Last updated on April 8th, 2012 at 01:10 pm
As I mentioned last week, I have decided on a new dream, with the help of my nine year old. I wanted to still keep the travel theme because my family needs to experience the world more, so when my daughter said one day that she wanted to go to Japan, I knew that it was it. She wanted to replace the New York trip with me with a Japan one, but this needs to be a family experience. She will go to New York with me when she’s 13, (yikes).
But this dream is more than just going to Japan. My husband is Japanese, but he doesn’t know it. I forget it half the time, and the kids do too until someone says, “What are you?” I’m glad we’re past the stage of the kids asking me, “Are we Chinese or Japanese?” At least now they know for sure what they are. But that’s the limit of their knowledge, and my husband’s.
Both sets of my husband’s grandparents came to the United States from Japan. His parents were born and raised here. They know a little Japanese tradition. Unfortunately, his parents were in the Concentration Camps when they were teenagers, so they have plenty of bad memories. I think  because of that experience, they Americanized their children, maybe in fear that if the camps ever happened again, people would know for sure that they were American. I don’t know. All I know is that my husband doesn’t know a thing about the Japanese culture.
I want to change that, at least for the kids. They need to know where they came from. So my dream is to learn all we can about Japan and the culture. Even learn some of the language and the religion, Buddhism. This needs to be done before we travel there. So I’m going to give myself a year or two. Maybe I can even find some relatives!
As far as my “lifestyle” dream, it’s taking a bad turn. Somebody needs to slap me quick and remind me that I have a tendency to have high blood pressure and cholesterol!
*slap*
Thanks, I needed that.
Till next time,
Kim.
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