Hello to all.
This is a message to all my family and extended family. Thought that I would bring you up on what is happening around here. This is going to people all over the world, some of you know the family because you have been here but some of you only know me through the Internet. Some of you may not find it interesting because of this.
First - the immediate family.
Michiko has had her hours and days off changed with American Airlines. Her days off are now Sunday and Monday. She works Tuesday, Thursday , Friday and Saturday from 9:45 to 1:45. Wednesday she works from 9:45 until 3:45. She does her regular duties for the Japan flight and after that leaves she helps in domestic. She is fine and seems to be enjoying her work and DOES enjoy the kids. She is also trying to get off Saturdays so that she can watch Daniel's soccer game (see below).
Daniel is now 5 and is playing Soccer (football to some parts of the world). He has practice every Thursday for 1 1/2 hours and then plays a game every Saturday morning. It is a riot watching these 5 year olds trying to kick the ball. When 5 kids from each team all get together trying to kick the ball - it is a riot. The most common yell from parents is "The other way - kick the ball the other way." He plays defense so he stands and waits for the ball to come to him and then he gets out of the way!!! He is also in Kindergarten this year which is a whole new experience. Of course he is still about the smallest kid around for his age. Don't blame this on his Japanese ancestry - I was the smallest kid in class up to around the third grade.
Mariko, sometimes referred to as the "pest", the "monster" and the "monster pest" is beginning to talk a lot. Of course you can't understand most of it - but she says a lot. She is now 2 and 8 months. She is basically potty trained during the day (sometimes she forgets - sometimes she has to go every ten minutes). Night time still requires a diaper. She is my first girl that I get to raise from birth and I am enjoying it.
Me - well I am OK but beginning to feel my age!! I guess at 65 I AM an old man. Health is about the same - still a large tummy!!!!, I still do some computer consulting for fun and spend a lot of time on my computer at home. There are a number of programs that allow you to talk to anyone in the world who has the setup to receive the calls. I am using Microsoft's Net Meeting and have made contact all over the world. Some of those receiving this message are ones that I have made a contact with. It truly is amazing that one can talk to the World - at basically no cost. Russia, China, India, Mexico, Canada, etc., etc., etc. Maybe if enough of us talk someday it may bring a better understanding of each other and our culture.
As some of you know we have had a 18 year old (high school student) Japanese girl, Megumi, staying with us. She is an outstanding piano player and came to this country hoping to advance her career. We were asked to take care of her and have been doing so for the past year. Now she has decided that she is an adult (at 18) and is going to move into an apartment - piano and all. This is OK with us as it is her and her parents decision. My only problem is that I fear for her safety because she does not understand the dangers in this country. In Japan you can walk down the street at any hour of the day or night and be safe. In Japan you never think of someone breaking into you home. She has experienced this for 16 years in Japan and does not see the dangers that lurk around every corner in this nation. She is ripe to be attacked, killed, raped, her money taken, injured and some smart operator (or boy friend) talking her and her money. She simply does not know or even can comprehend how careful she must be. In addition I think that it will be detrimental to her career in the long run. She now is going to have to worry about all of the things one has to do to live. Things that her mother (and Michiko) has taken care of through the years. These many thing will take away time that she needs to spend on the Piano. I have tried to help her here by promoting her but she thinks that she knows more about her promotion in this country then I do. Of course my life has been promoting and selling - but that doesn't matter. The smartness of a teen age kid overshadows plain common sense. I wonder if she was in Japan if her family would let her as a high school student move into an apartment in Tokyo by herself - and Tokyo is safe. Why would they let her do it here? I certainly would not allow my children to do this and they were born in this country and know what they can do and can't do. As my kids all know once they leave the nest - they are on there own, and so will she be. I wish her good luck and hope she remains safe.
Rick, my oldest son, is now almost 40. He is living in Carson City Nevada with his wife and there kid (about 6 months old) and Rick Jr., a son by another marriage. They seem to be doing fine. She is a school teacher and I think a very good one. Rick has wanted to go into the ministry for a number of years so he has been taking some classes toward that goal. Rick Jr. has had some learning difficulties his whole life. Nothing real major - he just kind of doesn't want to study or learn. Now of course he is in his teen years which just compounds the problem.
