Category: Diary

This diary entry is part 16 of 35 in Lily's diary dated 13 - July 2022

Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!

I’m in Japan!!!

And I’m TIRED!!! OMG AM I TIRED!!!

But I have news!!!

So after I wrote my post… yesterday?  I lost track.  Yesterday I guess…  I got on the plane…  it’s a big plane!!!  Liz and I sat next to each other…  Emiko sat behind us with her kids.  So we got in the air…  and it was ten hours of boring!!!  Just lots of water to see!!!  Water and snow!!!  But I had a book, and they brought us a couple of pretty good meals.  Even though it was light most of the way, I did get a little sleep.

And when I got there, I was soo happy just to get off the plane!!!  It was so strange to hear the announcements in Japanese as well as English though!

But when we went through customs, they wanted to see my passport, and then took me into a little room.  I didn’t know what was going on!  Someone who spoke English (my Japanese isn’t that good) came in and asked me a bunch of questions.  I didn’t know what it was about!  They asked my name and what I was doing… and finally I just asked what was going on, I was getting a little scared.  They told me that they had my fingerprints on record… but under another name!!!

OMG I’ve been to Japan before!  And I don’t remember!

So I told them all about how I was found on the side of the road, and lost my memory, and was adopted by Dave and Sabby.

They told me that checks out, but for an irregular situation like that, they have to ask me a few questions.  I asked them if they could tell me what my previous name was.  They said they didn’t have that information, but maybe if I went to the Japanese immigration offices, they could tell me.

I was floored.  Someone might have a name.

Someone might have a name.

But…  if the Japanese immigration offices know…  why doesn’t the passport agency of my own country?

They gave me back my paperwork, bowed, and wished me a good day.  I bowed back and ran to meet up with everyone.  They were waiting patiently.

“What happened?”, Emiko said.

“They…  I’ve been to Japan before.  They wanted to know why my fingerprints were already registered under a different name.”

Liz squealed and hugged me.  Some Japanese people looked at us funny.  I didn’t care.

“We can figure that out some other time,” I yawned.  “Let’s get to Saitama.  I really, really need a nap.”

Emiko laughed.  So we got on the train and, after a couple of hours, we ended up at my…  my grandparents’ place.

OMG were they happy to see me!  Japanese people don’t usually hug, but obaasan gave me a big big hug, and ojiisan bowed deeply.  They were a little reserved to Emiko, but Aika and Mika got presents!!!  And they were polite to Liz, after all, they didn’t really know her.  But eventually we all sat around the small table and they served us snacks, which was very nice of them.  I even remembered to say “itadakimasu!”

And then I took a much, much needed nap.  They showed me to a bed roll on a tatami.  It was surprisingly comfortable.  But honestly, I didn’t care about comfort, I just needed sleep.  I share the room with the other girls, but I don’t mind.  It’s like a separated girl-pile!

After a couple of hours, we got up, and we had a traditional Japanese dinner.  It was delicious!  Obaasan can COOK!!!  And then we talked for a while.  Their English isn’t great, and neither is my Japanese, but they were interested in my life, and told me a little about Emiko too.  They told some stories!!! Emiko was a wild child!!!  She was so embarrassed, she kept hiding her face behind her hand and turning red!  It was so cute!  But you could tell that they still loved her, even if they seemed a bit ashamed.  They doted so much on Aika and Mika though!

They asked Liz about her parents, and actually they had a lot in common.  Maybe Liz is Chinese and they’re Japanese, but they’re still Asian, so there’s a little commonality there.  They warmed to each other, I guess sometimes it just takes a while.

Anyway, we’ve got a busy couple of weeks.  Tomorrow I’ll meet Emiko’s sister and her kids!  My cousins!  That should be fun!!!  But tonight..  I’m going to catch up on sleep.

Love you all!!! ❤

This diary entry is part 15 of 35 in Lily's diary dated 13 - July 2022

Hi! It’s me! Lily!

We made it to LAX!!!

So this morning we got up at like 2 AM and all of us were sooo tired…  We got to the airport and checked in, and I think Aika and Mika were going to fall over.  I didn’t really get to run but I guess I’ll do that when I get to Japan… or something.  My body clock is going to be soooo messed up.  Anyway, I’m sitting at the gate waiting for the plane to show up!  We leave at 11AM and get there at 2PM the next day!  How does that work??? I’m going to be sooooo tired.  Maybe I can sleep on the plane.

