[Date & Time] ①Sunday, April 26, 10:30 ~ 16:30, ②Tuesday、April 28, 10:00～19:00[Spots] ①Hotel in Meguro ② Meguro- Ninomiya- Odawara[Guests] American woman in her 40’s (three children ages 12- 17)
[Attendant] KSGG Member
[Language] English
This is the first request via KSGG’s new web site. An American woman in her 40’s, (mother is Japanese, father is American) living in California requested KSGG to arrange for her to have an interpreter when she meets her grandmother in Japan. She moved to the United States with her parents and sisters when she was 10 years old. This was her first visit in 32 years and she has forgotten Japanese. This guest family needed an interpreter. On April 26 around 10:30 am, the American woman and her 3 children met her grandmother and relatives in a hotel lobby in Tokyo. She introduced her children to her relatives in Japan and talked about her present life. The relatives talked about her childhood. Around noon they had an udon lunch at a noodle restaurant. Then they enjoyed shopping at a shopping center in Meguro station. As her grandmother was tired the meeting was over around 4:00 pm On April 28, a KSGG member took the American woman and her three children to her grandmother’s house in Ninomiya, about an hour from Tokyo. In the house they talked about their old stories again and looked at old photos. The grandmother gave small Japanese gifts to the three children which made them very happy as they were curious about Japanese items. Around 3:00 pm they walked on the nearby beach. Relatives then took them to Odawara Castle. After having dinner at a family restaurant they said good-bye at Odawara station around 7:00 pm. They hugged each other many times. The grandmother kept saying, “Why do you not stay longer?”. The KSGG member spent two days with the American woman and her children and shared happiness and grief with them while working as their interpreter.