Happy Holiday Season!
Finally, our beloved GW is the next president of the United States. Well, the fact that I know it indicates that we are running late this year (again) with our annual Holiday Letter from the bayouland. We hope you receive it before Mr. St. Nicholas comes to your home. If not, oh well, I say "Happy New Year!" and we'll blame it on the US Postal Service. Oops, I can't use that excuse for people to whom I am sending this message through e-mail....
Our new millennium began at a ski resort in Red River, New Mexico, some 8,500 ft high. Kenta had never seen snow before and Shota didn't remember seeing snow since he was only one year old in Seattle. They fell in love with skiing right away. By the end of the second day, they went up all the way to the top of the mountain, some 10,000 ft high. They bragged that skiing is similar to rollerblading and beat me flat like Kamikaze skiers! Boy, they are something. We are going back to Red River during Mardi Gras break this year. We will pick up a bunch of beads (plastic necklaces) in a parade on the way to the airport, and throw them to skiers from the lift. It will be a lot of fun!
Here is an update of the foursome in our family.
Kenta is now 9, in the fourth grade. His soccer team was a unanimous champion with 8-0 record. They got the best coach in the world; Kenta's dad! Kenta always plays center mid-fielder (control tower) thrashing his opponents with his beautiful dribble. He also plays basketball (point guard) and baseball (pitcher/catcher). Too bad he had to drop ice hockey since his dad couldn't handle that much driving. He is quite popular among his friends and often spends a night at his friend's. He is such lightly dressed (wearing soccer shorts made of nylon and T-shirt) in winter that his teacher has to tell him to wear things "appropriate for the weather." Well, we don't recall his catching a cold for a long time, though. He plays piano for the third year. He is doing quite well academically, being chosen for "Talent Search," an academic program for high achieving children. His love, however, is in sports and fishing. And he is pretty good at the latter, usually catching the biggest fish in the group. (kkamo1@lsu.edu)
Shota is a teenager at 13, in the seventh grade. He is now taller than his mom by a couple of inches. He plays point guard for his basketball team which, only with 8 players, went all the way to the final of a regional tournament. They fought hard and fell short by 3 points against a much bigger (20+ players), taller team. His other repertoires include soccer (mid-fielder), baseball (pitcher/outfielder), and football (running back). During the past summer, he went to a public middle school in Japan (with uniform and everything). His big news the past year was a four-day camp at Yakushiji, one of the oldest temples in Japan. While struggling with vegetarian meals and only lukewarm tea during the break (and no other beverages all day), he learned Japanese traditions and Kansai-ben (western dialect). With some 30 people in the same camp, he earned some memory, friends, and a laptop computer (part of the deal). Oh, by the way, he still plays piano and saxophone, and is doing fantastically in academics. (skamo1@lsu.edu)
Young and beautiful as usual, Akiko is now 32. Just kidding. Still quite active in Japanese education. Her Japanese program is thriving, and as President of Louisiana Association of Teachers of Japanese, she attended several conferences over the country. Places she went the past year: Atlanta, Boston, New York, and Wilmington (NC). She "discovered" broadway musicals in one of her trips, and talks about going back there any time. In summer, she took 12 children/parents to Ritsumeikan High School in Kyoto as part of her exchange program. Her 5th graders folded 1,000 paper cranes praying for the world peace (Hiroshima Project), which she dedicated to Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. We are hosting a student from Ritsumeikan (Toma Kondo) in our house during the break. (kamoa@ehsbr.org)
I am now xx, young as usual (?). Still doing sociology, publishing papers here and there. I was invited to Tokyo and Tennessee the past year to give a talk. I also write more "soft" materials for newspapers and magazines in these days (mostly in Japanese), ranging from Pokemon, Marxism, housewives, to child care. I have a regular column "Lectures on Family Studies for Dad" in a web magazine. I also wrote articles on Sydney Olympics, Warrick Dun (an NFL player known for a unique charity program), and soccer in the US for a web-based sports magazine. They gave me a title of "sports journalist." I enjoy getting involved in different areas, anyway. (kamo@unix1.sncc.lsu.edu, new phone #: 225-578-5352)
We have been blessed with good health and no disaster in the past year. Hope the next century will be just like that for us and for you.กก