Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Family Ties to Japan
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| From Funeral Book ... |
It's been a while since I last blogged here. Today I went to Japanese class. Despite being an evening class, I always feel recharged after class. There is always something special about the Japanese is very inspiring. That's why I like to use that energy momentum I gain from the class in my other assignments, such as my dissertation project, etc.
Today, I uploaded photos from my great-grandpa's funeral book on to Picasa Web Album. And that's why I feel like blogging here. Personally I like this photo very much because it reminds me of my family tie to Japan.
If you have followed this blog over the years, you would perhaps have marvelled with me how I came to be so fascinated with all Japanese tradition and stuff. My passion seems to be fixated only in the Japan of the old, and never the contemporary.
Until the answer came one day, when I finally won my latest scholarship to Japan, my 3rd, and hopefully not my last. It was then when I accidentally discovered my root, that I actually had ancestors who had very close ties to Japan of the old before.
It took more than a year before I could trace down the funeral book of my great-grandfather, seen in this photo with his father. I believe this is the photo they took not long before they took off to Japan, where my great-great-grandfather became Thai Ambassador to Japan and my great-grandfather grew up and went on to be the first Thai cadet to graduate from not only one but two Japanese elite Army and Imperial War Colleges.
And that is how amazing life is. I embarked unknowingly on a journey to study about the samurai of the old Japan, only to discover my own family, long-forgotten deep in Japan's past. My great-grandfather, it turned out, was trained to be Japan's finest samurai.
Japan, Thank you for these beautiful memories.
Labels: destiny, family, great-grandfather, japan, memory, photo
