Laura Honda-Hasegawa

“Ohayo Bom Dia! What a wonderful morning it is. This is Laura Honda, bringing you today’s program, full of spirit. Please enjoy.”

For seven years, this is how my day started. Rain or shine, I commuted to the radio station and truly enjoyed my time there.

It had been a life-long dream of mine to work as a radio host.

Back in the 50s, there was a question that adults often asked us kids: “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

Pretty much all of the girls answered “a school teacher,” but my answer was “a ...

As I was leaving the Anna Rosa subway station one day, I overheard a conversation between some students behind me. “She’s too good. It’s because she has ‘Asian neurons’.”

What did they mean by “Asian neurons”? It was the first time I had heard of such a term. Since there were some high schools and prep schools nearby, I thought maybe these boys had failed an exam while they believed “she” was able to pass because she was Asian.

It has long been popular to describe Nikkei students as studious, honor-roll students. Students of Korean and Chinese descent ...

Part 1 >>

Here’s another story from the past…In 1959, I visited my mother’s family home for the first time. It was a farm outside of Londrina in the state of Parana. I experienced many things for the first time there.

One was having to take off my shoes when entering the house. We had to do that at my house too, but we had a geta-bako [a place for storing shoes]. (Of course, I’d never worn geta – traditional wooden sandals). But at my grandma’s home, we would just put our shoes on the floor by ...

Forty years ago, I went to Japan as a foreign exchange student. 

At that time, my Japanese was limited to a few words. Yet, for whatever reason, I wasn’t worried at all. I think it was because I was young.

First, I found lodging and said to the woman who ran the place, “Please loan me a maekake.” She turned her head a bit and said, “If it’s an apron you want, here you go.”

After some time had passed, I went to Tokyo to visit my mom’s cousin. Since I was living in Niigata, she allowed ...

I wrote "Aki (Autumn)" while I was an exchange student in Japan.  Thirty five years later, it was translated into Japanese, and part 2 was added. And then, very recently, while I was worshiping at my church, a bible verse inspired me to write part three.

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This path, covered with fallen leaves
A sparkling pond, jumping koi
The sweet sound of a flute in the distance
Under an old pine tree
Penning Love’s song

When was that day
When the pond turned murky
The pine tree fell
And the sound of the flute ceased
The song floated away with ...