Last week, we had a wonderful reunion with the Yamamotos!  When Rick and I lived in Japan (1988-1991), weekly Rick played violin duets (and did lesson exchanges) with Mrs. Yamamoto.  She is a talented violinist and outstanding violin teacher.  She generously drew both Rick and me into her unique musical family and home.

Mr. Yamamoto was a trombonist and business manager for a major Japanese symphony orchestra.  Their eldest daughter, Maki, was and still is an accomplished pianist, the middle daughter, Nao, a violinist, and the youngest son, the then painfully shy Koichiro, a trombonist like his dad.  Whenever we came over, Koihiro avoided us as best he could, much to the embarrassment of his parents who so wanted him to interact with us.  His parents were so worried back then because Koichiro didn’t like high school, and was threatening to drop out!  Koichiro’s true passion was NOT high school, but, rather, playing trombone.

Over the years, we lost touch with them until last year when Maki found Rick through Seattle Central Community College using an internet search.  We discovered through Maki, that she, Nao, and Koichiro had gone to Budapest  to live, study, and play professionally.  Koichiro now lives in Seattle with his wife Ryoko and their son, Yuta.  (When Yuta tells you his name with his American accent, it sounds just like the state of Utah!) Koichiro is a trombonist for the Seattle Symphony.

Maki connected with us last year because she was coming to Seattle.  We reunited and went to a concert together where we heard Koichiro play a beautiful solo piece.  Maki left Budapest to return to Japan to help take care of her dad who had suffered a stroke.

This week, Nao, came to Seattle so we had yet another reunion.  She continues to live in Budapest and loves it.  We had not seen her in 19 years so it was wonderful to see her again.  On Tuesday, Koichiro, now a very charismatic, self-assured, fine humored, accomplished man with excellent idiomatic English, his son, Yuta, at the fun age of 7, Ryoko, Nao, my father-in-law Bob, Rick and me all met at Tutta Bella Pizzeria and had a lively evening.

Adorable Yuta with pizza dough on his nose:

The gap between our last visit and the present filled in instantly.  Koichiro gave us tickets to see him play with the Seattle Symphony Pictures at an Exhibition.  We went to Benaroya Hall on Thursday, sat with Nao, and the performance was incredible!  We got to see Koichiro play the trombone and also the euphonium!  At some point in the evening, a Russian pianist, Alexander Toradze, did his magic on the stage.  Nao whispered in my ear that she knows him (!!) and that he is really a wonderful person.

Koichiro with his son Yuta (now, where was that flash?):

Nao and Fran:

How do 20 years go by like that?  So many memories of Japan flooded my brain as we spoke and reminisced.  Japan  was a precious place and time for me.  There I met the love of my life and had a meaningful and well-paid job.  Three years and three months of my life in a country and culture that taught me to appreciate the subtle extraordinary beauty in the seemingly ordinary.  In my memory of Japan, I see snow covered Fuji in the distance.  I also see plum and cherry blossoms that herald spring, a flowering campanula poking its face from a crack in the concrete jungle, a steaming cup of green tea held in an old chipped tea cup warming my hands, an o-furo containing me chin deep in hot water, soaking away the chill and damp of winter, I taste such perfect rice as to feel each tender grain against my teeth, and I hear welcoming voices calling out “IRASSHAIMASE” when entering a flower shop, a sushi shop, an izakaya.

One day, I would like to go back to Japan, the place that taught me how to open my eyes, to see and appreciate beauty, a culture sensitive to the importance of ritual and to the cycles of life and nature on a day-to-day, moment to moment basis.