me, me, me

I was born at Seventh Day Adventist Hospital in Rangoon. I was probably the only Caucasian in the maternity ward, and for years I did not realise I was Caucasian. As an adult, in part because I discovered I was not identifying as Caucasian, I also began to not identify as male, heterosexual, American, etc. Not that I'm not those things, but I often find those mindsets counterproductive.

 

Just before I was conceived, political change came to Rangoon. When I was three, and my family had spent five years in Rangoon, we were scheduled to return to America, but the church asked my father to stay in Rangoon. The Burmese government had instructed all non-Asian missionaries to leave, so we left.

 

I was raised in Rochester, New York. I say raised, because growing up is something I try to do every day. Summers I taught water skiing at a camp in Maine. I bought an old motorcycle and drove out West to work at Alta, Utah for a season. I then worked in the Bay area, studied Swedish while working in a factory in rural Sweden, and worked as a ski guide in Austria. Next I was a migrant labourer in Spain, a water skiing instructor on an idyllic island in Greece, and a motorcycle courier in London. Also in England, I taught slalom water skiing with the world's #2 skier. I sailed a 1920s Grand Banks schooner around the Caribbean, and then, like my mother's father, became an attorney.

 

I began studying Japanese just before law school. During law school I lived in Ishinomaki on the JET Programme. I studied a semester of law school in Japanese and English in Tokyo, and interned at a think tank in Tokyo. My Japanese is natural. I lived in Western Japan for years, and when I tell a person s/he is an idiot, I do so with a Western dialect.

 

I became a New York attorney, and practiced in New York City. I went to work for a Japanese game software company in Los Angeles, and became a California attorney. Japan’s largest law firm moved me to Tokyo. After four years in Tokyo I moved to Osaka to work for an international transactions boutique.

 

My Japanese name, Masahisa Minamoto, appears on my Japan driver's license. After 20 years in Asia, I moved to America in 2017. I live in Denver, Colorado.

 

Like most, I took the religion of my birthplace, Buddhism. I meditate several times a day. May you be happy and well.