By GEORGE YOSHINAGA
Unless you read the fine print, you probably missed his name. It’s Ryo Ishikawa and he’s a pro golfer. He has never won on the pro circuit but finishes in what they refer to as “in the money.”
During the past January, he finished “in the money” twice. His earnings? $190,117 and $41,681. That adds up to nearly a quarter of a million dollars.
How many people do you know who earns a quarter million dollars in one month? No too many.
Just thought I’d toss this in because Ishikawa should get a few lines of publicity for his achievement in January.
Heck, he still has 11 months to go, and if he keeps up his play he might even hit a million dollars.
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Since one of my sons is connected with the military — he’s an officer in the Air Force — new items about other JAs in the military catch my eye.
In this case, the appointment of the first Japanese American woman to the rank of general, Miyako Schanely. Schanely and her Caucasian husband reside in New York.
Her awards and decorations include the Meritorious Service Medal (with Silver Oak Leaf Cluster), the Army Commendation Medal (with Silver and Oak Leaf Cluster), the Army Achievement Medal, the Parachutist Badge and the Jungle Expert Badge.
Quite a young lady.
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Since the Super Bowl grabbed all the headlines this past week, here’s a tidbit on football that might give everyone a chuckle: The Washington Redskins are finally changing their name because of all the negativity, hatred, animosity, contempt, spirit, ungodliness and hostility associated with their name.
From now on, they will be simply the Redskins. Heh, heh.
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A tidbit on food.
The best ramen eatery in the U.S.? According to a reader, it is located in Portland, Oregon, and it’s called Biwa.
The 7-year-old izakaya offers only a single ramen, but given the obsessive research that chef Jon Moch puts into it, it’s must order. Thin noodles, a lone egg and chashu pork floating in a rich bowl of a pork and chicken broth that takes 18 hours to create. Seasonal variations include crab ramen in the winter and ethically sourced duck ramen in the spring while spicy ground round pork or smoked pork shoulders add-ons can amp it up anytime.
Sounds good, but I guess nobody from Southern California will drive all the way to Oregon to order a bowl of ramen.
I wonder if Moch ever thought about opening a site in the Los Angeles area with its large JA population.
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Since I wrote about landing in the hospital a few weeks ago, three of my friends emailed me to tell me they, too, were in a hospital over the past month or two.
One of them said, “Well, Horse, I guess we’re all getting there, aren’t we?”
I laughed and replied, “We’re not getting there. We’ve all arrived.”
That brought out a laugh from them.
Hey, maybe landing in a hospital could be a laughing matter.
Ha, ha.
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Speaking of email, when I touched on the matter of going or not going to Vegas depending on whether I could find a driver, at least five offers were made to me. So it looks like I may be in Vegas a lot sooner than I thought.
Is that good or bad? Since Vegas is not only about gaming but also about having fun, I would say it’s good.
Everyone can look forward to having fun. I know, some of you will probably comment, “Losing is fun??”
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More on email. Another reader wrote: “I enjoyed your column on our experience at the Santa Anita Race Track Assembly Center.
“If memory serves me correctly, I think you once wrote that it was at Santa Anita that you were given the nickname Horse. Is that true or false?”
Yes, it’s true. I acquired the name there.
You know how it was in those days. The Nisei generation was quick to give nicknames to fellow Nisei. Being nicknamed Horse isn’t really that bad. I could have been called a hog or donkey.
If that had happened, you’d be reading a column today called “The Hog’s Mouth,” which, of course, is better than “The Donkey’s Mouth.”
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When I watch my wife prepare supper day after day, I always suggest that I take her to a restaurant to dine. She always says, “That’s OK, I don’t mind cooking.”
However, I know which restaurants she enjoys, so I make sure I mention the name of one of them.
Her favorite is Grand Buffet on Hawthorne Boulevard, located about five blocks from Pacific Coast Highway.
It’s a bit pricey, but worse, if you go there on Saturday or Sunday, there may be no open tables, which was the case this past Sunday.
We went about 5 o’clock, and that’s probably the worst time of the day to go to a popular eatery. But we were lucky. Our wait was only about 5 minutes.
I guess I tend to overeat at buffet facilities, and at the Grand Buffet it’s really a problem since there are so many choices of fine food.
Heck, if we went there more frequently, I might look like a sumo wrestler in a few months. Don’t laugh.
Back in 1946, when I received my discharge from the Army, one thing I did was to start guzzling fresh milk because it was something the Army didn’t provide, especially overseas.
I often guzzled a gallon of milk in a day.
I never realized how much weight I was putting on until a friend laughed and said, “Man, you look like a sumo wrestler.”
I hit 240 pounds during that period. Well, it took me about five months to get down to about 180 pounds.
Now I’m down to 160 pounds.
Maybe I’ve gone from a sumo wrestler to a jockey.
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Speaking of jockeys, I want to remind everyone that Bacon Sakatani is putting on the Santa Anita Assembly Center Residents Reunion on March 29.
I think he’s going to send out a press release to The Rafu about the event.
Hope a lot of folks turn out, whether they are horse racing fans or not.
Those who spent time at the Arcadia facility can get together and chat about the few months we all spent there before going off to relocation centers.
I know I have a lot of memories about those days, including the “riot” by the residents.
Yeah, we did riot over an incident that took place while we were being detained.
I’m curious why not anything is ever mentioned about the uprising by the internees when stories are written about that era.
It took the MPs short work to quell the uprising. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured.
For a “country farm boy,” it was a bit scary.
But I guess it’s all history now.
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Hey, if those of us who live in the Ellay area begin seeing more and more younger Japanese in our city, it may not be our imagination.
A lot of Japanese parents are sending their high school student offspring overseas for their education.
While overseas includes places like New Zealand and Australia, many are eyeing the U.S.
It’s part of the Japanese students’ college prep opportunities.
A newspaper in Tokyo spoke with a number of families whose children were headed overseas.
For many parents, the “juken” (college entrance exams) didn’t appeal to them and they want their offspring to get to know their Japanese heritage more deeply.
The melting pot of ethnicities at high schools in the U.S. is one of the features that parents in Japan feel is good for their kids.
Many who attend high school in the U.S. continue their education in American schools.
Of course, international student fees, coupled with living costs, make the U.S. education expensive, but the parents have no regrets.
Naturally, there are disadvantages, the most obvious being that parents miss their children, but nowadays with email the bridge can be gapped.
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I’d have to look it up, but a reader submitted a piece with the title “Paraprosdokians.” It’s supposed to be a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected, frequently humorous. It’s our laugher of the day.
1. Where there’s a will, I want to be in it.
2. The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it’s still on my list.
3. Since light travels faster than sound, some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
4. If I agree with you, we’d both be wrong.
5. We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public.
6. War does not determine who is right — only who is left.
7. Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
8. They bring the daily news with “Good morning,” then proceed to tell you why it isn’t.
9. To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research.
10. Buses stop in bus stations. Trains stop in train stations. On my desk is a work station.
11. I thought I wanted a career. Turns out I just wanted paychecks.
12. In filling out an application, where it says, “In case of emergency notify,” I put “doctor.”
13. I didn’t say it was your fault. I said I was blaming you.
14. Women will never be equal to men, until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut and still think they are sexy.
15. Behind every successful man is a woman. Behind the fall of a successful man is usually another woman.
16. A clear conscience is the sign of a fuzzy memory.
More next week.
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George Yoshinaga writes from Gardena and may be reached via email at horsesmouth2000@hotmail.com. Opinions expressed in this column are not necessarily those of The Rafu Shimpo.