Happy New Year 2026

West Covina & San Fernando Obons, Dodger game, 
Maiya 2023 grad, puppies and Asayake Taiko performance in San Diego

Dear Friends & Family:  

It's been 4 years since our last holiday card... so here's a quick update:

2023: Maiya graduated from high school and we went on a family trip to Japan & Hawai'i before sending Maiya off to UCSD for college.

2024: We adopted a new puppy, Nijiyuki, a Husky/Pit mix, who quickly became BFF with Max, our Chihuahua. Shohei Otani joined the Dodgers and we got to go to 4 games! Tony's mom Fran moved in with us, then Jenni & Maiya went to Japan with the Yoh-Park family. 

2025: Honestly, it started out pretty rough, with wildfires, a horrible change in administration, ICE, and losing Dad/Grandpa/Walt in July. Fran adopted Sassy, a 14 year old German Shepherd mix, and we started construction of an ADU for Fran & home office that will be completed in 2026. Maiya is in her 3rd year in SD, playing collegiate taiko, active with NSU & interned with JACL this summer. Fran has enjoyed getting active with Temple Isaiah. Jenni & Tony celebrated 30 years together by going to 14 Dodger games, including Shohei's NLCS game with 3 HRs and 10 strikeouts, winning back-to-back World Series. 

Best to you in 2026. ICE Out of LA. Peace. Out.

It's as Easy as...

...riding a bike.  So we have been doing the Walk and Roll Wednesdays since last year.  I've been volunteering to help with the kids walking to school, once a month.  But, Maiya hadn't been able to ride her bike without training wheels because we really just hadn't spent much time on the bike.  Maiya had gotten pretty good at riding her Razor scooter.  Anyways in April (yes I know that was 7 months ago), Tony took the training wheels and the pedals off the bike and let Maiya go on it.  I saw online that it said to let them go for about half an hour, and once they got the hang of it, it's time to take off the training wheels.  Well, they remained off for several weeks, or even a month.

She got pretty good at it.

Here she is practicing still... and sporting a skirt on her
shoulders like a shawl, for some reason.

Finally, after CicLAvia in April where Maiya took her scooter, we went home and I figured out how to put the pedals back on.  Much easier than I thought it would be, and immediately she was off!  That's my girl.  Peace. Ride. Out.

NaBloPoMo12 #9
(Backblogging April 2012 posted on 11/10 catching up on 11/9)

Maiya's 7th Bday Mottainai Party

We celebrated Maiya's 7th Bday Party again at the park by our house.  Seems like every year gets bigger, this year about 75 people came, having invited the basketball team, friends from school, old preschool friends, and extensions of family.  I'm thinking that this might be the last year of a party of this size.  Big as it was, we still managed to do a fairly green low-waste party.  Plastic utensils and reusable party chopsticks go in the bucket, Grandpa Larry's coffee mugs, no single-use drink containers, cloth tablecloths, recycled paper plates, hot pots for tea and coffee.  I'm always amazed at how little trash is in the trash can at the end of the day.  The main thing we take home to recycle is the 1/2 gallon juice and 2 liter bottle sodas.

 During arts and crafts time, the kids made Tenegui towels... which they later needed for learning the Mottainai dance from Auntie Nobuko, who came and did a little obon dance workshop, teaching the kids the dance.  It was a lot of fun to watch the kids and parents joining in.

 Then afterwards, we went back home and celebrated Grandpa's birthday at our house.  The kids always bring out the yogurt cups every time they come over.  We just can't get rid of them.

Until next bday, peace out!

(Posted on: 10/25/12)

Maiya Turns 6 (in Feb!)

SIX:  So Maiya turned 6 in February.  We had the party at a park walking distance from our house.  Mista Cookie Jar came and performed some great music for the kids.  We had seen him perform at a couple of community events and Maiya loves his CDs.  I have always wanted to do a concert for a birthday party, but Joe Reilly and Chic Street Man don't live in town and we don't really know Ice Cream Man (reggae kids performer that we've seen at the Farmer's Market).  You know that thing about invite 6 kids for a 6th bday?  Well we times'd it by 10, and over 60 people came, including 4 kids from Kindergarten.

