"One thing at a time"

Every first lady has taken on a "CAUSE" that is politically attractive, socially convincing, humanly desirable, and personally rewarding during the term of her husband's presidency. Whether the cause was to beautify the highway, promote fine arts, encourage literacy or attempt to curve the popped belly among the youth, they all mean to do "good" and to improve something or someone. But some of these causes touch my cynical side as I think of the bigger picture in a way my limited capacity attempts to see it. A cause that I consider ambitiously conscious of liberal national health care agenda h as been revealed recently called, "Let's Move". While paying attention to the recent "Let's move" campaign to fight against childhood obesity, I hoped to hear that first lady would be comprehensive in her effort enough to tactfully address the issue by focusing not only on fast food restaurants' menu, quality of school lunches or manufactu...

A friend of mine in Japan who pastors a church E mailed me with a request right before Christmas. It was an unusual request but he asked me to translate a message he wrote in preparation for a funeral. He explained to me that this lady, suffering from a spread of cancer has discussed her wish regarding her own funeral including her thoughts for her loved ones she is leaving behind. The fact that this lady is not that much older than my age caught my attention. Perhaps because I went through a year of the designated status as a cancer patient, I empathized with the thoughts in the message deeply while translating this message. I felt a sense of mission to be sure to express what is written by my friend in English into the most meaningful words and phrases. I gave my best effort for this honor, thinking of her loved ones seeking comfort and encouragement while grieving the loss. The lady, I will name her Ms.C, passed away on Monday this week. My friend who requested the translation as...

Kamikaze means God's wind. Young boys were trained to yell the last glorious words of Banzai to Emperor as they crashed to death hoping to inflict a meaningful damage to their enemy. My mother talked about the horrific terror of the desperate suicide mission on many occasions but my grandmother spoke of Kamikaze more frequently mourning her young brother. " There is no such thing as honored death, no honor or medal is worth my brothers' life." Her voice quivered with what I sensed a despise for such a fruitless mission. I can still hear the voice of my grandmother who fought her tears and reminisced how she saw her brother off to war. Her expression was far from that of patriotism, pride or honor. She deeply grieved the loss of her baby brother to a cause she thoughts futile. My mother recalls one evening when her cousin who had fought in Okinawa appeared at their door step like a ghost. He was presumed dead or missing in action since no one knew of his whereabout...

I have relatives that experienced the bombing in Hiroshima and lost the entire family or friends. One of my uncles was playing hide and seek with friends and he hid himself in some sort of a locker or a storage space with cleaning equipments. He somehow survived because of the structure he was hiding and he considered it a miracle. He could not find his home, or his neighborhood and people he saw on streets were often adhered to the remnant of building scorched, melted, or if they have not been charred, their skin was hanging like cloths on a line of their skeleton. He never saw his parents or his siblings again. He has passed away now and I have no way of verifying the detail of the story but he spoke of the smell of death. That was his way of instilling the motivation in us to keep peace on earth. My sense of smell was the first to be on its end at the news of the recent destruction in Haiti. When I traveled years ago with a group of medical professionals to Haiti, my sense of smel...

Do you have the perfect gift to pamper your special person? Nothing wrong with making an effort to show your loved ones in a tangible way how much your care about them. But I have been in a mood to avoid any support for the commercialized version of the "Valentine allure". No, I did not buy a card or any special gift, let alone a plan a dinner date. All I know is that as soon as Christmas was over, Hallmark, gift stores, and grocery stores all began restocking their shelves with Valentines items to get you in the spirit. Although I must simply understand that the current economy is the driving force behind it, I was still enjoying the after effect of the Christmas Holiday too much to think about Valentines. Yesterday morning I was in one of the local grocery store with my husband. I strategically examined every aisle for how the store attempts to allure my dollar for their Valentine scheme. There was something at almost every aisle for you to notice in either pink or red, v...

Only a completely blind child would ask a question like this, pulling his mother's hands as he tugs along her on a walk. I can not imagine the mother's heart when she finds out that your newborn child is born with an untreatable blindness. If only an angel had whispered and told her what gift the child had been given, the crushing blow of the devastating news may not have darkened the mother's world. According to Itsuko Tujii, an incredible mother of Nobuyuki Tsujii who won the gold at the 2009 Van Cliburn Piano competition, she lived in deep depression for months after the specialist broke the news to her. Her son never opened his eye for days and days after birth, when he did, incompletely formed eyes sat with dullness that gave the mother deepest sadness. The day I learned of Tsujii, the blind pianist was during the preliminary competition. Tsujii was led in by his own beautiful mother to the stage before his performance. I watched his mother's hands carefully pla...

