Cody Uyeda
Cody Uyeda is a fourth generation Japanese American living in Southern California. He has a BA and JD from USC and an Ed.M from HGSE, and currently works in educational research and the Asian American nonprofit space.
Updated July 2022
Stories from This Author
Umeshu: Drinking Past and Present
July 11, 2022 • Cody Uyeda
Every summer I drive to the local Japanese markets to look for them—the small, green ume that are only in season a couple weeks each year. Through the cool blast of air from the store’s sliding doors, I make a beeline for the produce section feeling excited and nervous, never knowing whether the ume will actually be in stock yet, or if I’ve miss-timed my arrival by a few days or a week. Sometimes the mission is a failure and …
Promise Me You’ll Remember
May 24, 2019 • Cody Uyeda
5:00PM was when the phone call came, telling me you were gone. Engine failure they said. Explosion over the Pacific, just a few miles past the Hawaiian islands. No survivors. The little apartment we had bought on 2nd street so you could be close to Little Tokyo feels so small now. On my pillow, I stare at a lone hair; yours, I can tell, from its scent of coconut shampoo. From our room, through the door, I can see the …
Of Food and Identity: My Grandmother’s New Years
Oct. 8, 2018 • Cody Uyeda
Japanese New Years was one of the few traditions that made the jump when my great grandparents, like many others, left Japan for a better future on American soil. My grandmother, the designated New Year’s host for as long as I can remember, always began her preparations several days in advance, so every year my parents, my brother, and I would drive from our Orange County home up to my grandmother’s Los Angeles residence to help her prepare. For as …
