Raymond Nakamura
Raymond Nakamura lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. When he is not personal assistant to his daughter, he writes Vogon poetry, draws cartoons rejected by the New Yorker and gives tours of Powell Street, the Japanese community where his mother grew up before World War II. He has a poem about being an ice hockey goalie in a children’s sport poetry anthology called And the Crowd Goes Wild. www.raymondsbrain.com.
Updated October 2012
Stories from This Author
Glimpses of Marpole—Part 3
July 20, 2022 • Raymond Nakamura
Read Part 2 >> Barb Miiko Gravlin "They went fishing on their honeymoon." Barb Miiko Gravlin’s mother, Yachiyo, grew up on Selkirk Street with her parents, Uhei and Tachi Miike, who were from Kumamoto prefecture. Many Japanese Canadian communities tended to have people from a particular area, but the issei in Marpole came from all over Japan. Yachiyo was the eldest of the seven children in Vancouver. An older sister Hatsuko had been left with relatives in Japan. Because of …
Glimpses of Marpole—Part 2
July 13, 2022 • Raymond Nakamura
Read Part 1 >> Allan Arima “Life was pretty simple” Allan Masayoshi Arima, was born in 1931, delivered by a midwife named Mrs. Watanabe, who he said was well-known in the community. His parents, Itaro and Same Arima came from Kagawa prefecture in 1921. He said he was known as “Mush” (presumably short for Masayoshi) and shared stories about his life in Marpole for the Sedai video project produced by the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in Toronto. His father worked …
Glimpses of Marpole—Part 1
July 6, 2022 • Raymond Nakamura
The neighbourhood now known as Marpole is in southern Vancouver, on the unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples. The place known as the Marpole Midden is a site of Musqueam ancestors and now acknowledged as a National Historic Site. The pre-War Japanese Canadian community in the Marpole neighbourhood of southern Vancouver is not as well known as Powell Street or Steveston. Yet it was home to almost sixty families, including those of David Suzuki and Joy Kogawa, before being …
My Bachan
Sept. 21, 2018 • Raymond Nakamura
We called my Dad’s mom, Bachan. When we visited, she’d offer me a cherry-flavoured cough candy, and I would nod and say, arigato. Every Easter, she sent me and my brothers a chocolate bunny each. She didn’t speak much English and I didn’t speak much Japanese. So I knew her only a little. She was 4’7”, vegetarian, and raised eight kids. She lived 91 years smoking roll-your-own cigarettes. I’ve since realized her life reflects many of the most significant events …
A Tale of Two Baa-chans
Oct. 10, 2016 • Raymond Nakamura
For better or worse, marriage can change your life. The arranged marriages of my Issei baa-chans (first arrived grandmothers) completely transformed theirs. Even though my grandmothers did not know each other, they shared experiences in common. Both were eldest daughters, born during the Meiji era of Japan, and immigrated to Canada as teenagers to marry older men they had never met. Both of my baa-chans discovered life in Canada was not what they expected. My father’s mother, my Nakamura baa-chan, …
George Nakamura turns 88
Oct. 5, 2015 • Raymond Nakamura
My dad turned 88 this year, so we had a big party for him. Turning 88 is perhaps not so rare as it once was, but it is still a pretty big deal, especially in Japanese culture, where it is called “beiju,” meaning “rice age.” This refers to the way the characters for “eighty-eight” resemble the character for “rice,” a symbol of goodness and abundance. We were delighted that his health is still good enough to enjoy the party. To …
Breaking Fast
Jan. 15, 2014 • Raymond Nakamura
BreakfastsWere processed, Warm and white. Soup, often corn, Always a powder, Poured into a plastic bowlThat looked lacquered. Added water, Boiled in an aluminum kettle On the rusting gas table. In the shiny red toaster oven, Toasted a single piece of white bread, Soft and square and thick,With tiny holes Like styrofoam, Something to do with Japanese flour. On top Sat a single piece of white processed cheese Plasticized At its melting point. In rural Japan, Real cheese Was not …
Feeling Warm at Christmas
Dec. 25, 2013 • Raymond Nakamura
One Christmas... My Mom sent me a turkey one Christmas. It was a frozen, smoked turkey. I invited a bunch of people to my place to eat it. I took out the middle sliding doors of my rooms, so I had a fair amount of space. The tricky thing was that the turkey was too big to fit in my microwave oven. Since it was smoked, I just had to figure out how to defrost it. I ended up using …
Thomas Shoyama — A Great Canadian
Dec. 11, 2013 • Raymond Nakamura
Tom Shoyama (1915-2006), a great Canadian who happened to be of Japanese descent. * This comic was originally published in the Nikkei Voice in November 2013.
The New Digs
Nov. 20, 2013 • Raymond Nakamura
Before me, a foreign couple with a young son lived in the house. Evidently, they let the boy trash the place. The marine station replaced the straw mat flooring and the sliding doors, but left the holes in the plaster walls for me to fix. I tried a wire mesh and smooth plaster combination, but as the plaster hardened, the wire popped out. I tried another kind of plaster with fibres in it that worked well. I covered the flesh-toned …
