Again

Five years later, seeing sister Chuen again in Chicago

Several years ago we talked and walked by Mirror Lake,
Today we see each other at the corner of the sea.
Short our lives, short our meeting;
Someday we'll reunite again, with more happiness.


Blood-colored Cherry Blossoms

In front of Double Leaf, a half acre of plantings,
Big Harmony's special varieties came from afar.
Who pities the Three Islands' broken homeland?
Only see the cherry flowers blossom open with blood.

We went to Double Leaf Resort another time. There were several Japanese cherry trees and we came just at the peak of blossoming. Since we arrived in Taiwan, we've been busy returning the Japanese people to Japan, they've lived here fifty years. The Japanese look so calm, their appearances don't indicate that their country had been defeated. These people didn't show any emotion. 

Notes:
- The Japanese call their nation Big Harmony (da he). My mom jokes that all the physically small nations call themselves big: Big Harmony, Big Han (Korea). China is big so it doesn't have to call itself big.
- Japan is comprised of three big islands.
- There's a classic poem that says: the tree in the yard doesn't know the household has moved; spring comes and it blooms just like before. 
- My mom says, all over people are the same. She had a Japanese friend in grad school--"of course"--because everyone else was American. The friend apologized for Japan causing so much trouble in China. My mom said it's the warriors who are responsible, most people don't want war. People can be friends. Her friend told her many stories about growing up in Japan: we used to be so obedient, we'd stand in line for the drinking fountain and no one would cut. Nowadays the kids are not like that at all, they say: why don't we have more drinking fountains so the lines won't be so long? When we were kids, no one would have dreamed of saying that.