Chef from Iran who created 2022 Grammy Award desserts!
![Zooming and staying in touch!]()
Zooming and staying in touch!
“What I don’t know is more important than what I do know,” according to psychologists such as Carl Rogers. Taking the advice of writer, Malcolm Gladwell, I decided the best way to learn more is to TALK TO STRANGERS.
I walked up San Fernando street in downtown Burbank, stopped at the ARTELICE patisserie on that Wednesday. My son-in-law had taken me there earlier and the chef, originally from Iran who had supplied the desserts for this year’s Grammy Awards, waited on me.
As I completed my treats, a gust of wind swept my paper plate on to the floor. The girl at the adjacent table jumped up, picked up the plate and with my permission, carried it to the trash. We ended up talking for about an hour that day. When I thanked her for being so considerate, Rifqa shared that her mother would have chastised her not to help. She had grown up in Michigan’s Chaldean community after fleeing from Baghdad and had recently moved to New York.
Four days later on Sunday, as I was heading for the airport, I went back to have another ham & cheese croissant and to pick up some macaroons to take to my next stop in Portland. We met up again. We decided to stay in touch as she headed back to New York and I home to Seattle.
Rifqa was excited to share with me that she had followed my recommendation of listening to Simon Sinek and the lifestyle recommendations of “Infinite Mindset” as she looks for a more fulfilling job and life partner.
Likewise, I continue confirmation of the value of sharing my stories, starting with my ethnic heritage and life experiences that has brought me to my current eighth decade of life. What a lot of fun it is to talk with STRANGERS to keep LEARNING!
![Dad practiced Racial Integration...]()
Dad practiced Racial Integration, Service and Being True to Himself
There was a time before WWII and the late 1940s, when those of us with Japanese heritage wouldn’t be hired for jobs with established companies, even with a college education like Dad. Therefore, my Dad, born in Orting, WA, in 1908, chose farming and starting a sole proprietor business along with other first generation Japanese Immigrants and second generation Japanese American Citizens of that era.
I was born in Bully Creek near Vale, Oregon, because five pioneer families had migrated with all their possessions in a caravan of a couple cars and three trucks, in 1937, to the Treasure Valley area on the Oregon side of the Snake River that separates Oregon and Idaho. They pioneered east, not west, from Kent/Auburn valley, south of Seattle. A covered wagon pioneer going west, left a diary entry at the Treasure Valley Library saying, “…desert so rugged, so dreary and…changes of thousand and thousands of years won’t yield anything worthy of consideration to the support of human life.”
The opening of the Owyhee Dam provided new row crop faming opportunities, and a few earlier Japanese leaving Mountain States railroad work had bragged about raising onions twice the size they were raising in the Seattle area, Kent Valley. The story is, because of racial discrimination worry, they had to go as a group and caravan in case of vehicle breakdowns or troubles along the way.
I was 4-years-old when Dad, age 35, bought this 30-acre property in Sand Hollow where he built our one-room house with an equipment shed, twice as big as the living quarters, attached. With two horses and borrowed equipment, he cultivated the land into growing onions for income and hay for the horses. Our address was Route 3, Caldwell, Idaho. That’s across the Snake River from Vale, not far from Boise, Idaho.
Dad was also pleased to help build this one-room church east of our farm. According to the current website, it’s now called the Sand Hollow Baptist Church north, of Caldwell on the old highway 30. I think it was non-denominational back in the late 1940s when we were there.
One Sunday when I was six-years-old, Mrs Talkington was teaching us, Shirley, Phyliss, Dickie, me, with two or three others, Bible stories in one corner. Several adults were in the main section. All of a sudden there was a commotion with many harsh words. Dad and Mr. Nelson had gotten into an argument about a passage in the Bible. Mr. Nelson countered, “What does a ‘JAP’ know?”
I remember, the parishioners all pouring out of building and forming a circle on the sandy, sage brush bordered desert parking lot, with five-foot six inch Dad and six-foot Mr. Nelson in the middle with clenched fists. It never came to real blows because Dad was carrying my 1-yr-old baby sister. But, we did change churches. We drove 8 miles on gravel roads to Notus Baptist Church after the incident.
