For the first time, I would have to use marker to erase my whiteout. This book contains 50 stories of Empty Suitcase, a special edition of Overstuffed Suitcase (by Aaron Kasza), and other articles that I wrote for the Preface. Two years commitment was done this May 2009 to make this book not so empty. This book is available in my apartment for viewing only, behind bullet proof glass, and laser trip mines.

Chell Witter's Photo Collections

"This Admirable Miry Clay" by Talia Reed

Pebble Lake Review is out!

June 5, 2009

My ring is awesome! (He picked it up for me. I am learning that he has a great seance of my style. He is not just a death metal guy.)
A lovely picture with his father.Aaron signed in a marriage certificate.
And I also signed. (I could not repeat vow because I forgot English. I will practice it by January!)

I, Naoko Fujimoto, got married to Aaron Kasza today, June 5, 2009. I would love to say thank you for you who supported and raised me until today and will continuously be a part of my life.

I do not feel different yet; however, I am slightly excited writing this letter beside my bouquet (here is the picture) and thank you very much to the flower shop, Ehninger Florist, in downtown South Bend.


The florist made a beautiful pink and yellow flower bouquet for me in only 15 minutes without an appointment!

“I am going to get married at 2:00pm this afternoon.Could you make a bouquet?” I said.

The florist looked very confused. Probably I was a short Asian girl wearing a tiara and a dress made of kimono who just came from an Asian version of Alice in Wonderland without a groom. I always wanted to get married holding favorite yellow flowers. The florist made my dream come true, thank you.

Even though the marriage license office at the courthouse is dark and gloomy next to the child support office, the officers were very kind. They helped us to make an appointment with the judge and gave us many congratulations.

Before Aaron and I officially got married, we had a wonderful lunch at Macri’s Italian Restaurant on Nile Street. Thank you very much for joining lunch with us, Mr. Kasza, Grandma Kasza, Kelli, Tom, Kerstin, Christina, Tom’s parents, Seianna, Michelle, and Chell.

Thank you very much for providing lunch and helping with the judge, Mr. Kasza. (Aaron and I thought we were to pay downstairs with the paperwork and subsequently walked out of the courtroom, oops). I really hope that Mrs. Kasza feels better soon. See you soon!

Thank you very much for the generous gift, Grandma Kasza. I am so glad that you were there to witness my happy day with Aaron.

I am very excited to make actual wedding plans with you, Mrs. Kasza and Kelli, (she is a talented designer/ architect). It will be fantastic with your fabulous ideas!

Tom, Kerstin, and Tom’s parents came to the lunch after they stayed over night at the hospital with their daughter. I am very glad that she is now smiley and cute again. Aaron really wanted to sit next to you, Tom! He was telling me about it the entire lunch time!

Seianna and Michelle, you guys are amazing and warm hearted buddies! Seianna, let’s talk about the design of your bridesmaid’s dress and proposal at your internship at the public TV station. I cannot wait to talk to you about more wedding party stuff with Amanda! (We miss you, Amanda who is in a Chemistry research project at Kent University for the summer!) Michelle, I will see you tomorrow at the reference desk (we will talk about this : ) and I really liked your purple shirt today.

Chell, my beautiful artistic friend! I am so glad that I befriended you too. Thank you very much for taking all the pictures. I could really see that you are a professional photographer. I cannot wait to see you and the pictures next week!

I am really glad that I am a part of the writer’s community. Without you, Charmi, this community would have never became a gathering of future writers. I am sorry for the loss of your grandmother. Let’s meet sometime soon with your lovely, Kanfoo freshman, Jojo : )

Erin, thank you very much for the tiara and all wedding gadgets. It really moved my heart that you brought them to the library. Your wedding story was very helpful in making our wedding ceremony plans. See you next Thursday! (Yes, Kathy, Yes, Barb, we are hard workers. We hardly talk at the reference desk.)

Thank you. Actually I do not know how to adequately thank my mother and father who always pray for me over the Pacific Ocean and never complained (yes they are sometimes quite big complainers) about your non-traditional Japanese daughter. They would have loved to join the courthouse wedding today, but they cannot leave Japan right now. They will visit South Bend next January however, for a wedding ceremony for family and close friends.

