My Wife ("Dorami-chan")
My life changed forever (and for the better, I think)
when I married "Dorami-chan".*
Dorami-chan grew up in Tokyo, Japan, the daughter of a carpenter. She studied French at
Dokkyo University.
After working for a while in Japan, she left her parents "Fil" and "Millie" and her brother in Japan, and came to Canada to learn more French. She had heard Canada is an officially bilingual country (English and French), but did not realize that government policy doesn't always reflect reality. She chose to study in Toronto, where hardly anybody is a francophone! Still, she liked Toronto so much, she stayed. Over fourteen years, she worked for various Japanese companies in Toronto. We met at the 1996 Toronto International Film Festival. We took a while to discover we shared all kinds of interests and values, then finally tied the knot in 2000.
She squeezes toothpaste from the middle of the tube and leaves caps off pens, but otherwise I (a Virgo) think we are a very good match. We laugh every day. Thanks to her, I don't have to go through what the singles on Blind Date do! In 2005, she brought a new life into the world, for which I will be forever grateful. Dorami-chan's likes:
Dorami-chan has a Certificate in Teaching Japanese as a Second Language from the Center for Japanese Studies at Portland State University. While we were in Portland, she tutored college students of Japanese and was a popular volunteer teaching assistant for the Moshi Moshi Project, an interactive Japanese language distance learning program for elementary students that has been going on in Portland Public Schools since 1996. The project aims to help prepare Oregon's children for the global society of the 21st Century. When we were in Victoria, Dorami-chan made use of the local branch of the Greater Victoria Public Library. Some of the titles she enjoyed included:
In Kingston, we live in a house with a yard, and Dorami-chan is learning about home improvement and gardening. Although her father "Fil" is a carpenter, when she was little he would not let her watch him work, because of the potential dangers of home construction sites. And even though her mother "Millie" is from a farming family, Dorami-chan grew up in a small house with no yard in a big city like Tokyo, and thus never learned where food comes from. She enjoys the Kingston Public Market, one of the oldest continuously operating ones in Canada. She does a bit of Japanese language tutoring, but there isn't much demand for that in Kingston. In 2005, she took on a new responsibility. Dorami-chan keeps in touch with her best friends in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Florida, Toronto and Vancouver by phone and e-mail. They are just like the Satellite Sisters of the radio show. More about Dorami-chan later!
Dorami-chan's blog, where you may find, among other things, Runker Room urabanashi (behind-the-scenes stories) * Dorami is the sidekick of my mascot Doraemon, the blue robotic cat of Japanese comics (manga) and cartoons (animé). |