But Japan here ! come!!!

There are so many Japanese people sitting next to me!  I can understand some of what they’re saying!  Mostly silly stuff, like “Get off that railing, kid!” or “I’m tired” or “I can’t wait to get home”.  You know, you never think about that – one person’s vacation is another person’s going home!

Liz is so excited, she’s chittering and chattering like a hyperactive squirrel!!!  She’s travelled internationally before but not to Japan!!!

Anyway, I’m going to try to nap before the plane arrives and we start boarding!  It’s one of those 777 planes!  So big!

Love you all!!! ❤

This diary entry is part 14 of 35 in Lily's diary dated 13 - July 2022

HI! It’s me! Lily!

I’m in HOUSTON!!!

So this morning I gave Dave and Beth and even David a big hug!  I’m going to miss them!  Liz said goodbye to her parents too.  I gave Marie lots of pets!  But then Sabby, Liz, and I piled into the car and we made the trek to Houston!  I’m on my tablet at Emiko’s house now!  I’m excited!  Aika and Mika have made this trip before, so they’re not as excited, but everyone’s still pretty excited!  But I have to go to bed soon, because we’re getting up at stupid o’clock to catch the plane!  We’re going to LA, and then we’ll be taking the plane to Japan!

I’ve never been to LA before!!!

But I’ve never been to Japan either!!!

Emiko made us a nice dinner, and Bill’s being pretty friendly.  I think he’s accepted that I’m here to stay now, even if the way I was introduced wasn’t… ideal.  He wanted to come, but he had work.  I’m sure he’ll find a way to keep himself busy.  I know Dave never turns down an opportunity to be by himself for a while.

Anyway, I don’t know how I’m going to sleep, but I have to try!

Love you all!!!  See you in LA!!! ❤

This diary entry is part 13 of 35 in Lily's diary dated 13 - July 2022

Hi! It’s me! Lily!

SO MUCH SHOPPING!!!

Sabby took Liz and I shopping.  We got stuff for our carry-ons, snacks, clothing, books, all sorts of things we might need for such a long trip!  OMG!  Then we came home and packed our backpacks and our luggage and all that stuff!!!  Tomorrow we’re going to Houston to stay at Emiko’s!  Then we’ll go to the airport at stupid o’clock Friday morning!

I’m a little nervous and scared and excited!!!  I’ve barely been out of Texas! (Though I did go to Ohio to see Jack that one time.)  Beth seems to have gotten over her jealousy, especially because I promised to bring her back something.  I’ll miss her!  I’ll miss everyone!  But I’m glad to be going with Liz.

Oh, we had to get our PCR tests too.  Negative!  Yay!!!

Anyway, I’m too excited to write!  I have to walk Marie!  I’ll miss her too!

Love you all!!! ❤

This diary entry is part 12 of 35 in Lily's diary dated 13 - July 2022

Hi! It’s me! Lily!

Today was my last day of work before I go to Japan!!! And the owner was so nice!  He told me to have fun and my job would be here when I get back!  Yay!!!

So the next couple of days are going to be busy busy!  Isogashii!!!  Sabby’s already got plans to take me shopping!!!  And Liz is bouncing around, she’s so happy!!!  Maybe she’ll meet a nice Japanese boy!  Or maybe not.  Liz isn’t very lucky with boys so far.  But if not, at least we’ll have lots of stuff to do!

Beth is being a little jealous but I promised her I’d bring her back some gadget.  That cheered her up.  She likes gadgets, and Japan has lots of gadgets, especially in akihabara.

So there’s not a lot to talk about tonight.  It’s hot as usual, everyone’s good, and I’m going to take Marie for a walk.  I wonder if she’ll miss me.

Oh I was thinking I haven’t said how Grace is doing lately!  She’s doing good!  I’m not sure if she’s had her fifth birthday but she’s really close!  She’s also learning how to talk better.  Aww.  Her lisp was so cute.  She misses her auntie Lily but she’ll get to see me in August!!!  Maybe Marie will meet Lily (her dog) and they’ll get along and run around and chase each other, like dogs do!

Ok going now!!!  Marie walk time and Beth brush time!!!

