A quote from the News from Guam thread.

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Subject: RE: News From Guam
From: Naemanson - PM
Date: 31 Mar 04 - 06:44 AM

Wow! This place continues to amaze me. Last Saturday I met two amazing and interesting people쳌c

The other person is a Japanese woman who is attending language classes (English) at UOG. She is a carpenter in Japan with a shop and all her own tools. Those of you familiar with the chauvinist society in Japan should realize how unusual this is. She was extremely interested in the carving on the canoe parts working her way in close to help as best she could. Unfortunately she had to leave before she could get her hands on an adze and do some cutting.

One funny thing happened. When I saw my middle sister two weeks ago she gave me a T-shirt she had decorated with Japanese characters. She told me it meant "wisdom". At the canoe Wakana saw the characters and asked me if it was the name of my girlfriend. While one reading of the kanji is "wisdom", or "smart head" as Wakana put it, the other interpretation is "pretty girl" and is used as a girl's name in Japan. My sister got quite a laugh out of that.
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That quote is from last year. By my calculations tomorrow, March 27, Easter Sunday, will be the first anniversary of our meeting. Amazing! And we don쳌ft hate each other yet.

This morning we went to meet a friend and former classmate of Wakana쳌fs. She had a baby a few weeks ago so we got to spend time at the Nikko Hotel restaurant with her and her son, Dragon Boy. Actually the kid쳌fs name is Ryunosoke which means the same thing. He쳌fs a good kid, hardly fussed at all. The friend is having trouble with the father and will go home to Japan in April. Poor Wakana spends hours on the phone trying to give her support and help. I think we쳌fve all been there and a few of you have been on the other end of the phone with me when I was going through that same hell. I wish her well. She has a long hard row to hoe.

My brother called this morning. Unfortunately he got the time zones mixed up and woke us at 5:30 AM! Rotten kid brother. He wants some Navy Crackers. He discovered them in Hawaii and loves them. I guess I better get a few pound of them off to him. They are pretty good.