Nikkei Chronicles #6—Itadakimasu 2! Another Taste of Nikkei Culture

Calpis, Torikawa, and Yūrei: An Osaka Summer

Mari L'Esperance

Memories that inextricably tie together food, family, and childhood can be some of our most lasting and profound. Such memories and related sensations can surface from the depths at the slightest provocation, and via seemingly random sources. Which brings me to the notion that everything truly is connected, and perhaps …

Nikkei Uncovered: a poetry column

Roots

Sean Miura,  Mari L'Esperance,  traci kato-kiriyama

Happy 2017, everyone! With quite the gripping year behind us, I find myself needing to look ahead from a grounded place and in order to do so, I look to all kinds of conversations and all forms of art. To fill up on inspiration, in the way we filled up …

Betwixt and Between: Embracing the Borderlands of My Mixed Heritage

Mari L'Esperance

For weeks I resisted beginning work on this essay. Then, synchronistically, I encountered two pieces at Discover Nikkei that helped me get started. The first was Nancy Matsumoto’s excellent review (December 26, 2012) of Nikkei/Hapa psychologist Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu’s latest book When Half is Whole: Multiethnic Asian American Identities, and the …