Cleaning out the Kiyohara family home, I discovered my father’s Boy Scout uniform shirt carefully packed away in a dusty trunk, in the very back of the garage. Normally, I’d smile as I always do when given the chance to reconnect with Dad but this time was different. Having sworn the Boy Scout oath to…

Cleaning up grandpa and grandma Kiyohara’s house of 100 years, I discovered our uncle had kept the Radio Flyer Red Wagon that dates back at least 60 years. All of the cousins played with The Red Wagon, imagining dashing adventures and daring acts of courage, and our now 88 year old uncle clearly could not…

Melody:    I’m ready, Grandpa! Grandpa: Hey, you have your boots on backwards! Melody:   No, you need your glasses, Grandpa! Grandpa: Oh, okay! Melody:   Let’s go! And so Grandpa and Melody embarked upon a grand adventure into the Pure Land Forest, with Melody’s left shoe on her right foot, and her right shoe…

As our son Akira Kendall marks his 28th birthday, I realize: (1) our son is a man, a loving husband, a great father. Our time as parents is complete. (2) our granddaughter is no longer a baby who needs me to change her diapers. How fast babies grow up! (3) Life is indeed impermanent but…

Dear Mimy, Before we were married 30 years ago, had a son 28 years ago, and were blessed with a lovely daughter-in-law five years ago and a precious granddaughter three years ago, there was just the two of us and the love we shared. You have given me everything I ever wanted, helped me achieve my…

Me:           Hey, Melody, what are you doing with grandpa’s iPad? Melody:  I changed password! Me:           Oh. Okay.

My mom, Ruby Kiyohara, kept a file of my Dharma School projects … and yesterday granddaughter Melody made her first Dharma School project, an origami Daruma. Some day, years from now, Melody will find this stuff in a box on a dusty shelf somewhere, and wonder just what the heck Grandpa was thinking. And then she’ll…

Mimy and I had our first date in 1981 at Layla in the Jiyugaoka area of Tokyo. For our first date, we both brought dictionaries: Japanese-English for me, English-Japanese for Mimy. Despite the language barrier, we fell in love and so I studied harder, we kept dating, and my Japanese became fluent, which became the basis…