Where Globe-Trotting meets Beach-Combing
Shikishima no Yamato-gokoro woHito towaba, Asa-hi ni niou Yama-zakura-bana! “If one should enquire of you concerning the spirit of a true Japanese, point to the wild-cherry-blossom shining in the sun.” –Motoori Norinaga (1730-1801), Japanese PoetI love this poem, which I featured in one of my cherry blossom blog posts our first spring in Japan (all…
Was it really just four weeks ago that we purchased a pile of exotic merchandise for our adored shop? Just four weeks ago that we ended our first workday and watched evening settle over Chiang Mai, people biking home from work or heading to the night market, while the delicate scents of jasmine and ginger…
As the Final Four raged in Houston, my family road tripped it up to Dallas for my brother Simon’s daughter’s birthday party. She’s turning the Big Five, and the five of us—Han, Justin, my parents and I…and did I mention my sister and I are both pregnant?—stuffed ourselves into a sedan for the drive north….
Golden Week in Japan is the first weekend of May. Most people have the week off, the weather is usually warm for the first time, and everyone spends time outside—it signals the approach of summer kind of like Memorial Day for Americans. Last year, Chris and I joined the throngs at Tokyo’s Nezu Jinja Shrine…
Looks like we have a little da Vinci on our hands. A Japanese kid in northern Japan’s disaster relief area drew an action-packed picture of the US Navy’s Operation Tomodachi (friendship) relief efforts. This photo of the drawing was quickly forwarded around our squadron. As much as Chris means to me, it’s nice to know…
“People from Texas seem to be really proud they’re from Texas,” a Japanese friend mused to me once. This provided an excellent opportunity for me to launch into an overview of the exciting tale of Texas independence. My parents and I drove along part of Texas’ Independence Trail in pursuit of our state flower, the…
“I flew my first mission last night. It was very, very long. We started in Misawa, then flew back and forth from the Ronald Regan (air craft carrier) to the coast delivering food and water to people, landing in fields and landing zones and whatnot, then came back to Misawa. It was probably the most…
