half enough
"Half Enough" is Victoria's first regular column series. Opinions expressed in this column are not necessarily those of Discover Nikkei.
Stories from this series
What is a Jewpanese?
April 7, 2007 • Victoria Kraus
Someone recently asked me if I celebrated Passover because of my half Jewish heritage. I said I didn’t because I didn’t grow up practicing the Jewish religion. The only exceptions were when I went to a funeral for a family member on my father’s side or when I visited Jewish relatives on holidays. Other than that, I was Japanese, American and Buddhist most days of the week. I don’t even know what Passover really means. I remember learning a little …
Japanese School memories, Part V: Liking Asian guys
March 31, 2007 • Victoria Kraus
I didn’t have any crushes on the boys in Japanese school and it wasn’t because I didn’t like boys. My very first crush on a boy was in the first grade. His name was Jesus (as pronounced in Spanish). I had a crush on him because all the girls had a crush on him. He would chase the girls (the not-so-shy ones who liked to be chased) during recess. I remember liking that he wore a blue Batman t-shirt because …
Japanese School memories, Part IV: Field Day, Japanese school style
March 24, 2007 • Victoria Kraus
Undokai (Sports Day) is an annual event that schools throughout Japan—elementary through high school—hold during the fall. Undokai combines the Japanese word undo, meaning exercise, and kai, gathering. The undokai event stems from Taiku no hi (Health and Sports Day), an official nationally recognized holiday in Japan that commemorates the 1964 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo. It is like Field Day for schools in the United States with some differences. Field Day doesn’t commemorate anything nor is it an observed …
Japanese school memories, Part III: Not looking the part
March 17, 2007 • Victoria Kraus
I have a good Japanese accent. It’s so good that I can fool any Japanese person into thinking that I’m a native from Tokyo. The trouble is I don’t look the part. Fooling Japanese people into thinking I’m a fellow native is limited to phone conversations. Rarely do I fool someone in person. It’s like having one of those naturally inherent skills you don’t remember having practiced. Like basketball. Some are naturally physically coordinated. Others aren’t. Height doesn’t necessarily correlate …
Japanese school memories, Part II: My Japanese names
March 10, 2007 • Victoria Kraus
My full legal name is Victoria Emily Mariko Kraus. Growing up, I responded to Bikki, the Japanese pronunciation of Vicki, my English nickname. My mother, friends and relatives in Japan, and Japanese family friends in the U.S. all called me Bikki’chan. (The “chan” being the Japanese version of the Spanish informal, affectionate and kiddish suffix, “ito” or “ita”, as in the names Juanito and Juanita.) Before starting Japanese school, I was accustomed to the two versions of my nickname, Vicki …
Japanese school memories, Part I
March 2, 2007 • Victoria Kraus
I recently had a conversation with an old high school friend reminiscing what we did on the weekends growing up. She went to Catholic school on Saturdays to prepare for her first communion and confirmation while I went to Japanese school. Since one of the aims of this website is to preserve and share the experiences of Nikkei from all over the world, I thought I would take the month of March to talk about my “Nikkei” experience attending Japanese …
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