I read about this fabulous “club” in the holiday issue of the “Pacific Citizen”. 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.
I’m usually the only Asian. or other minority for that matter at parties, etc. but I enjoy being somewhat mysterious (even tho I’m not) among my friends. We have a wonderful life here – and Twin Falls actually has TWO Japanese restaurants now, and TWO Thai food restaurants and lots of really bad Chinese food restaurants – so we stick to Thai, Japanese, Mexican, and good old steak and potatoes.
I could write so much about my experiences being Asian and living with haoles my whole life, but I will suffice to say how much I enjoyed this website, how much it made me miss Hawaii, how it made me laugh and how much I can really relate to what has been written. I have added it to my favorites and will keep reading. I bet you get tons of hits after the PC is read!
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!
Janet Matsuoka Keegan
i love to eat asian foods because they are tasty and spicy.*`.
i find asian foods to be a bit spicy compared to italian foods`’*
of the asian foods that i tastes, japanese foods and thai foods are the tastiest stuff “”