Today is my anniversary of coming to Japan.
March 17 is Saint Patrick's Day, so I always remember.
I left my home in Texas on Saint Patrick's Day in 1988 (Showa 63).
These are photos of me and my mother, and me and my two younger sisters, saying goodbye at the airport that day. We all looked so young!
The purple sweatshirt (トレーナー) that I'm wearing belonged to my husband --my fiance (婚約者) at the time. It was an old sweatshirt from when he belonged to the ski club at his university.
He and I met and got engaged when he was studying English at my universtiy in Texas. He had returned to Japan several months before, for his sister's wedding. I still had one more semester of university in Texas before I graduated, so I coudn't go with him. I missed (寂しがる) him so much, I chose that shirt to wear on my long flight to Japan.
On St. Patrick's Day, we are supposed to wear green for good luck. You can see that my mother and my youngest sister are wearing green shirts. My youngest sister wasn't happy that I decided to wear purple on that day.
Can you see the small sticker on the front of my sweatshirt? My youngest sister put that on my shirt. She also put a green plastic bracelet on my wrist.
I'm sure I still have that bracelet and that sweatshirt somewhere in my closet.
So Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! Make sure to wear something green today. In the U.S., if you forget to wear something green on St. Patrick's Day, anyone can pinch (抓る) you! That's the custom!
And Happy Coming-to-Japan Anniversary to me! Today marks 34 years!
*** I'm sorry the photos are so blurry (ぼやける), but these are old fashioned photos are from my photo album! ***