As loyal martyaki readers may recall, last spring I visited the the famous wisteria in full bloom at Kawachi Fuji-en garden in Kitakyushu, about 1000 km away from my home in Yokohama. This year I decided to check out the wisteria hysteria a little closer to home, heading to Ashikaga Flower Park outside Tokyo. My …

Continue reading Wisteria 2.0, or A Visit to Ashikaga Flower Park

Last Christmas, Mark lovingly gave me the most romantic of gifts: my very own 23andMe ancestry kit! Because nothing quite says I Love You like a vial of spit. So I filled my vial and sent off the sample, eagerly awaiting my results. Meanwhile, I decided to use a story about the popularity of commercial …

Continue reading My 23andMe Results and a Quick Lesson on European History; Or, Let’s Talk DNA Ancestry with Japanese Senior Citizens