23 hours to go

With 22 hours until takeoff, I'm positively bouncing in my chair at this point.  Productivity is at an all-time low - ssshhh, don't tell Dad! Oh wait, he just got back from Walmart, maybe he'll let me off the hook this time ;)

I'm actually nervous about going back to "the Motherland", as some people have called it.  As a Yonsei (4th Generation), my connection to Japan growing up was eating rice and doing odori, I really didn't associate myself with being Japanese in any way.  It wasn't until I got older that I started to appreciate my heritage.  I think the biggest turning point for me was probably when I started working for Dad at Dundee.  At the time I was in my last year of University, I had just started doing odori again after a 3 year hiatus, and we were living right around the corner from the JCCC.  Being in the Centre day in and day out, I have never felt more grounded and more connected to anything in my life.  Even though I spent half my childhood at the old Centre on Wynford Drive, I didn't associate that feeling of community and belonging with my Japanese heritage necessarily, it was just the place where my parents liked to hang out where I knew everybody's name and they knew mine. 

Looking back, I took so much of that for granted, and I would give anything to be able to go back to those days and just soak it all in.  Some of my fondest memories of the good ol' days have to do with just sitting and watching the hustle and bustle of all the volunteers preparing for a big event.  Grandpa Jim (Ura) hanging the lanterns for Caravan; Nana and Uncle Bill (Omura) making tempura in the kitchen, Nana with her polka dot kerchief on her head and Uncle Bill with his hachimaki around his forehead and his ponytail streaming down his back; Auntie Amy (Yano) and Grammy and Grampy making hundreds of teriyaki chicken wings in the East kitchen; Uncle Rick Tak, Glenn Kawaguchi, Mike Shin, Damon Hartlin, counting money in the alcove upstairs with the smell of stale coffee and cigarette smoke lingering in the air... Those are the kinds of memories that I attribute to our uniqueness as a community and to the Japanese Canadian way.  Our parents and grandparents built something really incredible here, and I will never forget that they built it for us.  For Japanese Canadians.  For the future of our community. 

So what does any of this have to do with me going back to Japan?  I guess you can say that I feel like I missed out on so much as a kid because I didn't fully appreciate my heritage, so going forward I want to make the most of my experiences.  This Japan trip is more than just a sightseeing adventure.  It is more than just a Graduation present to myself (Thanks Dad!).  It is a way of going back to my roots, to where my ancestors came from, to where it all began.  It is my way of making up for lost time. So why am I nervous, you ask?  This is why.  Because I am a part of something bigger.  I represent an entire generation of Japanese Canadians who didn't make that connection to their Japanese background, and who now find themselves in the same position as me.  And not all of them are as fortunate as I am to have the opportunity to take the trip of a lifetime, with my Dad by my side.  <3