The setting:

Spring 1988, Kita-Narashino, Japan.

I stood, not alone, in the cool and quiet of the night under a cherry tree in full blossom. Rick was with me. We were both ESL teachers at Margaret’s School and every Friday evening, the staff went out to the marui sushi or the “go-round sushi bar”, where sushi floated by on plates in a water filled moat, which encircled the sushi chefs. At the go-round sushi bar, we grabbed plates floating by, ate our sushi of choice. At the go-round sushi bar, we laughed. We let loose. We interacted with the local diners. We drank beer.  Even me. I, a person who dislikes the taste of beer, drank beer on those carefree Friday nights out.

Back to the cool of the night, a train goes by. Perhaps this is the last passenger train of the evening, bringing home tired salary men, office workers, and various employees, who have worked all day in nearby Tokyo. The train also carries exhausted college students, all returning home for the evening. Only to repeat the cycle again tomorrow. Wake up early. Take the train into the city. Work. Take the train back home. Tadaima! (ただいま).  I’m home. Okaerinasai! (お帰りなさい). Welcome back! A steaming bowl of rice welcomes the tired person home. A bowl of miso soup. An array of sushi.

And back to the cool of that spring night. I stood, my head reeling a bit from the beer. I looked up and saw glimpses of the night stars through the thick pink blossoms of a cherry tree. Up until this evening, my early adult life had been strongly marked by a series of wrong choices made, and a longing for goodness in my life.

I was spinning with these thoughts and the consumed beer, when I looked down at the now empty street. Where was he? Where did Rick go? Then I saw that he was scrambling up to the very top of the cherry tree to snap off a branch of blossoms for me! I giggled as I watched him come back down the tree. He handed me the impromptu bouquet of cherry blossoms and proclaimed his love for me.

That was 34 years ago. Not long after that, we moved in together and started this life journey together.  We have two anniversary dates! April 21st this year marks our 34th year of togetherness and we got married five years later in August. We always celebrate April 21st as our main anniversary date. It’s our tradition.

Above: probably one of our first photos together. Taken in a ramen shop, the original photo had a guy slurping his noodles right behind us.  You could almost hear the slurp until I cropped him out of the scene!

Below: We went to Okinawa where we snorkeled every day. Beautiful coral reefs and colorful fish! This photo was taken in a Jazz Coffee Shop. We were enjoying iced coffee. It was a super cool spot. The owner owned every jazz record in existence, an unbelievable collection of albums (remember this was 34 years ago!) and a video collection of concerts.

Above: We don’t remember who took this photo of us and we think Rick really is a sleep. I find this photo sweet, hysterical, and mysterious!

Below: We are on one of the nine Toyko islands. This island is called Miyakejima. The nine Tokyo islands are listed by distance from the shore (their names denote their numerical number): Oshima, Toshima, Niijima, Shikinejima, Kozushima, Miyakejima, Mikurajima, Hachijojima and Aogashima. We took a ferry to Miyakejima. The ferry ride was super rough and we got tossed around a lot. I don’t know how I didn’t get nauseous. Miyakejima is a volcanic island with lots of wonderful hiking. It was humid and my hair, true to character, got very big. We saw couples hiking with their babies in traditional woven baskets attached to their backs. Pretty amazing place!

Above: Ueno park. Hot. Humid. Summer time in Tokyo.

Too bad about the red-eye. I couldn’t fix this in edit. Christmas in Tokyo.

Above: Our wedding day in Tacoma, Washington.

Above: A fun photo taken in Tumble Creek (Cle Elum, Washington)

Below: Recent photo of us. Time. Time. Time.