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LG: Were you or your family involved in any, did they practice any Japanese cultural traditions growing up, whether it be cooking, holidays, anything like that?

AN: Well, because my mother and father having grown up in Japan, they were inclined to have Japanese New Year's celebration. In many Asian cultures, New Year's is a big deal, largely expressed through food. So yeah, we had all kinds of Japanese cuisine, especially for New Year's. So we were taught, you want to eat these beans because they mean this and this, and eat this chard because of this and this and so on, and I've forgotten all the connections from a health standpoint, but they were largely conveyed that way. For health reasons it was good for you, but some of them, the names of the food items related to New Year's in certain ways, and so we were taught that. I can't remember all of them, but there was that. Unfortunately, I was not able to remember all of this. My wife, who grew up in Hawaii and who is also Japanese American, went through, except that the food items were different in Hawaii, but the ideas were very similar. And so she tried to foster that while we were having kids and so on, but I think we have lapsed, I guess is the right word for it, and our kids, who are fourth generation, my daughter has had some interest in it, but my son totally off, beyond him, he doesn't pay any attention, he didn't pay any attention.

The other thing, of course, is that the impact was that my daughter and son both married non-Japanese, so that had an impact on their outlook, I guess is the right word for it, in terms of family practices and traditions and so on, customs, et cetera. My daughter has some interest in it from a historical standpoint. And so she tries to follow certain things and track it. My son could care less, so he's totally gone, another generation.

LG: Did your family go, were a religious [inaudible]?

AN: Well, my father was not regular church attendee, my mother was a Buddhist. And so I grew up under her influence as a Buddhist. And I was a Buddhist until I finished my PhD. In Oregon, the nearest Buddhist temple to Corvallis, Oregon, was seventy miles away in Portland, and that was a bit of a stretch to do on a Sunday morning or any time. So I was basically unchurched for a number of years while I was a graduate student. And then I became a Unitarian by chance due to a fellow graduate student, when I finished my PhD, who was going to a Unitarian fellowship in Corvallis, Oregon, and he just kind of said, "Why don't you come with me and see what it's like?" I'd never been to a Unitarian church before. And so I just kind of, okay, went along, and found that there were a lot of things that I could agree with and so on, and from a theological standpoint, or more philosophical standpoint, I didn't have to reject anything that was Buddhist on attending a Unitarian church. And then comes 2020, and I run across, I'd been to, here in Devon, PA, was a Unitarian church that I belong to, and I've been going there since 1986. And the last minister, couple ministers that we've had, oddly enough, have incorporated stories and so on, literature from Buddhism into their sermons on Sundays. Who would have expected that, I don't know, but it's happened a number of times, and some of them, of course, will meld some ideas and principles into a more secular language, but I know that it's coming from Buddhism, the idea, anyway. And in talking with the ministers, they just kind of shrugged their shoulders and said, "Yeah, so?" It just happens. Got a certain, they do a lot of reading and they run across this, that idea or that idea, and where it works, then they accept certain phrases and so on, and incorporated it into the sermon. So that was totally unexpected, but it's happened.

LG: So would you still consider yourself a Buddhist?

AN: Essentially I have to refer to myself as a nonpracticing Buddhist. If I go to a temple, close my eyes and walk in, like when my mother used to go, I know exactly where I am. From the sound, the ringing of the bells at certain points in the service and all that kind of stuff. I can close my eyes and I can tell, I know exactly where I am.

LG: I'm curious, did your parents or the family, growing up, did you make any trips to Japan?

AN: No, we did not. One, it was pretty expensive, so my father, to put it milder, was a, watched the dollar signs and his savings account and so on. And I don't recall any conversations about going or not going, but in fact, we didn't go, not as a family. Later on, my brother, Tom, who got some kind of a virus called Traveling Virus, he does a lot of traveling. Europe, Asia, et cetera. In fact, he just came back from a river cruise in Germany about a week ago, and he lives in California. And then he's now, oh yeah, as of yesterday, he's in Japan on a temple tour. So he's an avid practicing Buddhist, and there's a church group that he's part of in San Luis Obispo, California. And they are right now on a temple tour visiting eight or nine different temples in Japan. So he does a lot of traveling, more than the rest of us put together. I don't know where he got that bug, but he's into it. Other than that -- because he didn't get it from his parents. So I was kind of in between. I've taken a few interesting trips like to Egypt to visit old ruins, I've been to the pyramids and so on and so on. I've been to France once or twice because of my wife trying to practice French and so on. But I haven't gotten the bug like my brother Tom, he really traveled a lot. And he's also driven across the U.S. a number of times. And I've never driven across the U.S., because I don't want to go three thousand miles by car, and he doesn't blink an eye. He's been to Grand Canyon and Utah and Texas and all this, all by car from California. So we're very different.

LG: So did you ever visit Japan?

AN: I've only been in Japan, believe it or not, four days or five days of my life on a business trip. The company I was working for in Jersey, where I was for about fifteen years, had a drug project with Ikeda Industries, which is a huge drug company in Osaka. And so we had a team meeting, this is back in the '80s, early '80s. Anyway, that was the one and only time I've been in Japan, unfortunately. I wanted to go a few times, but things just didn't come about. So I'm looking at the clock now and thinking, I'm wondering if the clock has already passed me. Because as you get older, traveling can become a challenge.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2023 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.