Year 2,000 is just around the corner! You better believe it.
It's that season again to write Season's Greetings. How y'all doing? Louisiana's winter is mild and we haven't dug our closet for a Kotatsu, table heater you place on the floor. The past summer was our fifth since we started to go to Japan to enroll our children to a public school. Shota finished the 6th grade and Kenta the 3rd. Shota declared that he will go to a middle school next summer. Isn't that great?
The past year's big story must be our trip in Japan during summer. We bought railroad passes which are available only for those living outside Japan and took Nagano Shinkansen (a bullet train constructed for the 1998 Olympics) from Tokyo. Through Nagano, we arrived at Kiso Fukushima. We watched a traditional Japanese festival along with locals, visited a border office of the time when Japan was divided into many regions, and went up to a mountain-side resort called Kaida Heights where stars were beautiful at night. On the next day, we picked blueberries, kneaded soba noodle, ate them all up, and went to Kyoto and Nara. While exploring many temples and shrines, our children bought many good-luck charms sold at those places. Having stayed in a hotel near Kyoto Station and railroad tracks, Akiko was excited with different types of bullet trains from the hotel windows. Having dropped in my brother's house in Kobe, our next stop was Hiroshima. We folded many paper cranes at Peace Memorial Park to pray for world peace near the epicenter of the atomic bomb. We then moved to Fukuoka where we enjoyed the view from Fukuoka Tower and ramen noodle and other dishes at a yatai (street stall). With so much in the itinerary, we had to cancel the last stop, a seaside resort.
In a couple of days after you read this note, we will be skiing in Red River, New Mexico. It is ONLY 18 hours' drive away. Since it will be the first ski trip for Shota and Kenta, our goal should be modest; to come home without any broken limbs. We were swimming in the ocean at Key West last winter. It was ONLY 20 hours' drive away. Boy, isn't this a big country or what?
Shota is in a middle school now. Since he goes to LSU Lab School, he didn't have to change the school, but the material is getting tougher. Despite that, he still plays all kinds of sports. Still relatively short, he became a starter in basketball with his speed and ball-control skills. He was an ace pitcher in baseball with his control, and he had some three consecutive strikeouts (and some three consecutive hits, too). Soccer players in Japan were so good that he had a hard time keeping up. The biggest surprise this year was the football. He played tailback who carries the ball more than anybody, and made four touchdowns during the season! While he says, "I don't have enough time," he still continues his piano lesson, and he started to play the saxophone for his school band. "WHAT A BUSY LIFE!"
Kenta likes playing sports as much as Shota does. His basketball coach designated him a future point guard for his dribbling skill. He will be a pitcher next year in baseball. As for soccer, he likes to play midfielder rather than forward so that he may be a future "control tower" of the team (?). This winter, he started to play ice hockey (yes, ice hockey in Louisiana!) in addition to basketball. He was lucky enough to be covered by a newspaper reporter on his first practice and quoted in the local paper, but his ability is unknown. His team, however, is the best in the 200 mile radius from Florida panhandle, Alabama, Mississippi, to Louisiana. He has much improved on backskating, already. He is taking a piano lesson for the second year, and he practices a lot. He struggled with Kanji (Chinese) characters and math in Japan, but enjoyed his days there, thanks for his friends and teachers. "HE GOT A BRIGHT FUTURE!"
Compared to the children, Akiko goes her own way. Her Japanese program at Episcopal School now has 3 teachers and 3 assistants. She took two high school students to Japan this past summer, and completed a sister school arrangement with Ritsumeikan High School in Kyoto. They will have a full-scale exchange of students from the coming summer. She still goes to a couple of professional meetings per year to establish/maintain her professional network. As President of Louisiana Association of Teachers of Japanese, she applied to a grant to establish a model project to promote Japanese language education, and was chosen one of the eleven such projects in the nation. As part of the project, she held a workshop with a lecturer from California in last February, and appealed the importance of Japanese language education to State education administrators. She was so impressed with our visit to old capitals of Kyoto and Nara, she insists that our children will go to a summer camp (with some ascetic practices) at one of the oldest temples in Japan, Yakushiji-temple in Nara next summer. "SHE GOT NO COMPLAINT!" (kamoa@ehsbr.org)
As for myself, I live a life of chauffeur by giving a ride for our children to their school, sports practices and games, and piano lessons. Oh, I am in charge of their PTA events, too. I even went to Shota and Kenta's soccer practice trip in Japan (for 3 days!). I also finished my second year as the coach of Kenta's soccer team in Baton Rouge. With the record of 8-1-1, my fate next year will be better than the football coach of LSU this year (who was fired). During my summer stay in Japan, my grade school teacher (who is a principal some 30 years later) invited me to speak in front of many principals before he retires this March. I also went back to Japan in September to attend a sociological meeting and give a lecture. When I go fishing with my friends and/or my children, I often catch 22-inch class fish called redfish. I will go for 40-inch bulls next time. I got a couple of book plans, but I need some time off from my chauffeur¼×s job. "I AM A SOCIOLOGIST, NOT A CHAUFFEUR!" (kamo@unix1.sncc.lsu.edu)
I hope your next 1,000 years will be a great one(?)!