GAMES:  The theme was not Barbie or Bakugan, it was FRUIT!  So my friend Mickie gave me some suggestions (via Skype from Japan) for games.  You'll see in the pictures we did relay race games with orange on a spoon, banana on your neck, and oranges between your legs. Oh my goodness, how fun is that?  The cake was fruit, and the party favor was reusable shopping bags that fold up into fruits.  

ECO-PARTY:  We did another ECO-party.  It's easy to use dishes and real utensils when you have a party at home, but when you do it elsewhere, you have to lug the stuff back and forth.  I got paper plates made of bamboo and recycled materials.  We brought a bucket so that the nice plastic cutlery and hashi (used at several parties including her 5th bday) could be tossed in, taken home, and rewashed.   I re-used some plastic tablecloths from past parties, and also now have 4 cloth tablecloths that can be washed and used again.  We brought real mugs for drinks. Drinks were by the half gallon (no throwaway one-time use plastic bottles or juice boxes), and since it was cold, I made pots of coffee (not enough though) and brought them in the hot pots.  The nice thing is that we didn't even fill one trash barrel at the park; although I did have to fish out a few forks and hashi.

Here's around 20 pictures to share.  I know it's a lot, but we took about 130 pictures and filled up a video card, so you get the gist.  (If you were there, and you want individual pics of your kids, we have almost all the kids with either a piece of fruit between their legs or behind their neck.)

Happy 6th Bday.  At the time of this writing, Maiya is almost 7.   Oh, the time goes by so quickly.  Peace. Out.  (NaBloPoMo#5)

February 2011 Happenings

NaBloPoMo#4 is going to be the recap of February 2011. I honestly don't know if I'm going to have the time and energy to update a whole year, but we'll see where this goes.  On the 1st of the month, Maiya turned SIX years old.  That crept up pretty quickly.  We forgot to take a picture until after shower time, thus the robes with wet hair.  Notice the candle in the manjuu, her favorite treat.

My Dad turned 80 years old, so we had a surprise party and Roast for him at my sister's house.  We invited a bunch of his old gang, plus some golf friends.  

We also celebrated Maiya and her friend Eve's 6th bday party at school.  We've been friends with Eve's parents since 15+ years ago, so it's been nice that they're in the same class, and have birthdays in the same month.  I brought chocolate manjuu, as I did the two previous years at Maiya's preschool bdays. (Class photo removed)

Our friends, Scott, Emily and Tula (Maiya's sistahfriend) came to visit from Detroit.  We manage to see them about 3-4 times a year.  Scott and Grace Lee Boggs published a book of Grace's speeches, writings and ideas.  That led to a sleepover for Maiya and Tula.

 

Of course, being on the Board for Great Leap (where I worked from 1997 to 2004), means our annual fundraising event.  This year instead of the LA Marathon, we participated in the Chinatown Firecracker 5K.  Maiya actually walked the 5K with us, and did the 1K for kids by herself.  Me and Maiya raised about $1,500 for Great Leap from generous friends/family sponsors.

At the end of Maiya's first basketball season playing bball, her team went to the year end event where they handed out trophies for all the teams.  Afterwards, we invited the whole team and their families over for a potluck.  It was a lot of fun.

Peace. Out.

Seeking Playdate for Maiya's Japanese Restaurant (#28)

Help us please.  Anyone want to come over to Maiya's Japanese Restaurant?  Maiya asks us to come to Maiya's Japanese Restaurant every day, several times a day. Please come to our house. Tony and I would appreciate it.  The menu is consistent.  We will even give you some homemade cash to pay for your food.  Irrashai!

Then afterwards, you can play with her and her friends (see purse below).

NaBloPoMo#28