More Letters from Daddy (#23)

A few more "Letters from Daddy."

October 4, 2010
Dear Maiya, Good morning.  Did you sleep well?  I did.  Mommy didn't cough all night.  That's great. Let's go to the park after school today.  Love, Daddy

October 12, 2010
Dear Maiya.  I think you are cool.  I love you.  I will see you after school at El Marino. Love Daddy

October 18, 2010 *This one is Maiya's favorite.
Dear Maiya, Hello. Hello. Hello.  It's off to work I go and you school--see you at 4:32! Love, Daddy

October 20, 2010
Dear Maiya, Ohayo gozaimasu!  Good morning young one.  Did you sleep well?  Did you dream? Did your body and mind rest?  I slept like a baby - ga ga goo goo!  Stay dry today and enjoy your muffin and machaca burrito.  Oishi, neh? Give Mommy a hug and a high five for me.  Let's go to the library today after school and get a book on club houses.  Tony "Daddy" Osumi

November 5, 2010
Dear Maiya, Good morning Love.  How did you sleep?  I slept all night and didn't wake up at all.  What are you bringing to Share Toy Day? Gaga? Sarcastic Cat? Your plastic light saber handle we got from the hardware store? When I pick you up after school, tell me.  Tonight for dinner I'm going to make gohan--rice.  White steamed rice with a fried egg on top with chopped up hot dogs and tsukemono.  Do you know what tsukemono is?  I think you spell it this way in Japanese:  つけもの.  Can you read that?  Have a great, fun day.  Be brave and strong. Love, Daddy


November 9, 2010
Dear Maiya,We have a DVD to watch after school.  We also have to take it back after we watch it.  Or maybe Daddy will take it back later in the night.  Oops! I forgot to say good morning.  "Good morning!" What fun stuff are you doing at school today?  Will  you be chasing some kids or playing soccer?  Be like Invisible Girl Mai Mai and do teamwork.  Love and hugs, Love and kisses, Love and tickles, Daddy


November 15, 2010

Dear Maiya, Good morning.  It's Monday.  Time for work and school.  Yay!  Yesterday was a cool day. seeing you on the basketball court hustling and dribbling and passing and shooting and trying your best was exciting.  Having grandma and grandpa there made it even cooler.  Next week let's invite Uncle Bill and Aunty Keiko.  I'll see you at school in the afternoon.  I'll bring a basketball.  Let's not forget to read a chapter of 100 Dresses.  I wonder what the contest will be about.  What do you think?  (Heart) and (Kisses) Daddy.


NaBloPoMo#23

Dreaming a Garden in Detroit (#21)

One of the things that has brought me to Detroit so many times was my work with Nobuko Miyamoto and Great Leap.  In my 8 years that I worked with Great Leap, one of my highlights was the many times I got to travel to Detroit to get to know Grace Lee Boggs, who I've mentioned in this blog many times, and inspired by Grace's commitment to community building through murals, gardens, the arts, and by making small individual changes that help transform and build communities from the ground up.  

Tony & I spent several summers with Detroit Summer, hauling hay, painting buildings, making connections.  So when Nob dreamed up the "I Dream a Garden" obon song and dance, we leapt into action.  8 years ago, we created a Harvest Circle Dance in celebration of the life of master gardener  Gerald Hairston, and a true gardening angel, with hundreds on a small corner at Genesis Church in Eastern Detroit, blocks away from thousands of vacant lots and empty houses, and just down the street from the Boggs Center, where Grace lives.  You can read about it on the old KuidaOsumi website here.  There's a few other articles on that URL I had written about my travels to Detroit and my experiences with gardening and activism.

Fast forward to 2010.  We were able to bring Maiya for the US Social Forum, and to be part of the re-create the "I Dream a Garden," as part of the USSF.  Nobuko was invited by Genesis HOPE, a nonprofit organization based out of Genesis Church that is working with youth on the East side of Detroit.  Also, our friend Ashley Kyber, who we had worked with back in 2002, also came back to add to the beauty and physicality of the "I Dream a Garden" project.

     

Genesis HOPE girls in their Sesame Street moment

 Tula & Maiya in matching Hello Kitty jinbei

 Nobuko with her son Kamau, 4 grandchildren, Tula & Maiya 

We'll call this Nobuko & the Grandkids Band 

since she took one look at the girls in their outfits and 

gave them a drum and tambourine to join along.

