The Big Root

This episode is supported by Toshiki’s Patreon patrons.

Born in Japan in 1991 and adopted by a Japanese American family in Torrance, California, Camryn Sugita writes a blog titled My Adoption Story (@myadoptionstory) and sits down with Toshiki to talk about her experience. For many adoptees, reconnecting with their birth family is a distant goal, but for Camryn, that’s where her story starts. In the summer of 2017, together with her adoptive family, she visits Takamatsu in Kagawa Prefecture to meet her birth mother, her half sister Sei, and her half brother. Upon returning to the US, Camryn meets Sophie Spiegel, a member of the New York Japanese American community who was born in Japan the same year as Camryn and was also adopted by a Japanese American family. Two introverts, Camryn and Sophie quickly become friends, and Sophie shares that meeting Camryn has encouraged her to seek more information about the circumstances of her own adoption. Camryn’s upbringing in Southern California, surrounded by Japanese language and culture, contributed to her confidence to talk openly about her identity as a transnational adoptee, and at age 23, she gave a speech detailing her adoption for the Nisei Week Queen and Court competition. Camryn shares that, after a series of events following the speech over the next year, her half sister Sei contacts her via social media, eventually leading to their in-person meeting in Takamatsu. The pieces of Camryn’s adoption story fall into place.

This episode is supported by Toshiki’s Patreon patrons.

Toshiki meets Gregory Bruce after a community service activity on September 11 connects their communities. Last fall, Gregory created an installation suspending hundreds of paper cranes above the dining hall of the Food Bank for New York City in Harlem. These cranes or tsuru were gifts from the Japanese American Association of New York, the Consulate General of Japan in New York, and other Japan-related organizations, and he folded hundreds more as he learned about Japanese culture and history. In homage to the lives lost in events such as the triple disaster in Northern Japan and 9/11 and to lift the spirits of Food Bank staff, volunteers, and customers, Gregory named the installation Soaring Souls. After serving in the Vietnam war and pursuing a 47-year career in advertising, he experienced sudden tragedy when a car accident in 2008 led to the death of his beloved wife and an injury that left him financially distraught and socially isolated. Gregory was homeless until a man named Clarence gave him a place to live and introduced him to the senior program at the Food Bank in 2015. By 2017, Gregory was back on his feet, learned how to sew, and started a business called Bows Nouveau (@bows.nouveau). Harnessing his advertising background and embodying his brand, he designs and sells bow ties. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Gregory started making masks out of the fabric he uses for his bow ties, and on his website, customers can purchase matching bow ties and masks. Reflecting on the good fortune he has garnered in the past few years, Gregory expresses his gratitude toward the Japanese American community for embracing his art.

This episode is supported by Toshiki’s Patreon patrons.

In Dallas, Texas, Toshiki invites his mom Mihoko Yamamura to practice the traditional Japanese textile technique shibori. They tie rubber bands, sticks, and twine around items made of white fabric, soak them in indigo dye, and eagerly wait for geometric patterns to emerge. During this family quarantine activity, Toshiki’s mom shares her story about growing up in the mountains of Gifu Prefecture, moving to the United States to learn English, and becoming a Japanese language teacher at a public high school in Texas. Mihoko’s international experiences drive her passion to share Japanese culture with young people, and she feels lucky to be where she is today.

The Big Root is a podcast about everywhere Japaneseness. Hosted and produced by Toshiki Nakashige. Listen to the trailer for Season 2 of the podcast.

This episode is supported by JapanCulture•NYC, the English-language website about all things Japanese in New York City.

