Summer 2022 Outdoor reception at Consul General of Japan's home on Queen Ann hill.
Lori Matsukawa receiving Emperor's award from Ambassador Tomita of Japan
It was a cloudy, but warm summer of 2022 evening as I drove Executive Director Karen Kishi Yoshitomi, of the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington (JCCCW) and Concert Pianist/teacher Michi Hirata North to Seattle's Queen Ann Hill.
As we sat in the gardens of the Seattle Consul General from Japan, these were some of the words of inspiration from Tomita, Ambassador to the US from Japan, "Cooperation between Japan and the United States covers a wide range of activities, such as measures against COVID-19 and climate change, or even space cooperation. Our economies have also never been closer. Thanks to their investments, Japanese companies have become an important part of the American economy and true partners in communities across the country. Japan has become the world’s largest investor in the Unites States as of 2019."
Lori Matsukawa and I serve on the JCCCW board together. She truly deserves this recognition award from Japan as she volunteers hours and days of her time for our community, gathering people and resources, as a leader that I admire.
It's fun to be invited to such events, but the most fun are finding personal connections. We also heard words from Washington State Secretary of State, Steve Hobbs. Steve's mother is from Japan and I used to know her personally when Steve was a little kid. Miwa was also at the event and I hadn't seen her in over 40 years.
When I was chatting with Miwa Hobbs, the former Secretary of State, Ralph Monroe joined us. I asked him, "Who was your dentist in Seattle's Medical Dental Building?"
He answered, "Dr. David Branch."
I then added, "It was my husband, Sam, that made all the dental work in your mouth!"
There were several other similar encounters last night and we all agreed: THIS IS A SMALL WORLD!!
![CLOUDS OF CREATIVITY]()
CLOUDS OF CREATIVITY
Weather in the Pacific Northwest is terrific practice for facing life issues if I label rain and clouds as bad days. Seattle and the Pacific Northwest is sometimes called the “Bellwether State”. Sociologists apply the term in the active sense to a person or group of people who tend to create, influence, or set trends.
In researching and interviewing the history of the first immigrants from Japan of the early 1900s, Seattle and Washington State was said, “We have more intellectuals than the Japanese in California”. A century later, this area is one of the trend setters in technology and establishment of new businesses like Microsoft and Amazon.
Could it be that “Cloudy Days”, of which we have many, is enough “adversity” to generate more creativity and deep thinking?
Lex Fridman has become a new hero for me as I continue to learn from his long podcast conversations with other deep thinking individuals in our national and international community on both sunny and cloudy days.
Lex is a computer scientist that lectures at MIT. He loves dealing with disagreements and the “s…” life offers, choosing to learn from them, even if the idea doesn’t fit with his core values; and he is strong about maintaining his optimism about his life and future in the USA, as a Jew from Russia immigrant.
The foundation of Western philosophy is Tolstoy and Dostoyevski in overcoming and being responsible for the darkness in each of us as Humans. Similarly, Buddhism is labeled as starting with “suffering” and the Yin which we need to balance with the lighter Yang.
Kelly was heard explaining to her friend, “Love sitting out here and basking in the sun on days like today, but we are also appreciative of the natural beauty that is surrounding us with rainy Washington. The girls love drawing, writing their poetry and composing their songs on cloudy days.”
!["Household moments expresse...]()
"Household moments expressed with music"
SINGING and MUSIC
This morning, I was awakened as I heard the girls 12 & 14 getting ready for school singing “TIME”, made popular by NF. Now, they have just come in the door after being dropped off by the school bus at the bottom of our hill. 12-yr-old is at the piano accompanying herself as she belts out her own compositions.
The music tells me she had a good day at school and the distribution of endorphins in our home is energizing! Last night, “all-quiet” was announced while 14-yr-old taped a practice of “BLACKBIRD” on her guitar. I sometimes suggest, “I would like to hear more practice.”
She answers, “Grandma, I practice in my head.”
I respond, “I agree with some of that because I know the story about Korean prisoners of war who had practiced their golf game while imprisoned.” They were known to have done well subsequently.
I am delighted to live with these benefits that are core values in “making life better”. It is also my life path and purpose to pass on our stories of the value of music that has been maintained in their heritage.
One of the first piece of furniture my husband, Sam, and I bought, 60 years ago, was the upright piano in the picture. Sam saw the advertisement in the newspaper. At that time, we were spending $15 a week on groceries and barely paying the mortgage on our first house on Seattle’s Capitol Hill. I thought it a luxury we couldn’t afford. Neither one of us could carry a tune, but I had a couple years of piano lessons when I was in high school. Sam thought it was important and made the purchase.
Music was not my forte, but I had grown up with a father who could play his violin, musical saw and sang in the church choir. He delivered groceries to farmers in the Eastern Oregon, Western Idaho’s rural area where many of us with Japanese Heritage started life over after being incarcerated during WWII. He could often be heard belting out his favorites like the Mikado, “Miya sama, Miya sama,” as he loaded his van with groceries and Japanese menu staples from the ONTARIO MARKET.
Dad’s van had a four-note musical horn. He played a tune as he entered his customer’s farm driveway. The wife was often out in the field helping with farm chores, would hear the tune and come in to buy groceries out of his van.
Sam didn’t ever hear his dad play his mandolin as he was growing up, but we have the instrument and can only guess the story of playing in a band in the 1920s is true.
Because of this heritage, Sam and I chose music as a discipline for character building practice and education for our two daughters. It is one of the most important parenting decisions we made and now I am regaled with “life’s moment expressed through music”!!!
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Summer 2022 Outdoor reception at Consul General of Japan's home on Queen Ann hill. 
