meiko

So… My friend asked me to sing some songs at a poetry reading he puts on once a month. This month was dedicated to Asian Americans and he thought it would make sense for me to perform. I played 1 song at the beginning and then listened to a few stories. I got up again to play two more songs and I felt like I needed to tell my story as well. I am 1/4 Japanese. My grandmother, Chikako Nishimoto, was a war bride basically… and came here around 1960 when my mom was 3. She wanted to “Americanize” my mom and her 5 sisters so she didn’t speak to them in Japanese. None of them learned and there was an obvious disconnect.

I was pretty much raised by my guitar pickin’, hard working, breakfast supper cooking dad and I really had no idea how to connect to that awesome part of me. My grandmother died when I was 8 and this was about the time that me and my sister came up with nicknames for eachother, “Meiko” and “Keiko”. It was our way of representing our Japanese pride in a town of 800 people that was divided 50/50 black and white, give or take. 

I have always dreamed of going to Japan, but have yet to… And this July my dream will be coming true! My record is going to be released through Universal Japan and I need to be there to do some promo stuff.

I’m curious how it will make me feel. It’s my motherland, so will I feel connected? Will that 25% of me feel at home?

TO complicate things a bit, after years and years of spelling my name M-E-I-K-O and calling myself MEEEE-Ko, There, it is actually pronounced “May-ko”… Oops. So in a way, I am going to Japan with an identity crisis and a Japanese name I spell wrong…

Ha! SO it is.

I’m looking forward to it though. I hope the little void in me will be filled by the wondrous adventures that are bound to happen. And I am so grateful for my grandmother and all the sacrifices she made to come here. 

I think she’d be proud.

*m