I yesterday began this series with a posting on my family.  For completeness, I'll be going back in time through some of my roots searches in Japan.  The featured individual is Kenjiro Takahashi, my father's father.   For those new to this blog site, start with Part 1 , with a key posting being on 31March2009, providing the background. So anyway, as I said, Kenjiro is from Utashinai, Hokkaido, a place I have now visited twice. So coal was found in Utashinai when the town had 500 people. Kenjiro was sent to the U.S., but there is no info on where or when. He first came to Kauai in 1900 and had an important role in the building of that first hydro plant at Wainiha on Kauai. In the 1920s, Utashinai's population had grown to 30,000. Coal became depleted, and population today around 5000.  Famous to now be the smallest city in Japan. The town has become a boutique village with a winery and ski resorts. To quote : The most exciting part about the potential search is ...

For nostalgia Tuesday this week, I go way back in time to when I was not yet born.   About that graphic to the right : .. .the process of searching for my roots started at a one day workshop held at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii. This is where I created the family mon as a composite of two classic versions.     I colorized this official form into the rainbow version shown to the right,   which then became the cover for   SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Planet Earth . The mon represents a high bridge ( Takahashi means high bridge in Japanese ) to connect countries and people taking the high road to cooperation . My roots are in Japan.  My father's father, Kenjiro Takahashi, must have had an incredible life during the 33 years he lived. Way back in 2009 I posted on  THE SEARCH FOR KENJIRO'S GRANDMOTHERS .   The reason I reached back to "grandmothers" is that one rumor growing up was that one of my father's father's grandmother was a female s...

On this Sunday, in my 17th year of this blog, I thought, my life is now not as exciting as in the past.  While I did last month return from a nearly two-month long trip that took us from Honolulu to Seattle ( by air ); then a very long cruise through the Panama Canal to Southhampton, UK; another flight to Amsterdam, Netherlands; a European Christmas Cruise to Budapest; flight to Zurich for a couple of days; then a 27 hour return by plane to Honolulu; certainly more than virtually every one of you reading this has accomplished the past year, relatively, my earlier experiences were more memorable. So I thought, over the next few months, I would select a few of my past postings to re-share with you, utilizing mostly my nostalgia day, Tuesday, for this purpose.  But I'll begin today with a grand summary. My first blog was published on 29April2008.  How long ago is that? Go back to your first day of kindergarten. Imagine how long it took to get you to become a senior in colleg...

All my ancestors are from Japan. Read about my father's father,  Kenjiro , who I was named after:  I did not learn much about him until I started my roots search after I retired.   That colored symbol says a lot, and  is explained in a 2019 posting about my visit to Utashinai , located north of Sapporo on Hokkaido, from where he left in around 1890 to the USA.  On his way back to Japan, he got married on Kauai, had a son and daughter.  This is why I grew up in Hawaii. About Utashinai, JR does not today have a station there anymore because this once coal town has dwindled into a skiing and wine spot.  Once up to 46,000, it is now down to 3000.  It was Japan's smallest city when I visited four years ago when the population was 3500. It is possible that I've landed in Japan more times than any non-airline employee in Hawaii.  At least a hundred times, and maybe 150, or more.  One reason why is that I've gone around the world so many ti...