Wednesday, June 18, 2008

PREVIOUS TRIPS


Past.
While in Minneapolis
I rescued
these photos
and other
memorabilia
from the time when
my mom worked
as a translator
for Suzuki.
(She started studying Japanese in high school.)





Postcard.
They sent her on trips to Japan and San Francisco. From Japan she visited a friend in Taiwan. This was before she met my dad, who moved from Taipei to Minneapolis around that time.



Painpost.
Upon her return she suffered her first psychotic break, but not knowing what it was, she somehow was able to hold herself together enough to go to college, where she met my dad, etc...




Post-marker.
30 years later, around the same age as she was then, I went to Japan. Pictures I took /Mom & twin wearing yukata.

Parasols.
If a picture is worth a thousand words then how many memories is it worth?




I went to Japan,
but I couldn't follow you into every temple.


2 comments:

pele said...

The illegible postcard (sorry, image compression) reads:
"I saw Hiroshima, Kyoto, Nara, Okayama, and Mmiyajima - and now I'm in Taiwan. People treated me very well. I got my suitcase back. Mr matsura gave me a camera but I dropped it in the river when I took a boat ride with Mr. Hirada. The camera doesn't work now so when I get back to the States I'll have it fixed. I forgot to phone Cathay Pacific to reconfirm my flight to Tawian so I had trouble, but Mr. Ohyama helped me, and I got to fly first class to Taiwan."
She wrote something in Japanese before signing off.

JMW said...

Aloha Pele!
I love the graceful, nostalgic postcard collage. I had no idea your own interests in Japan may have originated from your Mom's experiences. Looking forward to more poetic posts!