Scott, he second oldest, is now 36 and is a successful businessman. His software company is doing well. He recently bought a large building and his company occupies the third floor. The other two floors are fully rented. Plus he rent out the roof to companies who need to put up antennas for cellular phones, etc. He has a delightful wife Heynia and one child Ryan who is now about three. He and Mariko go to the same day care center. Scott has recently purchased a beautiful home up in the hills around San Jose. He hasn't closed the transaction yet but hopes to have every thing done so he can move into it by November 1st. Big secret - promise not to tell anyone - Heynia is pregnant again.
Dawn Marie, my step daughter by a previous marriage, is going to University of California at Berkeley. For those who don't know, she was the daughter of Ann who I married after Rick and Scott's mother died of cancer. The marriage was not a good one but I got a wonderful daughter out of it. Her mother has since died of cancer (after her and I were divorced). Dawn has had a tough time adjusting to the losses in her life but overall a very smart young lady and will continue to struggle but will do well. She is now around 30 and hasn't found the right man yet - lots of time. She is learning why Berkeley is one of the best Universities in the nation. She happens to be a minority there - most of the students are smart Asians who have been taught to study from the day they were born. She comes and spends weekends with us occasionally.
Darlene now 19 is living in a room by herself and working at the local ice skating rink. Her mother married Rick some years ago - this made her my step granddaughter. Because of some family problems she lived with me for over 5 years. She has been taking some night classes at the local community college but I am afraid that she has dropped out of her educational program. I really am not happy about the direction that her life is taking and I worry about her. She certainly has had a very difficult lifetime and has done well considering everything. She is very street smart and can survive in this country living by her self.
Catherine is the latest member to our San Jose family. She is a Hong Kong Chinese girl getting ready, before two long, to become thirty. She came to this country at 17 and to the San Jose are a couple of years ago. Not married and no immediate prospect in sight. She sells real estate for one of our local companies and is beginning to get things together in that business. She has her own home and lives by herself here in San Jose but spends most of the week ends with us. She enjoys the children and they love her. They both have a special facial expression that they copied from Catherine. She recently stayed with us for about a week and we enjoyed her here.
Now the close International family.
Yasuko who became a close part of our family about 10 years ago and lived with us for several years has returned to Japan to continue her life. What she is looking for is some good looking marriageable man who is a citizen of or has a "Green Card" for this country and she can return. She became an American girl while she was here and 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 Kako do some traveling and scuba diving. They recently went to Mexico and came back through Los Angeles and Michiko and I and the two kids went down to spend a couple of days with them, Disneyland, Disneyland, Disneyland. Shortly she is going to Washington DC for a few days to visit our Capitol and she will go out through San Jose so we will spend an hour with her at the airport. More about her later. Kako 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 neat young ladies.
Next we have Tokyo Maki. Maki was our first graduate of University of California at Berkeley. She cam 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 those days. We hear from Maki by phone every once in a while - but not often enough.
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. Naroko's father is in 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 we were there, Naoko planned a special dinner for us, and Maki and her father, and had enough food to feed an army. FUN. Naoko and I send faxes back and forth, Maki just doesn't write to me in English.
In Beijing China we have a very special person, my China daughter, called Ning Ning. This is another long story but basically while we were visiting her in China, Michiko got pregnant with Daniel. Then when they were in Canada on her husbands work Michiko found out she was pregnant with Mariko. So we have close connection with her - she is kind of a god parent to the two kids. Her husband works for the Consulate service in China. Because of that he is assigned to different places all over the world. He was assigned to Toronto Canada and we were able to visit them about three times while they were there. Ning Ning works for the China Travel Agency in the English department in Beijing. She is in some kind if a supervisory position now, I understand. If you are in Beijing and need help - see her (Yu, Ning Ning). She is the worse about writing and I made a contact with her the other day through an Internet contact in Beijing. He contacted her and told her to write me - no letter yet. Hoping she will get a computer and a connection to the Internet.