Oh I almost forgot.  Last night I fixed a bug that’s been on my site for a long time!  You can search now!  Yaaaaayyyyy!!!

Love you all!!! ❤

This diary entry is part 11 of 35 in Lily's diary dated 13 - July 2022

Hi! It’s me! Lily!

It’s funny, there always seems to be something going on in my life.  One thing resolves and the next thing comes up.  It’s almost like it’s story arcs, but this isn’t a story!  I’m a real girl!  At least I think so.  I think I’m real, anyway! But with my life, who knows!

Anyway, I leave for Japan Friday!!!  I fly from Houston to LA, then LA to Tokyo Narita!!!  I’m nervous but excited too!!!  Emiko is excited!!!  I’ll probably be staying overnight at Emiko’s house, then we’ll be leaving at what Dave calls stupid o’clock.  I’m only working today and tomorrow, and the rest of the week preparing!!!

Liz booked the same flights, so we’ll all be on together!!! Yay!!!

Sabby’s going nuts!!!  She’s making lists, checking them twice, going shopping and buying stuff I might need…  She’s never been to Japan!  She wishes she could go.  But I’ll send her lots of pictures!

I looked at my stats today – my diary is about 190,000 words!!!  Can you believe it?  That’s as many words as Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire!!!  And my story isn’t even told yet!!!  And I’ll probably write a lot of words from Japan!  There’ll be so much to see and do!!!!

Anyway, short entry tonight.  Marie needs walking, and I’ve still got stuff to do.

Love you all!!! ❤

This diary entry is part 10 of 35 in Lily's diary dated 13 - July 2022

Hi! It’s me! Lily!

It rained today!!! Not a lot, but it was rain!!!  It wasn’t even in the forecast!!! YAY!!!  And then there were a few boomies.  But nothing huge.  It was still hot, but not quite as hot.  Still 101 or so.

So tonight I did Liz’s recital!  It was a little different than my recital.  I came out, bowed, and sat down at the piano, to polite applause.  Which was nice.  Then she came out and everyone was clapping and hooting and hollering!!!  Not all the girls showed up, but her family did, of course, and my family too!!!  Liz isn’t upset.  She’s a part of the Group, but she’s my best friend, not theirs.  Diana did show up, though, with her mother.  She likes music.

And… she was putting everything into it, too.  I mean, she got into the zone, and at one point I thought I saw a tear leak out.  And after we were done she bowed, then ran over to me and gave me a huge hug!  Right on stage!  Then she took my hand and we bowed together!!! That was so nice of her!

Afterwards she greeted and shook hands for a bit, and then we all went out for chocolate pancakes!!!

Turns out Liz has grown to like them too.  Heh.  She’s still not a huge sugar girl but I guess my chocolate thing has worn off on her a bit.  And in her words, “Sometimes after a thing like that you just need to celebrate, and chocolate is for celebrating.”  Couldn’t have said it better myself, but, like Rabbi Tuckman in “Robin Hood, Men in Tights” said = “there’s things here!  Let’s celebrate trees and grass and that bird over there until we can’t eat any more chocolate!”.  Well, paraphrased.

I’m glad Liz is going to Japan with me.  I love her.  And she loves me too.  But I don’t want to accompany her again for at least a few months.

Love you all!!! ❤

This diary entry is part 9 of 35 in Lily's diary dated 13 - July 2022

Hi! It’s me!  Lily!!!

And it’s SOOOO HOTTT!!!!!

I mean HOT HOT!!!  Today was 105!!!  And tomorrow’s supposed to be 106!!! And it won’t get below 100 until Thursday!!!  Sabby tells me that some Texas summers are mild, but that this isn’t one of them.  Ewwww.

Jack’s laughing at me.  It’s below 90 there.  Aww.  But I’ll remember that, and laugh at him when it’s below zero there and 50 degrees here!!!  Hahaha!!!!  Karma’s a karen!!!  It looks like the weather in Japan is kind of like the weather in Ohio right now, so yay!!!

I had a quiet day.  Liz and I didn’t practice today.  After our dress rehearsal, it just felt like over-practicing.  So Sabby took us to the mall.  We just wandered around in the air conditioning.  Neither of us bought a whole lot, but it was fun to just wander and eat some yummy and terrible-for-you mall food.  Sabby needed a  new top and some shoes anyway.  Well…  “needed” is a strong word.

