This is a picture of my mom and my aunt at my grandparents home on Kauai. I just love this picture. My aunt is the one that lives here on the mainland too. And I just don't realize how much of an age gap there was between them till I see this picture. It's great hearing the old stories about my grandparents and great grandparents. And I love hearing the stories on how they grew up on Kauai.

I just have so much love and respect for my family. I am a fourth generation, or yonsei. My great grandfather came over from Japan. He was the first generation. My grandfather was born on Kauai, and my grandmother was actually a picture bride.

My grandparents lived on Kauai the rest of their lives. I actually didn't see them much because we lived here in California or the mainland.

I always think how brave my parents were that they would leave the islands to come to the mainland to make a better life for themselves. I don't want to move out of the bay area, and here they came all the way from Kauai to live here. I'm just glad that they picked the bay area to live in cause I just love it here.

I do think of how scary it must have been to move from a place where you have all your family and friends, to go to a place where you know nobody. Well, they didn't exactly know absolutely nobody. LOL Luckily my dad's uncle and aunt lived here. And my dad's sister was out here too. And actually, they had friends that had moved here as well, so maybe they didn't know absolutely nobody. LOL