All posts filed under: BEYOND ME

BEYOND ME June 2020

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Last February, I was so thankful to have finished the final galleys of my second verse novel, Beyond Me, based on our west Tokyo experience of the aftershocks from the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami of 2011. After 3 years of remembering, researching and writing it, we were advised to self-isolate for COVID before being quarantined in March. After these 4+ months of uncertainty, confinement, and sadness I can still hold strong to the things I wrote about and what got me through Tokyo’s month of aftershocks; family, friends and pets, and tending Earth (for me gardening). Here as in the Acknowledgements, I would like to thank my children for skyping me away from the manuscript, to Papa and friends Mari Boyle, Kathy Schmitz, Kristin Ormiston and Cam Sato for pulling me away to do fun things; to SCBWI Japan’s advisors Holly Thompson, Naomi Kojima, Mariko Nagai, Avery Fischer Udagawa for always organizing an active calendar of events for us; to Mariko Nagai, Mari Boyle, Avery Fischer Udagawa, Emina Udagawa, and Cam Sato for reading …

An Inspiration

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Toida-san started farming when he was seventeen years old. His family owned land from their house (north of ours) all the way down to Tama River. Before World War II, the land where our house now stands was an orchard of mulberry trees for silk worms. There are no mulberry trees around here, but I actually saw a silk moth in the garden here thirty years ago. It was the first time I had ever seen one. Toida-san and his wife farmed the fields behind our house until he retired at 90 years old. I watched them for years from our windows and roof garden. After I got a digital camera in 2006, he gave me permission to get closer to take photos. I photographed every season before he retired. I used the photos for reference for Beyond Me. I will post more photos here. It is bittersweet to go through them and it is hard to choose among them. Meanwhile, if you are interested, check posts at Here and There Japan under the categories “urban farming” …

Birds of BEYOND ME

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I see birds everywhere in west Tokyo. They are in my garden and in the farmer’s fields outside our windows. Before the pandemic, I walked to the grocery store or to the station every day so I would see them in the trees along the street, in garden trees, and on buildings. I would take the camera with me (before iphones) and I would take walks just to photograph them. So naturally, birds have shown up in my writing. The main character of Beyond Me sees birds every day. She learns about hummingbirds and would love to see one. But there are no hummingbirds in Japan. I see them when I visit Texas. I even saw one on Bleecker Street in New York City when I visited in September 2016 for a book event for Somewhere Among at Books of Wonder. Check at Audubon for Kids Week 5 Hooray for Hummingbirds! for information and fun activities like learning how to draw one with David Sibley. Their kids’ page has more about birds. On Audubon’s Facebook page, teachers, parents and kids can …

The Cat

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All along, I knew there would be a cat in Beyond Me. From the beginning I knew the cat would black, but I started thinking about how a three-colored cat is considered lucky. I decided the cat would be black. With a red collar and bell. Later, as I was going through my farming photos researching the seasons of the vegetable fields I found this photo. It was the first and only time I saw this cat. He was sitting next to taro. The photo was taken 2012, the year after The Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. The History of Our Kittens and Cats On 9-11-07, we rescued four little kittens in a neighbor’s garden. Here are some posts from Here and There Japan, a blog of the things we saw, did and used in our daily life in Japan. Started in 2006 when my children were in Japanese public school. It is written for children. September 13, 2007  Cat and Kitten Rescue October 21, 2007  A Forever Home for Kittens January 17, 2008 …