Dad often had coffee and made friends with neighbors several miles around and got to know them. I remember driving to Mr. Nelson’s place. Dad must have made up with Mr. Nelson, because his daughters were our baby sitters when Dad had to take my Mom to the hospital and follow-up doctor’s appointments the following year in Caldwell. At age 28, Mom almost died of internal bleeding after her Hysterectomy operation. She also lost all her teeth and had dentures.
We were invited to Sunday, after church dinners, with people like the Lenz family or the Barns family from the Baptist Church in Notus. Our neighbor were the Randalls who went to the Seventh Day Adventist Church and Dickie was one of my best friends. I spent a lot of time at their house. One day, I got too close to their dog when it was eating. I can see the scar on my nose where I got bit and had to go to the doctor in Caldwell for stitches.
We often visited the Carters who were Nazarene up north on highway 30. Mrs. Carter picked me up to go to Vacation Bible School in the summers. When I started school Shirley Talkington became my best friend and we used to pan for gold in the creek that ran past her house.
In 1948, Dad sold the farm and became the “Fishman” with a grocery delivery business out of Ontario Fish Market. Ontario is part of the Treasure Valley in Eastern Oregon where, contrary to the other small towns in the area, Mayor Elmo Smith welcomed the Japanese who had to relocate with Executive Order 9066 and welcomed the Japanese who chose farming to start over after 110,000 of us with Japanese heritage in the USA were incarcerated during WWII. Most of the families coming to the Treasure Valley were some of the 9000 incarcerated at Minidoka in southern Idaho.
Dad was not good at making money. Dad played the violin, harmonica and a musical saw. He sang in the church choir and took Sunday’s off. Influenced by my Mom’s complaining and community gossip, I considered Dad a loser because he didn’t work all seven days a week to get ahead like all the others in the Japanese American community.
Dad had a four note musical horn, on which he played a tune, as he drove onto the driveway of each of the farms of his bi-weekly customers. The wives who were often out in the field heard his arrival and came in to shop out of his van. Those days, farmers were poor and their only vehicle may have been a pickup or truck for farming. They also didn’t have time or resources to go in to town for groceries. Dad and the Ontario Fish Market had a big drawer of credit customers who paid after their harvest.
One evening during my high school years, Dad had come home around 9pm from his Nampa, Idaho, route. I asked him, “A bunch of the Japanese kids are going to take dance lessons.” The lessons were at the Japanese Community Hall, out by the airport which Dad helped build.
Dad answered, “No, I don’t want you to do that.” I knew the church people considered it a sin to be involved in bars where there was dancing.
“I hate you”, I yelled back as I left him eating dinner at the kitchen table and went to my room.
I graduated from Ontario High School where there were 12 of us with Japanese heritage, out of the 117 1956 graduates.
I am now the same age when Dad died, 83-year-old. I’m realizing the importance of how Dad ignored being discriminated and was one of the older Nisei striving to be seen as American, who lived out his purpose in life developing friendships with his neighbors, as well as being helpful and serving wherever needed.
![After concert reception in Norcl...]()
After concert reception in Norcliffe Founders Room
with Joe and his daughter Mai
![Box Seats for Hisaishi Concert]()
Box Seats for Hisaishi Concert
THE Joe Hisaishi Symphonic Concert and the sell out crowd left my face tired from smiling and my hands sore from clapping. How Joe was still standing and able to visit at the reception after the concert after, this his fourth concert this week, and his second one this day is amazing.
Mononoke, Castles in the Sky and others, always featuring nature took my breath away.
Joe was up on the podium orchestrating, then at the piano key board and back and forth; always with dynamic direction. Sometimes it was just the horns, sometimes the choir, once a mandolin and several with Amanda and Mai, vocalizing. The Ghibli films were screened, but the music was live, featuring the thousands of hours of Hisaishi composition creation!