Now around on the other side of the world in Moscow is Julia and her family. I have a cousin who arranged a tour of Russia that Michiko and I went on. My cousin was friends of Julia and her family and we met her while we were in Moscow. She was 15 at the time and I will never forget her running alongside the train waving goodbye with tears in her eyes as we left Moscow. She and her mother have been able to visit this country, separately, and we have always been able to visit with them when they were here. Michiko and I made a trip to Moscow and spent a couple of nights with them in the family apartment. A delightful fun time. We tried, at one time, to get Julia out of Russia to come to this country to go to college. Things just didn't come together and we were never able to do it. Since then she has completed a special university school for translating and interpreting. She speaks perfect English - did that before she went to that school - so I am sure she was an outstanding student. She is now going to French University College at Moscow State University. Smart girl who made 670 on her first TOEFL test. I think she didn't miss any questions. She has a little boy and is unable to live as a family with the father because of the unavailability of apartments in Moscow. Sasha (the father) is going to the University in a very special field of Math. He has the availability of a computer and a connection to the Internet and we correspond through him.
Japan, Hong Kong, China and Russia - our world family. Now we are adding some more names that I have met through an Internet connection. Don't have a lot of history about them or even know much about them but do enjoy the connection. They will receive a copy of this letter so they will know a little about us. Maybe someday we will be able to meet them person to person.
Back to Yasuko. In November I am going to visit Yasuko and her family in Yokohama. At the same time Michiko and the kids are going to visit her mother in Nagoya. Daniel is over five and Mariko is almost three so Michiko is going to get the traditional pictures of the kids dressed in the traditional kimono's of Japan. While I am at Yasuko's home I will be putting a PC computer together for her father. It will be a Pentium with all the extras. Then we will be able to correspond through the Internet or have voice conversations over the Internet. We will only be there a few days and I don't know if I will have time to visit anyone other then getting my work done setting up the computer. Might have a chance to go to Tokyo some evening - depends upon how long I am there and how much time it takes to get the computer up an running.
A while later....
Michiko, I and the kids just returned from lunch (at Gombei's) so I set down and reread this long message. It makes me realize how fortunate I am to have this family. Sue (my first wife and mother of Rick and Scott) and I were married for 25 years. During this time there never was an argument and for many of these years we worked together and so were together 24 hours a day. Then I married Dawn's mother, Ann, and although the marriage was not a good one, I got Dawn out of the deal. After that I wondered if I would ever find someone that I would be as happy with as I was with Sue - and along came Michiko. I have said many times that I have had two perfect marriages - and many people never even get one. Michiko has been the light of my life. Now the two kids to top it all off.
Then I think of the ones that I have mentioned above and how they have become a part of my life. Each one has added something to this family, something that would be missing if they weren't here. Ning Ning who entered my life after the divorce with Ann and before Michiko was the first to let me realize that there were many wonderful women out there that I could find and who would make me happy. She, of course, was already taken. She has and will always have a very special place in my heart.
Dawn Marie and Darlene, who both lived with me, occupy their special place and there is not a day goes by that I don't think of them. Both supportive of me in anything that I did. Both loved by me. I can only hope that I gave them as much as they gave me and are still giving me with their love.
Then that special day in 1986 when a jet landed at Los Angeles International airport. On that jet was a Japanese lady who was destined to meet me soon after she walked into the airport and through customs. Of course that is another whole story. I think I fell in love with her when she managed to say "Hello, I am glad to meet you". Of course my whole life changed for the better after meeting Michiko.
Julia, Yasuko, Tokyo Maki, Osaka Maki, Naroko and Catherine - I love you all dearly. Again I hope that you each have received something by being a part of this family. Each of you are special in your own way. Each of you are so special to me and I have received more then you will ever know from each of you. If I could I would have you all here in San Jose so that we could see each other more often. Soon we will have video across the Internet - then we can talk and see each other and that will be wonderful.
It is my hope that someday, before my life comes to an end, that somehow I can have a family reunion in which each of you, as well as other members of my family, can all be together here in San Jose at the same time. Michiko and I have talked about it and it may be possible to pull off. The biggest problem would be getting Julia out of Russia and Ning Ning out of China. If wishes were to come true........
Will close this long message and get it out via the Internet, fax and International mail. All of you write to me and send me pictures. One of these days I will have a family Home Page on the Internet. Then you can all log in and see everyone in full color. I will send you the WWW page number when it is ready to go.
I love you all.
Dad (to all of you)
