Wearing yukata and preparing for obon.

I love this picture of my brother Chris and me in yukata, my sister Julie in
kimono, and my half-sister Emi and half brother, Karl (My grandfather’s children from his second wife), in western clothes. Behind me in kimono is Shizuka, my grandfather’s second wife. Also there is Unozawa-san, our housekeeper and our nanny, whose name I can’t remember. We are standing in front of our house at Yamate in Yokohama about 1960. I think we must have been getting ready to go to the summer obon festival.

In the next picture it looks like I have some money in hand to spend at the fair.

Thirty years later, soon after adopting Mariko and Eric, we dressed Mariko up in a yutaka and tucked Eric into the snuggly and went to the bon-odori, the fair to celebrate the return of the spirits.

Mariko wanted to fish in the water for a ball.

And I tried to learn the local dance, looking a little silly carrying Eric in the baby snuggly.