Christmas 1999, New Year 2000
Dearest Friends and Family,
It’s our last newsletter of the millenium.. (Isn’t it amazing; time seems to go by so much faster as I grow older.) Back by popular demand, I (Mina) am to write the letter. I hope your year has been blessed. Ours certainly has been.
Ema is in 5th grade at Walnut Acres Elementary school. She had her first experience away from home without family members for a whole week at Walker Creek in Marin (north of San Francisco) this October. The trip was in the form of a summer camp, but was with her school class. She takes violin and piano with wonderful teachers. She plays violin in the Young Performer’s String Orchestra and also in her school orchestra. She continues to attend Japanese school and is now in the 4th grade. She loves to draw in her spare time.
Noah is in 8th grade at Foothill Middle school. He has been busy with violin, by taking lessons, playing in his school orchestra and playing in the Young Performer’s String Orchestra. He and his teacher did a lovely duet for our church. He enjoys after-school sports and played soccer and touch football on his school teams. He attends Japanese school and is now in his second year of junior high. To the relief of all, he quit his paper route in August. It was a good experience of close to eight months. The big change in Noah is that he communicates with people now! (To everyone but his family that is.) He spends hours on the phone and seems to love talking. (I don’t get to use the phone very often anymore!)
I am in 12th grade at Northgate High school. I am enjoying my senior year though it is a bit stressful. I am amazed by all mathematicians and scientists, Calculus is impossibly difficult and I don’t see how they could major in any field that requires an in-depth study of such subjects. College applications were not as difficult as I imagined, but scholarship applications still loom ahead. I have continued voice lessons and have changed teachers. Taking BART into Berkeley every Tuesday for my lesson is time consuming, but it is definitely worth the trouble to be taught by this teacher. I mainly study classical singing at the moment. I still enjoy singing in the Network choir at First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley. I went through the church conformation process in February. I will be graduating from Japanese school in March (finally,...11 years seems long enough) and from American school in June.
Mama is doing well. She has been very busy. She attends Biblical counseling classes and also attends Bible Study Fellowship. She joined a prayer group for mothers that have children attending our school district. She still attends her flower arrangement classes. In my opinion, she is getting very good at “talking to flowers.” She works every Saturday teaching at Japanese school and she has helped at Ema’s church choir every Sunday. Otherwise, she spends much of her time driving us around (since I don’t have my license). In November, she celebrated her 50th birthday with a surprise party.
Papa continues to work at Kaiser-Permanente clinic in Antioch as a pediatrician. He enjoys his job, but sometimes I worry for him since he does not nearly get adequate sleep. He is involved in a Wednesday morning prayer group. In August, he celebrated his 50th birthday with a party.
One big event was having Elena, an 18 year-old Italian exchange student, live at our house from February to June. She attended Northgate High with me as a junior. While she was here, we went to San Francisco for the museums and zoo, Sacramento for Old Town and the capital and Monterey for the aquarium. In late June, we enjoyed meeting both her parents when they came to visit San Francisco. It was a good experience for our family and I got another sister for awhile.
This summer, Ema and I left for Tokyo a few weeks earlier than Ikuko and Noah. I stayed there from the end of June until late August. I had lots of fun with my friends. Ema was able to attend the nearby public elementary school and made some friends there. Noah and I had the unique opportunity of intense volunteering at a developmentally delayed teen workshop for a week. It was an especially important experience for Noah. (He also turned out to be very good at working with the teens that attended that workshop, surprising me and probably himself as well.) Noah and I also got a chance to take a trip to Oshima, an island off of Tokyo, with a Japanese church group. It was a beautiful place.
This year was also a blessing because we got to spend a lot of time with our grandparents. Papa’s parents came for my confirmation, his 50th birthday, and also for Thanksgiving. We spent time with Mama’s parents for two months in the summer and they are visiting us to celebrate Christmas and the new millennium together, as well as my grandfather’s 86th birthday on January 1st.
Momo (dog) and Malon (turtle) are happy creatures.
Please take care and have happy holidays and a wonderful new year. May the Lord bless you and your loved ones this Christmas and New Year. We look forward to hearing from you.
Lots of love,
Mina for Rick, Ikuko, Noah, Ema