Now that Jameelah and I are married, people come up to us and ask “So what’s it like being married?” Being married, like being in love, or running for Senate, or eating your first slice of Italian black winter truffle, is something that cannot be understood unless you’ve experienced it. It is magical, like you’re [...]
“Public safety is our number one concern.” I hear it at resident meetings and business meetings. Seattle Police Department (SPD) officials, the Mayor and City Council members all say that improving public safety is a top priority. However, decisions by them appear to be in conflict with improving public safety. Under the City’s current budget [...]
Despite these hard economic times, one hopes that each of us can find reasons to celebrate. It may be the birth of a child or our parent’s 60th birthday. In these hard economic times, we also continue to mourn our losses, whether it be diminished job security or violence in the home. Within this dichotomy, [...]
The Yellow Peril. Remember that? It was when the surge of Asian immigrants arrived in America and white counterparts felt threatened: Chinese were apparently taking over the labor force, the Japanese were promoting military expansion and Filipino men were attracting white women. Yellow Peril first emerged in the nineteenth century and continued to be a [...]
Numbers are interesting. They can measure, time, analyze and rank someone. But to what extent can numbers really tell about a person? According to statistics from the Census Bureau and data from higher education, Asian Americans rank highest among the five major racial/ethnic groups in the United States in college degree attainment and rates of [...]
I realized I could have described our travels better in previous posts, telling you of women gracing the streets in white dresses bordered with colorful embroidered flowers, and cafes where mariachis in full regalia serenade sighing lovers sipping margaritas while the scent of roasting meat wafts over from street carts selling tacos and tostadas, pungent [...]
I recently made my annual summer visit to Whistler, B.C. Unlike my high expectations for great food in Vancouver and Richmond, I usually have low expectations for the restaurants in Whistler. However, I finally found a restaurant that I am excited to return to. The Rimrock Café is not for the budget minded, but well [...]
I am sitting at an internet cafe in San Cristobal, Chiapas, scratching my toes from numerous ant bites and typing these words while trying to navigate the Mexican keyboard. Please excuse in advance the terrible punctuation (I cant find the apostrophe key! But look, heres this cool upside down exclamation point, which lets me say [...]
Parking. There is no other topic in the International District that is wrought with so many myths and misconceptions. Parking is not a problem. But it seems that everything else associated with parking in the neighborhood is a problem. Unless there is a Safeco or Qwest Field event that draws more than 35,000 people, one [...]
This is my last column as a bachelor. By the time you read this column, I’ll be a married man, which is almost an incomprehensible concept to those of us who have never been married. I might as well say, “by this time next week, I’ll sprout wings and turn into a unicorn.” Three years [...]
I first met Ray Chinn in 1991 when I started working in the ID. He and other family members owned the Rex Building and operated the Wa Sang Grocery store next to Tai Tung Restaurant on King Street. The store closed in 1997, but Ray has remained an important leader and role model in the [...]
Last year, Light Rail opened to great fanfare at Othello Station. A coalition of neighborhood groups, including the Martin Luther King Business Association (MLKBA), organized the Othello On The Move festival to celebrate the long-awaited launch of Sound Transit’s Light Rail passenger services on July 18, 2009. In the many months preceding July 1818, the [...]
As midterm elections approach, immigration reform has moved to center stage as the nation debates the pros and cons of enacting new laws tightening restrictions for illegal immigrants crossing our borders. Much as we might like to think otherwise, Washington state is not immune from that debate. As they have many times before, certain persistent [...]
A year ago, Captain Lou and his volunteers stepped up to a call to save Little Saigon. Lou, who is retired and is now a hobbyist freelance videographer spent endless hours to meet with youths, elders, and city council members to help me to capture the history of the Little Saigon neighborhood. The City of [...]
Volunteering at a food bank or soup kitchen, like paying taxes and flossing, is something that everyone should do. Much like flossing, I felt ashamed that in all my years, I had never done it, so to make up, I went and spent a couple of hours at the Rainier Valley Food Bank. I was [...]