 The Griot stage built by Ashley's team (in white dress with baby on back)

 Grace Lee Boggs, Detroit's finest Griot at 95 years young

 Nobuko leading the Harvest Dance 

Native American Friendship Dance, part of the "I Dream a Garden" dance

And finally, here's a little video clip of the Sistahfriends.
It sums up our trip and the cuteness in a nutshell.

So, stay tuned for one last installment of our trip to Detroit.  And maybe a few more videos if I can get it together.  NaBloPoMo#21

Dancing at WLA Obon (#20)

I was thinking that the West LA Obon is becoming one of my favorite obons.  I thought it was about the food, but really I think it's about the sense of community. I ran into my friend Stacy who lives in the neighborhood, who I worked with in college. It's walking distance from Uncle Bill's house and it's in the neighborhood where Tony grew up.  This year, it was all about the dancing.

 Arriving at the WLA Obon.  Maiya was looking for the games.

 I was looking for some corn (photo credit:  Maiya)

 WLA Taiko, my favorite multi-generational taiko group

Shooting hoops at the YMCA game booth

 Getting dressed by the pros...

 ...who scolded me for not ironing her yukata 

which was rolled up and stuffed in my purse. 

They put cardboard in her obi to make it stiff.

One of Grandpa Larry's Mochizuki cousins

 

Dancers from up above

Where's Waldo?  I mean Maiya & Tony.

NaBloPoMo#20

10 Minutes on Heidelberg (Part 2 of 3) (#19)

Here we are this summer in Detroit.  If you're in Detroit, you gotta take the kid to see the Heidelberg Project, right?  You can Google it, if you want more info.  It was Tula and Maiya's first time there.  We only had a few minutes as we were heading over to East side of Detroit after leaving the USSF.  Here are a few pictures from our visit.

Girls of Code Pink

Sistahfriends!

Mamafriends!

Tula & Maiya at the Number House

 Tony & Emily at the Dot House

 Hot on Heidelberg

Car Cemetery on Heidelberg

More Maiya Video: Talking to Rod? (#18)

Here's a video back in January 2010 of 4 1/2 year old Maiya talking on the cell phone to Rod (Tony's audio friend) one morning while getting ready for school.  But the funny thing is that it is not a working phone, so Maiya is not actually talking to Rod, but to herself, but it sounds completely believable as a conversation.  Then when she gets off the phone, she is talking to me about what Rod said.  Got to love a kid with imagination... (NaBloPoMo#18)

Nakatomi's Holiday Boutique (#17)

HOLIDAY BOUTIQUE SALE

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2010

11:00 – 3:00 PM

 Nakatomi & Associates Courtyard

1820 14^th Street - Santa Monica

Shop for unique, holiday gift items & something special for yourself!

custom japanese kimono fabric bags – alex

eco bags - june15/homemade soap -karen kim

japanese green tea and gifts – kanaya fine tea

silk shibori scarves – laura hunter / paper crafts – sue lee

100% wool blankets and scarves by hiroko kurihara designs

japanese fabric beads/stone necklaces – sue oda omori/kathie sakai

native jewelry - iliaments/ gold for cash - gold refinery

urban green - rickey smith/ byo chopstix - great leap

calligraphy gifts – yasuko/ t-shirts - black lava

gardening author-nan sterman

ARTISTS & VENDORS DONATE 10% OF SALES TO CHARITY


(NaBloPoMo#17)

Visiting Friends in the D (Part 1 of 3) (#16)

I just realized I never blogged about going to Detroit this summer!  So, we went to the 2nd U.S. Social Forum, a gathering of 20,000 other activists from around the country.  I don't know how many times I've been to Detroit, I think this is probably my 10th trip, and I like to think of it as my 2nd home. Maiya and I flew out together and stayed with Scott, Emily and Tula.  It's important to take Maiya to Detroit to visit with Tula and Grace Lee Boggs, where Maiya gets her middle name, and to celebrate Grace's 95th birthday.  Tony was in Rhode Island to hang out with his friend Bill and planned to meet us in Detroit a few days later.

But the first person we saw at the USSF was actually our friend 

Luke "Aidger," who Maiya got to see perform for the first time.