I would like to thank you to my sister Fumiko. She updates everyone with family events and news by occasional emails. I am always looking forward to reading her daily stories. Please keep sending them even though I am a horrible letter writer.

I will write and enclose some of today’s pictures to my parents, grandmother Fujimoto, grandparents Ichihara, Leif & Elizabeth, and my close Japanese friends: Momo, Mizuho, Akiko, and Natsuko. I miss you guys so much.

Well, now my small (but entertaining and large celebratory mixing American and Japanese cultures) wedding ceremony will be in January. (The wedding shower will be in November). My guest lists are only twenty of my closest people due to limited budget. Aaron has even fewer friends, but a very large extended family totaling seventy guests together. We are going to have two weddings: one in South Bend, and one in Nagoya, Japan, so the budget is of serious concern.

I will start discussing my wedding dress and bride maid’s dress arrangements with an award winning designer, Yumi Cottle. She is a member of the costume makers at the Shakespeare festival at Nortel Dome University. AND she is from Nagoya, Japan! Even though she is currently very busy with her foster children, moving situation, and the ND festival, she tries to work for me as best she can. Thank you, thank you very much, Yumi-san.

My concept of dresses is one that gives everyone the flexibility to look beautiful in their dresses. The dresses should be simple but elegant, and hopefully the bride’s maids can wear them again in future party occasions. So each bride’s maid will chose their favorite dress style in lavender (they may be able to customize their own colors…I am still working this out). Amanda, Kelli, Seianna, and Chell: we are going to have fun with this process of custom order dresses.

Art, good food, and the corroboration of Japanese and American cultures are the themes of our wedding. I will update day by day in my blog about the preparation of the ceremony. I am thinking that art and poetic corroboration with Chell and all art stuffs deigned by me will be gifts for guests. Aaron will be a director of music. Death metal is prohibited by his mother, but he is sure to get creative in his workings… Maybe some progressive metal or something :)

In the end, friends who do not receive invitations, please, please do not feel abandoned. It was decided to be best kept a small ceremony, and the list itself would easily get out of hand with any flexibility. Trust me, we tried to work more into it but couldn’t without someone feeling left out. I am still up for having lunch together while I stay in South Bend however, so everyone can enjoy this with me.

Aaron— I will wait for you tonight wearing bunny ears and eating a carrot.

With lots of love,
Naoko Fujimoto
(or tsuma-chan as Aaron so cutefully calls me)

How Do I Love You Knowing I Will Eventually Lose You?
After a missing poet in a Japanese island, Kuchinoerabu-jima


When a poet kept walking..........walking toward the east
..........and fell down from a cliff in the end of April,

you held my hand..........Will you marry me?

..........and I said, “Yes”

because I thought—

you’re not the kind of guy who dies before me
..........or my life won’t be directionless

...............after your death;

for example, I’ll make love with your best friend

in our bed on the day

...............after your funeral.

Crickets make a bell-ring in the still of night.

The Japanese sky is so much dark
..........blue glass passing over..........the poet

closed his eyes to inhale the blue—

..........You sing Wagner
...............and I throw away the wounded flowers.

***
I really wish that Craig Arnold sleeps peacefully in a Japanese island...

I was reading a post by Talia in Greg's Blog. The list of interesting blogs are available here.

JUNE
for my brave friend, n.a.

It would be easier if I did not exist—
On my twenty seventh birthday,

a French airplane
disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean and my mother

told of a miscarriage hidden
from me for twenty eight years.

Don’t leave our home—
Her tears dripped on the newspaper

and red table cloth.
Paragraphs and paragraphs of rain

blot out the facts that I wanted.
I smelled June ink instead.

How quiet the kitchen was.
It was dyed in empty green like milk

glasses. A nursing bottle
drifted out to turbulent waves. A passenger

held a burnt baby. They see
shattered windows

falling from the sky
and know how to return to the earth.

Naoko and Aaron are going to get married on June 5th.

Next Friday, Baby!