Long lost

Yeah, so yesterday I called up a great aunt who lives up in Sendai whose existence I only learned about recently, through correspondence with my mom. I was kind of apprehensive at first just cold calling someone and saying, “Hi! Me gaijin! Me from America! We related!,” but that’s exactly what I did and it turns out she’s a totally cool lady. 88 years old, but she doesn’t sound like it at all. In fact, I was kind of surprised when she told me that she’s too old to travel around much anymore. I told her it’s cool, because I want to go visit you with my parents in October, so will you be around?
So that’s that. I’m finding more long lost relatives in Japan, and it feels extremely gratifying. Hell, if things work out, I might even be able to meet more in Hokkaido and Kyushu – man, my family is really spread out all over. Since I’m always saying I came to Japan to find my ancestral roots, it’s nice to be able to finally meet some of the actual people. I have great relationships with pretty much all the relatives I have met so far, and there are a few cousins around my age who I will really miss hanging around with when I embark on the next leg of this journey called life.