Here in North America, today is Mother's Day. I kind of like the idea of celebrating parenthood. It's weird, though, because I spent the 1st 8 years of my life in Japan, and don't remember having specific days where we honored our parents of either or both genders. In Japan, they celebrate Girls' Day on March 3 of every year, and I remember the doll set that would be carefully taken out, in honor of the ancient old customs of the Japanese royalty coming out and placed just right in a prominent spot in the house, to show off to everyone who comes in, to brag that you are proud parents of daughters. I guess because all children are expected to respect and obey their elders, to the point that even teachers are revered as secondary parents to all in school. I do vaguely remember celebrating Grandparent's day, but, because I had no living grandparents there, I never got to celebrate. But my sister & I always looked forward to putting this up, just because it was fun, and it was carried over into our teens even after coming here.
Even though people like to think that Eastern and Western cultures are very different, there ARE similarities. While specific foods might be different, what carries over is the love of barbecued foods, except those of us who live(d) in Tokyo could never have anything awesome such as a Barbecue Pit (Ch 13)! Reading is also something that is common, and of course, the most popular types of things were documentaries, biographies, crime fiction, and of course, who can forget Sci-Fi? I bring this up, because my friend, Soldwolf, the Navy veteran who is writing a story called Meeting the Parents, which is a military Sci-Fi novel with a few other genres put in, and has aspects of work ethic, family values, romance, and humor... He also spent at least a little bit of time in Japan, and actually trusts my cooking skills in making ethnic, homestyle Japanese food and enjoys it. I just hope it doesn't get back to the Naval SSQH (Ch 14) because the only thing I might be able to keep up with the sailors is my swearing capacity, possibly... But, I do enjoy feeding people, especially family and friends.
Even though my mother is totally a born & raised American, from right here in Racine, WI (she never left the area until she married my father), and my original language was English, (I actually had to go out to the playground as a tot to learn Japanese from the other children), I basically was raised mostly Japanese while there, so when my mother came here with my sister and I, there was a time where I had to go through Familiarization (Ch 17) to get acclimated to life in these United States. It wasn't always peaches and cream, that's for sure, and some fresh strawberries have always been my favorite. Of course, when I had my own family, I have a son, but we've always been here, so I was never able to celebrate Boys' Day, which happens ever May 5th, by being able to fly windsocks like this off my front porch to brag that I am a boy mom! I'm not sure, but I think I would have 2, a bigger black one to represent my 1st son who I lost in childbirth, and then a red or orange one that is slightly smaller to celebrate my now 19-year-old.
Of course, we shouldn't always be afraid of Cultural Differences (Ch 16) because I think it's fun celebrating many of those unique things. Think about how fun it is to go to events such as Italian Fest or Greek Fest. I think we should bring back Afro Fest, and then add Asian Fest or something!
Anyway, please click the highlighted chapter titles incorporated into my blog. The more reads he gets, the better chance Soldwolf actually gets to being sold as an author. Thank you!
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