New England Journal of Medicine published a report suggesting that certain mutated genes are associated with some of the stuttering individuals. The study was conducted on an extended Pakistani family (consanguineous) who had high rate of stutterers among them. Here is the link to the short version. scientists http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/56232/title/Mutations_may_underlie_some_stuttering OR for the full version http://content.nejm.org/cgi/reprint/NEJMoa0902630v1.pdf available on line. I have heard things like issues with parents, over bearing mother, emotional problem being the potential cause of stuttering. Some stutterers stutter with short consonants, some stutter with repetitive short phrases. Some stutter definitely more when angry, nervous, upset, some stutter ALL THE TIME. Some others overcome stuttering as they grow old, the others do not and battle that all their lives into the entire adulthood. Except for the fact that familial tendency was recognized in many ...

Have you ever purchased a ticket for a world famous musician's performance willing to drive 4-5 hours ? That is what I just did. James Galway is the most famous flutist in the world right now (since the death of Pierre Rampal in 2000). I heard Galway twice in the past and I find his personality fun and his performance absolutely unforgettable. When Galway's fingers move effortlessly, his amazing breathing capacity allows the turbulence of air to create the purest tonal quality to immerse your entire being. I am willing to drive long for something like that. Actually I drove 7 hours with a few friends two years ago to hear him. Galway and Rampal both bring me back memories of my home city, Nagoya where I spend years learning to play flute. They were in my city at least every other year to perform. But, I could not always afford the ticket. My brother and I treated ourselves to Rampal's concert one year. Galway was young, with dark hair when he came to Nagoya. I never ma...

You know you are old when you can't see the thing in front of you and bang your shin against it. I accidentally hit dishwasher door that was left open (by me, not my husband) so hard last night or actually wee hour of the morning today. The moment I hit it, the whole lower leg felt numb then the spot I hit throbbed with this pulsation,,, likely indication, I hit a blood vessel. Within a second there was a huge pool of hematoma appeared. Just means the blood was not pouring out, was collecting under the skin. So, I quickly bandaged it to suppress the spread and went to bed. This always amazes me, the power of bandage!!! I have no bruising and hematoma is gone. It all reminded me of the days I used to work in the Emergency Room at a large hospital in SC where level 1 trauma center of the area was located . I was a brand new nurse then, yeh it was years ago. I loved the emergency environment where you have no clue when something or someone is coming. Most gruesome things do not bothe...

Photo of Sushi Plate off Kid's Menu at a Restaurant in Kanagawa, Japan "Am I qualified" Qualified for what? Would I be a qualified critique for a restaurant that SEEMs to indicate that they would like to be known to serve the best Sushi and best Thai cuisine in town? Too much expectation is exactly what I have learned not to have when I walk into any restaurants any more; simply because I struggle to bounce back from dissatisfying experiences. So, I doubt that my expectation was overly high, but you can be the judge. This restaurant, "R" is actually not the first restaurant that serves sushi in this town. My son tried "the dragon roll" at another "hot" establishment in the downtown business district but I never had the courage to try their Sushi. SO, this time, after hearing about this new place, I went ready to be pampered by good service and to enjoy some authentic and non authentic rolls. The inside interior was eclectic, modern, soph...

My son stood on the stage dressed in his suite with a shy smile with those gifted students who gave all they had to create music. Music is such a special gift that goes beyond the moment of winning or losing. Seeing the bright set of eyes beaming with pride when the first place trophy is handed to your child is a moment to cherish for any parent. However, if that moment is the ultimate joy in creating music, you have missed it all. It is a remarkable feeling to win and to feel rewarded for your daily hours of practice, but typical hard work is more associated with an　invisible and intangible reward. Some rewards are simply found inside your own heart or mind that no one else can see or touch. But the reward is bigger, because it lasts beyond the moment of receiving a trophy. I happen to be one of those kids who worked quite hard but never won or excelled in most things I tried including art, music, academics, or sports. I was never on top of the class no matter how hard I tried. I ...