All of the business stuff is with the lawyer right now.  He said that he thinks that the trust administrator also having shares in our company would be a conflict of interest and he didn’t seem to happy that the administrator even proposed the idea, so he’s going to draft a polite legalese letter saying basically “this isn’t a good idea, please stick to administering the trust, and we trust this won’t affect your decision on whether to invest.”  But things just got a lot stickier.  I’m going to leave it to the lawyer.  Worst case, I have to wait another year until I’m 18, then I can invest whatever I want.  Personally, I wouldn’t mind, but I can see his point.

I believe in Sabby’s cookies though, I really do.

Jack and I do still talk.  A lot.  But he’s kind of become like a part of the furniture to me – in a good way.  I don’t talk much about him because we don’t always talk about interesting stuff and sometimes it just devolves to “I love you” “I love you more” “I miss you” “if you were here right now I’d…” umm…  blushing.  But you get the idea.  I do miss him a lot, but I know we’re young and I’ve (hopefully) got the rest of my life to spend with him if he’s the right one.  Right now I think he is, but…  life happens, right?

Oh, and next month I get my “real” license!!!  Where I don’t need Sabby or Dave in the car with me!!! That’s scary!!!

Tomorrow’s Liz’s concert!!!

Love you all!!! ❤

This diary entry is part 8 of 35 in Lily's diary dated 13 - July 2022

HI! It’s me! Lily!!!

So tonight Liz and I had our dress rehearsal!  It went pretty well!  I dressed nicely but conservatively, like Liz asked, and she wore a very pretty short black dress with a plunging back.  OMG it was so pretty!  I should find one like that!  I have that short black dress I wore on my first date with Jack, but this one was different.  I like it!!!

Look at me, talking about a dress rehearsal and all I can talk about is what we wore.  I’m such a girl sometimes.

Anyway, it went pretty well.  I did get to play on a concert grand again.  That’s so much fun!  I love how it feels and sounds!  Like with my recital, she’s sharing the stage with another student.  But the teacher is happy, we’re as prepared as we’re going to be, and Sunday we have her recital!!!

Liz is so nervous!!!

But she gave me a big hug for accompanying for her.  She knows she’s a perfectionist but she says I’m good and I follow her really well, and what more can you ask out of an accompanist?  Took me a while to pick up on that, though.

Anyway, in other news, it’s still hot.  No girls tonight.  I guess after last weekend where it was girls galore, their families want to spend some time with them too.  I guess that’s understandable.  Japan next weekend!!!  I’m sooo excited!!!  So is Liz!!!

After the recital I’m going to go into a mini-quarantine and not go anywhere I don’t absolutely have to.  I don’t want to risk catching the virus!  I’ll even wear a mask at work!!!  I hate the virus.  It messes everything up.

We ordered pizza and they saved some for me.  Leftover pizza and root beer with chocolate for dessert!  Yum!

Love you all!!! ❤

This diary entry is part 7 of 35 in Lily's diary dated 13 - July 2022

Hi! It’s me! Lily!

I had my last lesson with Liz tonight!  Her teacher is happy!  We’re doing it!  Tomorrow we have a dress rehearsal!!!

It’s stressful but a lot of fun!!!

Beth is kind of being jealous again.  Sigh.  I love that girl but she has this huge jealous streak.  I guess I understand.  I just showed up and can do so many things she can’t.  Martial arts (though I’m really rusty at it, obviously), piano, Japanese, going to Japan, etc.  And I have that trust fund.  She was trying to hide it but I could tell.  Finally I just straight up told her “look, if you could do all the things I can for the price of your childhood, would you?”

She knows she’s being unreasonable, but she can’t really seem to control it.

But she’s so much smarter than me.  I don’t get it.  And she has all her memories, and…  what does she have to be jealous of?  I should be jealous of her.  But I’m not.

David… is being just a bit of a jerk.  I can’t say that was unexpected.  Maybe going to camp and ending up being the hero wasn’t the best thing for his ego.  Dave’s going to take him hunting soon, though.  At least he’s not spending all his time playing video games anymore.  I mean, he does, but he’s also writing to his girlfriends and using way too much body spray.  Sigggggggh.

Okay, gotta go.  Marie’s whining for a walk.

Love you all!!! ❤