good morning. wow, i had a hard time sleeping because i was so excited from yesterday… i set off in the morning to meet my grandpa fukunaga’s older sister for the first time in my life. was i nervous? heck yeah. i made sure i brushed my teeth, shaved, and wore decent clothes. i felt like i was in high school getting ready for my first date. it was weird. gosh, i’ve been waiting for this day for a long time….
i catch 2 trains and get off at hakuraku station in yokohama. i was lost!! all i had was an address so i walked into an office near the station and asked for directions. the lady was really nice and printed out some maps for me. could i understand it? nope.. but after 20 minutes of walking in the hot humid weather sweating from head to toe, i finally found where i was looking for….
walking on the outskirts of the city is so interesting. i saw some pretty cool stuff on the way…
check out this bus stop. isn’t that cool? i wonder how old these chairs are…
imagine looking at something like this? i swear, the streets in japan are the hardest to navigate. i stopped by and asked 4 people on the way and nobody knew where i wanted to go. i showed them this map and they just shook their heads.
from 10:30 am to 2 pm was one of the highlights of my life. after talking to my grand aunt, i learned so much. i learned a lot more about my family, i learned a lot more about my roots, and i learned a lot more of what the 1st generation japanese went through when they immigrated to hawaii. my grand aunty is 93 years old and from all things we talked about yesterday, i could write a book. i’ll have more stories and photos coming tonight. as i was leaving the station heading back home, i had a millions of things going through my mind. but the coolest thing was my grand aunty has 7 children, 11 grand children, and 3 great grand children. these are all my cousins i didn’t even know i had. multiply that by my other 3 grandparents, thier kids, and grand kids, and great grand kids, i probably have a hundred cousins in japan. now that’s pretty cool. my journey has only begun… have a wonderful day!!!