My son plays ice hockey, so there are many hours which to write or to talk to other parents at the ice rink. Greg, the father of one my son’s teammates, asked me, “What’s with all the rift raft in Chinatown?” He commented that he eats in Chinatown but does not feel it is very [...]
To the Editor, In International Examiner Volume 37, No. 11 (June 2, 2010) issue, in Michael Yee’s column, “What’s in a Name?”, he refers to Nihonmachi or Japantown as one of the names used for Seattle’s Asian ethnic neighborhood. Who refers to this district as if it exists today? There was a Japantown prior to [...]
Dear readers: Mentorship with 17-year old Kevin has not been going well. He emailed Oprah one day asking for advice on how to be a great leader, which totally violated the mentor-protégé exclusivity clause, so I had to ditch him. Plus, one day, he showed up at my workplace and said, “Mr. Huy, do you [...]
I have a unique perspective on the impact of the larger economy on our local economy in the International District. The negative impact on commercial activity and business is significant. I receive calls from commercial tenants who request rent concessions because customers are spending less. Prime commercial storefront spaces sit vacant for months and now [...]
For some reason, I feel extremely appreciative of stuff lately. It’s a very strange feeling, since I’m so used to bitterness and sarcasm, but it made me realize just how lucky all of us are, to be alive, to have shelter, Netflix, access to flushing toilets, and tiny jars of jam at hotel continental breakfasts. [...]
Writing a column twice a month is really something new to me, in more ways than one. My experience working with Diem, the editor, on my very first column is testament to what I’d like to see more in the community. I was indignant at edits to my column at first, but realized that I [...]
I don’t consider myself a writer. I doubt anybody has ever described me as articulate. How is it that I find myself writing my first ever published column? Do I have anything to say that readers will be compelled to actually read? Apparently, Diem Ly, the young and thoughtful editor of the International Examiner, thinks [...]
Do you know who Hideo Nomo is? If you’re not a sports fan, you probably have never heard of him. Hideo Nomo was a baseball player. He was only the second Japanese player to play in Major League Baseball when he signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers back in the 1990s. (Masanori Murakami was the [...]
As the debate around the recently passed immigration law in Arizona clearly demonstrates, racial and religious profiling continues to be a real and urgent problem across the United States. Washington State is not immune to the scourge of this discriminatory behavior by law enforcement officials. Last October, it came to light that, instead of collecting [...]
Tomio Moriguchi is a life-long resident of Seattle. He earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Washington in 1961 and joined the family business, Uwajimaya Inc., in 1962 with the passing of his father, Fujimatsu Moriguchi. Tomio is currently its Chairman of the Board. Uwajimaya businesses include three retail Uwajimaya Asian Food & [...]
More so than ever before, I believe the chasm between adults and the younger generation has never been wider. We have a generation of young people who were born with the Internet and do not know of a life that existed before it. Unlike previous generations that spent time walking and playing in neighborhoods and [...]
Pick a place to visit this summer, any place in the world, and then imagine making a friend in that city, instantly. Now go onto www.couchsurfing.org, and on the “surf/host” page, select a region in the world, a country, and a city. Finally, click on, “List surfers on next page” and you’ll get a catalog [...]
Our Asian culture is a part of our identity that gives us a sense of pride and should be embraced. But when does it go too far? When does it restrict our desire for friendships outside our own race? In L.A., I can remember instances when after meeting people at a social event and exchanging [...]
Dear everyone, This weekend Jameelah and I went to the tulip festival. Surrounded by peaceful fields of colors, we were able to resist the urge to strangle stupid kids and couples who plucked tulips left and right. For some wacky reasons, there were a lot of Indians and Vietnamese people there. Apparently they really love [...]
Dear readers, every once in a while, even a silly humor columnist must delve into serious issues of national importance. Now that the Democrats have passed major healthcare reform, they should use the momentum to pass other important measures. Comprehensive immigration reform, for example, may be the next policy that the Obama Administration tackles. However, [...]