Toshiki and Susan welcome cookbook author Sonoko Sakai to New York. Ahead of a weeklong press tour promoting Japanese Home Cooking: Simple Meals, Authentic Flavors, Sonoko visits Susan’s apartment kitchen to prepare dashi for her food demos and to make the pickle dish daikon namasu in honor of The Big Root. A writer, teacher, noodle maker, and grain activist based in Los Angeles, Sonoko is passionate about sharing Japanese home cooking to Americans. Her perspective on the authenticity of food has been shaped by her international upbringing, and although globalization has made international cuisine more accessible, her cookbook addresses topics such as sustainability and supporting domestic farmers and fishermen. Through her cookbooks and workshops, Sonoko hopes to educate both Japanese Americans and non-Japanese Americans the essentials of the Japanese pantry. Heating the dry ingredients shiitake mushroom, kombu, and bonito flakes in a pot of water, Sonoko teaches us: It starts with dashi. She uses a cold-brew dashi to build the flavor in our daikon namasu, a traditional New Year dish that embodies the white purity of the beloved winter radish and the red fire of carrot, chili pepper, and hoshigaki. Garnished with the rind of yuzu from Sonoko’s tree in Los Angeles, it serves as the perfect addition to any Japanese homemade meal.

This episode is supported by JapanCulture•NYC, the English-language website about all things Japanese in New York City.

After the U.S.-Japan Council Annual Conference in Hollywood, Susan visits the Torrance location of the eyewear store JINS with Lynda Gomi and Kazu Gomi. The Gomis share their experiences as an interracial couple, raising a bicultural and bilingual family in Japan and moving to the United States. A blonde woman from the Midwest, Lynda speaks about her time as an English teacher and working mother, and Kazu reflects on his work as a leader of a global communications and technology company. Susan reflects on her own background as the daughter of an interracial couple and admires the Gomis’ perseverance to instill in their children a sense of community and tradition.

Surrounded by the wide selection of colors and styles of glasses at JINS, the Gomis tried on a few pairs with the help of Paula Sun, the JINS Los Angeles District Manager. JINS is a Japanese eyewear company with five locations in the US and many more across Asia, and customers can shop online as well. Although they are sometimes compared to the American eyewear store Warby Parker, JINS stands out because of their excellent customer service, competitive prices, and charitable causes. In line with their mission statement “to make the world a better place to see,” customers can donate $5 to one of several Cases for Causes nonprofit organizations in exchange for a special glasses case, including one adorned with cherry blossoms that supports Japanese and Japanese American cultural heritage organizations. Recently having moved from New York, Lynda and Kazu now live in San Jose, and they were excited to hear that JINS also has a location there.

This episode is supported by JapanCulture•NYC, the English-language website about all things Japanese in New York City.

In collaboration with the New York region of the nonprofit educational organization U.S.-Japan Council, Susan and Toshiki organized an event on how storytelling strengthens people-to-people connections in the Japanese American and US-Japan community. They invited three distinguished guest speakers.

Akemi Kakihara, or simply AK, is a Universal Music Japan recording artist, singer, songwriter, and producer. Lyrical music is a form of storytelling, and currently working on her 16th studio album, AK shares her own story growing up in Hiroshima Prefecture, following her dreams of making music, and moving to New York. Michael Ishii is a musician, practitioner of East Asian medicine, and lifelong political activist. Pioneering projects such as the New York Japanese American Oral History Project and Tsuru for Solidarity, he shares how stories of incarceration heals intergenerational trauma and creates political change. Catherine Kobayashi is a news anchor, reporter, and producer for NHK World. Based on her years of journalism expertise, she shares what makes a story newsworthy and how to gain a larger audience.

Listen to their full presentations at The Big Root website.

This episode is supported by JapanCulture•NYC, the English-language website about all things Japanese in New York City.

Susan sits down with jazz composer and big band conductor Migiwa “Miggy” Miyajima in the lower-level green room at the iconic Birdland Jazz Club in Midtown Manhattan. Born and raised in Ibaraki Prefecture, Miggy was creative and exceptionally talented as a classical pianist. However, throughout her childhood, she was curious about other facets of life beyond music, so she refused to commit her life to become a professional musician. Instead of majoring in music, she studied education at Sophia University in Tokyo, where she experienced a physical ailment that was cured only after joining the university jazz big band. After graduation, she entered the corporate world, becoming Editor-in-Chief of the popular travel publication Jalan, and continued jazz as a weekend hobby. Miggy composed original pieces and received positive reinforcement from her audiences, and unsatisfied with her day job, she eventually pursued music professionally at age 30. She moved to New York in 2012, the year after the Great East Japan Earthquake, and that event made a lasting impact on her career, inspiring a forthcoming piece that features the narratives of the survivors. Big band represents the combination of individuality and teamwork, and Miggy shares her method of telling stories without lyrics. Miggy has been nominated for two Grammy Awards for her work with Vanguard Jazz Orchestra and leads the 17-piece big band jazz group Miggy Augmented Orchestra.