At the reception, Joe shared with me that he started at four years old and took violin lessons from Dr. Shinichi Suzuki and his school "SAI NO KYOKU". We agreed that we are all connected with our activities and inspirations in this life as I shared with him that I helped start the Seattle Suzuki program.
Thank you Yuka for sponsoring this concert and for the invitation to join your party with the Consul General of Japan and his wife Yuki and your parents from Japan.
Arriving home near midnight, a beautiful end to a fulfilling week!!
![Summer 2022 Outdoor receptio...]()
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”!!!
![Screen copy this image, print i...]()
Screen copy this image, print it out, make a commitment and darken right pupil.
Tape it up on your bathroom mirror!
It’s important to me that I work to make a difference today in yours and my own life. Not only do stories engage us and our emotions, but I need “thinking” and “doing” to continue my fulfillment path of INFINITE PARENTING - passing on our heritage legacy to future generations for a better world - one small commitment at a time!
The phrase INFINITE PARENTING comes from SIMON SINEK who applies this principle to business and INFINITE not finite LEADERSHIP. "Finite" means thinking in the past. I like Adam Grant's definition and quote of finite: "Science progresses one funeral at a time". "Infinite" means going ahead with uncertainty, that I stay in the game win or lose at times, but I continue to learn from my mistakes and set the example of leadership/parenting for the future generations.
My challenge, to myself and each reader and listener, is to make a copy of my Daruma drawing, make a one-year commitment to your life path, darken the pupil of the right eye and tape this to your bathroom mirror. I will do the same when I get back home.
I'm in Burbank, CA, this week enjoying the graduations of our granddaughter from Chapmin U and our grandson from Notre Dam High School! Last night at dinner, my granddaughter, who already has a job, announced that she has another offer for a better job and more money. But most of the discussion was of leaving the current job with gratitude and grace as they have been good to her while she was completing her degree.
My own commitment is to develop my podcast this year, starting with STORIES AT THE PANAMA.
![Heritage remembered nurtures...]()
Heritage remembered nurtures our souls
Sense of self builds, pride sets goals
This week I’m doing an interview for the CRITICAL ISSUES for SOCIAL WORKERS program at Arizona State University. The main reason I am being asked is because Elizabeth Lightfoot, Director and Foundation Professor of the School of Social Work, has been my daughter, Kelly’s, best friend since first grade.
Liz, you may remember when Kelly was interviewed with KING5 TV by Lori Matsukawa for “Stars of Tomorrow” program in high school and they filmed the bathroom walls in our home. Those walls are still filled with a bulletin board of memorabilia featuring who we are, our heritage and sayings left by my husband who past four years ago.
I choose to play the “Infinite Parenting Game” of taking responsibility and leaving a legacy for the next generations. There is nothing more “fun” for me than to share stories, BE INVOLVED IN THINGS THAT MAKE LIFE BETTER and continue LEARNING TO LEARN. These are some of the latest sayings on our bathroom wall and mirror that reflect my new single life mantras.
Drawings left by my husband like the Japanese sayings, NANA KOROBI, YA OKI (seven times down, eight times up!) and GAMBATTE (keep on trucking) will be in the book. We are publishing the 250 cartoon strips Sam did weekly, for five years, in the North American Post.
The 1980 US census was analyzed by the Washington State Department of Education. One of the main reasons I worked to help develop the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington (JCCCW) is because of this research. Japanese Heritage census individuals were compared to several other ethnic groups including, American Indian, Chinese, Black, White and a few others.
This research suggested those of us with Japanese heritage were committing ethnic suicide because we are having the least amount of children and next to the American Indian population, out-marrying the most. But it also showed that we had the most per-capita income and white collar jobs. Therefore, I felt we had the financial resources and I was moved to continue sharing our heritage values for a better Washington and USA community.
In 2003, Lori Matsukawa and I were part of the original board and we are again on the current board of the JCCCW. Lori picks me up as we attend meetings and specially for our OMOIDE - Memories writing group.
