Genevieve: My dad was born in Yamagata, a Northern prefecture of Japan. Although he moved to Tokyo when he was in high school, 2 of his elder brothers remained in Yamagata. The rest of his siblings also made their way to Tokyo where they all still currently reside. His oldest brother who lived in the family home where my dad was born, passed away in October. His other brother Noboru, is the superintendent of public schools in Yamagata. He came to Walter’s and my wedding in 2003 where some of you may have met him and his wife, Seiko.

It takes about 2 1/2 hrs by shinkansen (see pic Kenji on shinkansen with Obachans) to get to Yamagata from Tokyo. In November, we went there over Thanksgiving with my mom (see pic Rascal and mom) who was visiting at the time. Noboru was our host and brought us all around Yamagata, despite the unexpected wintry weather. Among the highlights was a stay in an onsen ryokan (Japanese hotspring inn). It was amazingly beautiful and relaxing, and the food was incredible. We took a ton of photos, but I’ll post them separately since there are so many!

Near my dad’s homeplace in Minazawa, our cousin, Gen, has a big fruit farm stretching into the surrounding mountains. He grows everything from grapes (that they handpack in tissue paper while they’re still on the vine) to la france pears to cherries.  We were lucky enough to hit grape and la france season as they harvest the fruit late. We sat outside and ate fruit and drank hot tea before heading into the orchards for a small tour of the farm. See pic eating grapes.

While we were there, my uncle also hosted a party with all of my cousins and their children. It was so great to see them, and Kenji was in complete heaven. He’s really enjoyed meeting his Japanese family, as have we again. It’s really nice to have such a large extended family here, it’s definitely made our visit more complete and will make our return to the states bittersweet. Kenji doesn’t seem to understand that his cousins will be staying here in Japan (see pic Cousins in Yamagata).  

See video of Kenji and cousins below:

 done

Pics of Kenji and young cousins

 

Kenji discovered that treats and adoration come easy when you’re 2 and visiting from America.

The visit was marked by some sadness though. Both my Uncle Atsushi (as I mentioned before) and his son Yoshimasa, passed away last year (see pic of Alter for my Uncle Atsushi and cousin Yoshimasa). It felt strange being in their home without them there. The house seems even larger with just my aunt Michiko (see pic of Kenji and Michiko) and cousin, Kyoko, there.