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I'm JA, born and raised
smack in the middle of southern Idaho. (Yes, the potato state as opposed
to Iowa). My family was one of half dozen other Japanese families in the
area so those families were the people we spent holidays with and tried
to do Japanese New Year. It was almost impossible to get Asian food here
in the '50's so my Auntie in California used to send stuff or we would
bring it back from vacation. Fresh tofu - forget it back in the day!
At any rate, I always longed to go to Hawaii! So when I was in my early
20's I moved with my haole best friend to Honolulu and we got jobs and
an apartment and lived there for about two years. We had the time of our
lives! The first thing I noticed was even though I'm Japanese, I'm not
very Japanesey! When I would meet locals, they immediately knew I wasn't
local and would ask where I was from. But I learned lots of new words
and made friends of all ethnic backgrounds, ate the best Asian food, saw
the most beautiful place on earth, got familiar with a whole new world
other than my little. sometimes "redneck", farm community.
Family is what brought me back to Idaho AND a very tall, white, blond
with blue eyes who was in the potato business whom I had met four months
before leaving for Hawaii. We stayed in touch and when I got back to
Twin Falls, he was still single. We've been together for 32 years,
married for 27 and have two boys - Japanese/Irish/English/German. Many
of the stories on this website pertain to us - they are so funny. He
often refers to himself as "haole", loves Japanese food - especially
sashimi. Bob won my Dad over by eating more sashimi than Dad. He claims
to be more Japanese than my brother because my brother doesn't like
sashimi. ~ Janet Matsuoka Keegan, Idaho
PS - my haole friend who went to Hawaii with me came back to Idaho and
ended up married to one of the other few Japanese guys I grew up with.
When we go out together everyone assumes he's with me and my husband is
with her. Crazy! |
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