All in Family

Diplomas for internees

Frank Fujimoto
Family, Heritage, In the News

Yet another article appeared in last Saturday's Seattle Times about the Japanese American internment during WWII. This time, Kimiko Nagaoka Mukai received her degree from Seattle Pacific University, over 65 years after she was forced to leave the west coast. She was awarded the degree during her 90th birthday party. SPU has identified seven other Japanese American students who were also forced to leave and has been reaching out to their families.

Weekend in Spokane

Frank Fujimoto
Family, What's Up

Melody's sister Celeste was in town for several days, so we went over to Spokane for the weekend to visit family over there. Celeste lives in Austin, TX and had originally planned to come over the Christmas holiday. However, the weather was bad enough that she postponed the trip until this month when the weather would be better. We always enjoy having her visit and spending time with her.

Busy weekend

Frank Fujimoto
Family, Hobbies, What's Up

Every now and then the planets align and we end up doing lots of stuff over a weekend; this past weekend was one of those. We had dinner with some of my cousins on Friday night, did lots of stuff in the yard on Saturday, hung out with some friends on Sunday, and had dinner with another cousin of mine on Monday.

Shabu Shabu

Frank Fujimoto
Family, Food, Heritage, Oral History

Melody and I had Shabu Shabu for dinner last night. It's a little like fondue since everyone can put whatever kind of food they want into the pot, but instead of cheese (or chocolate) the liquid is a sort of broth (my mom used to do a fish stock, but I did a chicken stock last night). This picture is from 1987, and shows my dad getting ready. You can see several kinds of food on the trays and if you look closely, you can see a second pot on the near side of the table (there were several people at dinner that day).

Kiyo in the hospital

Frank Fujimoto
Family, What's Up

My mom went back into the hospital on Wednesday the 21st. From what I can tell she's still having dehydration problems, and this time it caused her to be dizzy and have problems with her equilibrium. She's doing better now, although she sounded a bit tired when I spoke with her earlier this evening.

Travel plans changed

Frank Fujimoto
Family, What's Up

By the time this gets posted we had planned on being in Spokane with Melody's sister Celeste, but weather has changed plans. It would have been a slow drive over the pass, and we would have needed to turn around the next day and head back to Seattle. Instead, she'll sometime after the 1st, after travel is more sane.

Christmas shopping with Uncle Easy

Frank Fujimoto
Family, Oral History

I was talking with my cousin Kay earlier this week and we talked about how this was the time of year when as a child I'd go out with my Uncle Easy to go shopping for toys for the younger members of our family. Being a bachelor, he would say he needed help picking out the right fits. When the planned day came around, Uncle Easy would pick me up and we'd go have dinner, after which we'd make our way to Toys 'R' Us and he'd ask "would this be good for so-and-so?", checking his list to make sure he had something for everyone. After we were done, we'd drop the presents off with Kay so she could wrap them.