The first thing Emily & I did was to take Maiya and Tula to the Children's Social Forum.  

Here they are waiting to see Joe Reilly perform.  I worked with Joe 8 years ago when he was part of the Long Hairz Collective, a spoken word group.  I think we have every one of their CDs as well as Joe's.

After seeing Joe perform at the Children's Social Forum, 

Maiya and Tula followed Joe to the childcare room

 for infants and toddlers and sang backup for him.

Here is Emily with Will Copeland (one badass spoken word poet) 

who was also part of the Long Hairz Collective (long hair in spirit these days), 

and who also was the Detroit coordinator of the USSF

Kibibi! One of my favorite people from Detroit Summer from 10 years ago.  

Grace spoke at one of the plenaries, a multi-generational panel.

Scott facilitated a conversation with Grace and Immanuel Wallerstein 

that was attended by 800-1000 people.  The response was phenomenal.

Roxy!  With Kibibi and her nephew at Grace's birthday party.

Ah, the beautiful Angela, who performed two of my favorite spoken word pieces about Detroit, 

one of them she says she hadn't performed in 10 years, but I remember it like it was yesterday. 

 BTW, Angela also a former member of the Long Hairz Collective, still has that long hair.

 Maiya and Tula with Grace at her birthday party.  The line to have a photo with Grace was crazy!

 When you want to raise some money, send the money bucket around 

with Boggs Center organizers, Tula and Maiya.  

Making Tula's Fruit Salad.  It was delicious.  

The secret is in the Trader Joe's rice pudding, and mixing it together with best friends.

Coming soon, parts 2 and 3 of our trip to Detroit.  NaBloPoMo#16

Ikeguchi Family Reunites! (#15)

We had a family reunion on my dad's cousin's side of the family in October.  So, everyone there was a relative of the Fujisaki sisters, my grandma Kumae Kuida and her sister, who married into the Ikeguchi side of the family.   Mrs. Ikeguchi had 4 daughters that I can think of, Eiko, Jean, Ginger and Mary, and 3 sons that I can think of Joe, Fred and George.  There may be more, but these are the ones that come to mind.  Actually, Fred might have been a cousin of the cousins.

Chris Aihara, a community friend and 2nd cousin who I see frequently in Little Tokyo, is Mary's daughter.  I remember my grandma was always grateful to Mary's family, who let our family stay at their house after the war.  I always remember Mary's stories about growing up with live chickens on the farm.

The reunion was organized mainly by Neil Ito, one of Ginger's sons.  I remember Ginger as a child for her saltiness and spunk.  She was a teacher in the mountains and she and her husband ran Ito Ski Rentals near Snow Valley for decades.  She scolded my parents for letting me read "Love Story" in the 4th grade.

Here is the Kuida side of the family, with the youngest children at the reunion.You can see we are but a small subset of the overall group, with my grandma only having 3 children, and my dad is the only one who had children.  Actually my grandma had another son in Japan, who died in the military when my dad was young.

 This is the Kuida family doing foam crafts and arty things.

These are the gamblers at the winner's table at the end of the poker game.  

See Joe at the far left.  As the patriarch, he was the winner who took all.

The food was amazing, as some of the Ito's work in the fishing industry I think.  With made-to-order sushi (from Sushi Chef Institute in Little Tokyo) and the most incredibly delicious fried fish, you couldn't go wrong.  Maiya was 5 months old at the last Ikeguchi reunion 5 years ago.  I look forward to the next one!

Photo credits to my brother Darin.
(NaBloPoMo#15 of 30)

Superstars' Debut! (#14)

Today was Maiya's first basketball game with the Venice Youth Council.  Their team started practicing a few months ago.  All of the girls are 5 years old, and they named themselves the Superstars and just got their uniforms yesterday.  They played pretty well, against a team of 9 boys from the San Fernando Valley. They don't keep score, but I think that our team made 2-3 baskets, and so did the boys from the Valley.  

First Superstars Team Photo

NaBloPoMo#14

Lunch on Maiya (#13)

I don't remember being this spunky when I was in Kindergarten.  I remember being shy and afraid of most things.  One day this summer Maiya told us she was going to make lunch and she got out bread, peanut butter and jelly from the fridge and made lunch for the family.  She even set the table with placemats.  Makes me proud.  Lunchtime!

NaBloPoMo#13