This episode features three tracks from the album Colorful (2018) by Miggy Augmented Orchestra. The title track celebrates how everyone is unique and features Quinsin Nachoff on tenor saxophone as well as a sequence of two-bar solos by every member of the band. Inspired by the events of the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, “Hope for Hope” evokes how one person’s good deeds can ripple to affect many others and features David Smith on trumpet and Alejandro Aviles on soprano saxophone. The episode closes with the album’s introductory track and roller coaster of frequency and rhythm “Ready?” featuring Carl Maraghi on baritone saxophone and Jeb Patton on piano.

This episode is supported by JapanCulture•NYC, the English-language website about all things Japanese in New York City.

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Ambassador and Consul General of Japan in New York Kanji Yamanouchi began his fourth post in the United States in October last year, and he has since become a friend among the Japanese American community. With Toshiki as sound engineer and science consultant, Susan and Ambassador Yamanouchi visit The Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx to perform the Buddhist ritual of ohaka mairi, visiting the gravesites of two prominent historical Japanese figures who settled in the United States. Ambassador Yamanouchi offers flowers to Dr. Hideyo Noguchi (1876–1928), a biologist who made seminal discoveries in infectious diseases and is now immortalized as the face of the 1000 yen note, and Dr. Jokichi Takamine (1854–1922), a chemist and philanthropist who founded the social organization The Nippon Club.

Appreciating Noguchi’s onigiri-shaped gravestone, Ambassador Yamanouchi shares his personal connections to the scientist, reflecting on trips to Noguchi’s hometown of Inawashiro and on a visit to the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research at the University of Ghana in 2006 with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. After a brief intermission listening to “America” by Simon and Garfunkel, Susan and the Ambassador have the opportunity to open Takamine’s stately mausoleum, and gazing at its stained glass window of Mt. Fuji, they discuss Takamine’s dedication to the Japanese American community. To the Ambassador, friendship is the cornerstone of US-Japan relations, and he praises the importance of community organizations in New York that symbolize the strength and independence of the Japanese spirit.

This episode is supported by JapanCulture•NYC, the English-language website about all things Japanese in New York City.

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Susan and Toshiki explore Japanese cuisine at home by opening two cardboard boxes. From Kokoro Care Packages, we enjoy the August Nourishing Essentials Care Package, and we celebrate summer preparing and eating hiyashi chuka, seaweed salad topped with unagi furikake, and a sweet corn rice porridge. Co-founders Lillian Hanako Rowlatt and Aki Sugiyama started Kokoro Care Packages in December 2018 on the mission to spread the health and wellness of Japanese food to people outside of Japan. Reading a pamphlet that translates the Japanese instructions into English and learning about the creators of these products through “Producer Spotlights” on the Kokoro Care Packages website, we appreciate authentic ingredients delivered directly from Japan. Susan pours a sparkling sake cocktail using the Asaya Vinegar 5 Year Aged Red Wine Vinegar from Yamanashi Prefecture, and Toshiki presents a blueberry amazake sorbet (and desperately shapes the slushy dessert into the likeness of the photo in the Kokoro pamphlet).

The ingredients in the Nourishing Care Package shined even brighter because of the fresh produce that we ordered from Suzuki Farm in Delaware. In the yasai value set, we find cabbage, cucumber, bell peppers, edamame, shishito peppers, bitter melons, and green onion. Suzuki Farm was founded by Ken Suzuki in 1983 who wanted to bring traditional Japanese fruits and vegetables to the East Coast of the United States. The farm supplies grocery stores (like Katagiri, Dainobu, and Sunrise Mart), restaurants, and residents of New York, Washington, D.C., New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. With a la carte options from Suzuki Farm, we also ordered two photogenic daikon radishes that excited us and Toshiki’s dog Jayden.