MALT SHOP MEMORIES, GRANT MASANDUU MURATA and more

15 Craigside, a senior's community, where I live, must have a dozen activities daily.  Mostly exercise classes, but also special events.  One recent one, Malt Shop Memories, was organized by Joy and Gary.

Also, 15 Craigside was royally entertained by Grant Murata.  You need to read his story to appreciate his life, written by Jodie Chiemi Ching.  He is Hawaii's Uta-Sanshin Master, Grant Masanduu Sadami Murata.

Adopted by a Japanese family in Hawaii, he later in life learned he was Okinawan.  Learned to play the sanshin, became a master sensei, and is founder of Afuso Ryu Choichi Kai USA in Hawaii and Los Angeles.

Who Am I? 

I COME FROM MORE THAN ONE MOTHER,

MORE THAN ONE CULTURE,

MORE THAN ONE ANCESTRAL LAND I CALL MY HOME.

WHAT’S IN YOUR BLOOD MATTERS LESS THAN WHAT’S IN YOUR HEART.

There is a Part 2, where Murata searches for his roots, written last year.

Grant Murata today, is 61 years old. For 30 of those years, he had no knowledge of being Okinawan. Yet, for ALL of those years, his ancestral DNA guided him on the path of a master uta-sanshin performing artist. What might have been perceived as quirky or weird has earned him reverence and respect, even among his uta-sanshin master peers in Okinawa. He is the first and only uta-sanshin master outside of Okinawa to judge the certification exams for the Afuso Ryu Gensei Kai held in Okinawa annually.

UYA NU MAGUKURU

NASHIGWA KUTU UMUTI USUMIJI YA NUDIN

UMURU MAMANARAN SHIKE NU NAREYA

UYA NUMAGUKURU WASHINNAYO WAGA NASHIGWA

FOR THE SAKE OF MY CHILDREN,

I WILL DRINK THE BRINY OCEAN 

TO KEEP THEM FROM LIFE’S BITTER SWELLS.

OH BELOVED CHILD, LOVE GIVEN TO YOUR PARENTS’ WILL COME FROM YOUR CHILDREN.

Want more of Murata-san?  Click on this You Tube special, a program that provides great Okinawan music by Grant Masanduu Murata.

Cold soba lunch.

Korean chicken and shoju.

My birthday featured a small cake with one candle and some Kurayoshi Malt Whisky, 25-year old.  Click on that to see the price.

Annual flu shot.  The pharmacy comes to us for this service.

My life, of course is not only at 15 Craigside.  I still golf, and here is a photo of egrets and plumerias at the West Loch Golf Course.

You see egrets wandering about as singles or doubles, but do you know where they sleep?  You can find them in large communal roosts in waterside trees to protect themselves from predators.  There are more than 25 of them above.  Similarly, plumeria is a fragrant flower that roosts in a tree.  Known as frangipani, and honors Catholic monk Charles Plumier, from where the horticultural name comes.

By the way, as I indicated yesterday, today:

• Canelo Alvarez vs Terence Crawford fight on Netflix:  Prelims start at 5:30 EDT, with the main card beginning at 9PM.
• If you live in Honolulu and subscribe to Spectrum, you will not find station CW at channel 93.  Go to Channel 13 at 10:30 AM Hawaii time to watch the South Florida at Miami football game.

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