About

The driving force of Mixed Marital Arts or MMAritalArts

“Please write them down, so I don’t forget.”

This is my usual mantra to my wife, Regina, whenever a to-do, to-buy, to-note, to-whatnot arises in our home. Her memory is so keen, while I tend to forget; hence, my need for notes to catch up and avoid conflict. I guess this will also be a rule that I will pass on to our kids, Iva and Uri, as they move along in our family journey.

MMAritalArts begins at a fun time when the growing eloquence of Iva – our three-year-old big sister – rubs with her innocence and growing curiosity, and baby boy Uri begins to mouth word after word after word right after turning one. With the whole world in front of them waiting to be discovered, this dynamic and loving duo have opened up a minefield of touching and crazy anecdotes well worth keeping in our book of memories. And as they continue discovering, Regina and I discover ours as well, as gaigokujin – foreigners – here in this wonderful, vast, and queer world that is uniquely Japanese. For that matter, I have gone on to consider myself a writer, as I joyously and intentionally write down and keep our peculiar family moments.

Life is sometimes a battle for memories, as time dulls detail and age dulls the senses. And so we try to collect as much as we can to remember as much we can of our treasured anecdotes; those ‘whoa’, ‘haha’ and ‘wow’ moments; life’s blessings and lessons; and whatever noteworthy thing the good Lord tosses our way.