The exciting aspect of doing this interview is that each of you readers and listeners are motivating me to organize my thoughts as we share our stories!!
![HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!]()
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!
“Mom, you should get your feet fixed!”
“I know, but I’m not in any pain. I just can’t wear heels. Guess I can’t wear open toe shoes either? Everyone asks me what’s wrong with my toes.” Mom 83 responded.
Daughter 54 decided, “I’m not going to debate anymore. I’m going to do this Hammer Toe surgery while I’m still young enough to prevent some of the deformity you have. I’m going to have both feet done at the same time so I only have to be laid up once.”
So, eight days ago Daughter 54 had her surgery at Swedish Out Patient in Seattle. And Butt-mobile is serving her well!
Then three-days-ago, an unwelcome visitor appeared - COVID. A trip to Bellevue Community College tested POSITIVE for Grandma 83 and Granddaughter 12. Daughter 54 and Granddaughter 14 remain NEGATIVE. Daughter 54 announces, “No way am I going to get Covid and not be able to go for my follow-up doctor’s appointment and take off my bandages.”
Typical of the Daughter’s efficiency of handling life, OPERATION ISOLATION is under way: A ZOOM MEETING is arranged for a family conference.
The basement and guest room becomes the Covid Free Zone. Granddaughter 14 announces, “Grandma, you and granddaughter 12 have to stay in your rooms, We all have to wear the N95 masks if we go out to the kitchen and only one person in the Kitchen at a time. No food preparation!”
Cousin brought over snacks. Neighbor and housekeeper have provided soup for lunch and Salmon for dinner. Front Door delivery for needed items. Such is life??
We’ll see if it all works out. Nothing like friends and relatives for putting Life’s Challenges IN THE BEHIND!
![HERITABE PRIDE - TOMORROW...]()
HERITABE PRIDE - TOMORROW'S GUIDE
“STORIES AT THE PANAMA” is being created because I want to BE INVOLVED IN THINGS THAT MAKE LIFE BETTER.
My husband, Sam, passed four years ago after 56 years of a wonderful partnership. Therefore, I’m continuing the stage we set for leaving a legacy for our two daughters and five grandchildren. I remember, the whole first year after our first daughter, Lynette, was born. I watched her hours at a time, awake, asleep, crying, smiling and thought: “A year ago, she was a nothing. What a miracle this is!”
I was 25-years-old and realized there was a good chance I would see great-grandchildren thinking, “What can I do as a parent to insure those great-grandchildren will be self-reliant, kind and successful individuals?”
In 1970, I was hired by the University of Washington Library Archives to start the “Japanese Collection” gathering and documenting the Japanese Experience in the Pacific Northwest. As a third generation Japanese American, most of us no longer maintained fluency in Japanese. I had lived with my grandpa when I was little and if I relaxed and tried, I could communicate. Completing several oral tapes in Japanese, of the first generation Issei, the grant funding ran out.
Sixteen years later, both Lynette and Kelly had left for college so I decided to get a Masters in Psychosocial Nursing because I love psychology, philosophy and pursuing THE MEANING OF LIFE for myself and others. Therefore, I learned the value of story telling.
In 1991, I decided it was time to create, instead of just collecting documentation on the Japanese experience. Chuck Kato, Del Uchida, Margaret Yasuda and I gathered in my Mercer Island house kitchen and started sharing stories of growing up as Japanese Americans. We published several OMOIDE - MEMORIES stories. Thirty years later, the writing group continues to meet every third Saturday of each month at the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington, from 1pm to 4pm.
STORIES AT THE PANAMA includes the general public. The Panama Hotel has a heritage. The ground and place in Seattle represents a Heritage. Current patrons and visitors of the area are invited to share their heritage stories!
Sharing stories and creating a podcast, in 2022, is where I choose to be involved in seeking fulfillment, on the HERITAGE stage at THE HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER SWEET.
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Chef from Iran who created 2022 Grammy Award desserts!
Zooming and staying in touch!
