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Yesterday my grandmother passed away. She was in a hospital for a while. It was surprise to me, but for my family, it was sort of expected.
After talking to my family, and thinking long and hard about it, I decided that I am not going back to Japan for the funeral. I would love to be there but can’t. Distance between Boston to Narita is 10773km or 6691 miles. This is the first time it really feels that far.
Here are random things that I remember about her in my memory. It doesn’t make sense to any of the people reading this but I feel that if I don’t type it out now I won’t remember it. She was the biggest giver I know. She just gave and gave and gave. Never wanted anything back in return. We would walk by the Oto Gawa river after she picked me and my brother up from kindergarten. There was a long stone steps to get to the swings by the river where she’d play with us. There was a Ton-ya san (whole seller) of toys and candies near her house in Fukuju. She knew the owner. It was cool. When we visited my grandfather at his office in Kose, she would always take us to the bakery, Bizenya, next door and bought us whatever we wanted. I loved the chocolate-filled croissant. My grandfather’s office was cool, it was on the top floor of Sound-Inn Taishudo building with nice view. She spoiled us, gave me and my brother money and told us not to tell my mom (because she didn’t wanted us to be a spoiled brat… well, I was, my brother might be a bit better). Her house had a nice large room above the garage where my grandfather would do oil-painting. That was cool to hung out there. And also had a room in second floor that it was pretty much my room. I had TV and Nintendo in there. I’d stay up all night playing Nintendo, I loved staying there. There was a awesome fried dinner and meat shop (Oniku ya san) near her house in Fukuju, they sold things like freshly made Tempura, Ebi- Furai, Katsu and Korokke (or Croquettes). She’s take us to kids art class (I don’t remember how old we were…) that we were taking, she knew I loved Ton-Katsu, she’d almost automatically stop there after. The class was right near Abura-kake Jizo temple. When my grandfather died (17 year ago?), she became very religious. My mom, grandma, my brother and I would go visit grandfather at the grave often. We’d read (chant?) Han-Nya-Shin-Gyo. I’d stop at her house after highschool on my bicycle to say hi and hung out. She bought me that green bicycle (I am pretty sure). Her house always smelled like the incense from the nice, large, black and glod, Buddhist Butsu-Dan she had. With all that went on, fights in the family, the bankruptcy, everything, she was still giving things to us. And she apologized for not having enough to give. I was too young and naive, but that must have been so hard for her. She prayed everyday in front of the Butsu-Dan. She’d talked to her husband in heaven. She really loved him, and missed him. Now they are finally united in heaven. I am glad for them. I love you grandma, I am sorry that I can not be there at your funeral.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 30th, 2004 at 04/30/2004 @ 12:20 pm and is filed under Life is Good. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.