamber Orchestra, Women's choir and Voice Studio. In addition she was the accompanist for many of the voice and instrumental students in their competitions. She also received an awards as the "Outstanding Student" in the Advanced Orchestra, and special award which is in appreciation of exceptional music ability, musicality and dedication to excellence by the teachers of the music department. In addition, she also made the academic Honor Roll at Lincoln High School upon graduation in 1997.
She now has been accepted in the world renown Peabody Music School that is a part of John Hopkins University. Here she will study music for four years. At the end of studies at Peabody she will decide where she wants to go to work on a Masters. Her goal in life is to be a concert pianist.
MarikoTo be written.
