From Hiroshima With Love
Let's go back...
During my senior year in college in America in 2006, I met my good friend Goki in South Carolina before my journey abroad to Japan. He was an exchange student at my university in South Carolina and then I traveled to Japan and became an exchange student in Osaka; it was my first time abroad. The journey was amazing and unforgettable, and it was then where I met his mother Saiyuri and his family.
Road trip from Osaka to Hiroshima with my friend Goki Sato
The Grand Torii Gate in Hiroshima, Japan 2006
- Noriko, Me, Goki
Goki's mother Saiyuri (front middle), invited me to spend Christmas with the Sato Family in 2006 at the NCO Club in Hiroshima, Japan.
Nearly 20 Years later
The reunion surprised me, but what I had experienced was everything...
I haven't seen my friend Goki in a very long while, he was still living in Japan and raising his family, but we were still able to keep in touch throughout the years. I had been traveling abroad extensively for work, but I was never able to make my way back to Japan to visit.
At the end of 2023, he told me he was coming to be in South Carolina to visit his mother and we were able to meet up for the first time in nearly 20 years. I thought it was great that we could finally link up in America, and that I could see my friend and his family again.
But the circumstances of his visit was a heavy one for sure.
There is Power in Family
A family called home to gather. Brought all of the love they could muster and used that loving energy to help extend a loving life.
Sayuri's Doctor looked her in the eyes, and told her she only had 2 weeks left to live.
Sayuri Sato is fearless. I remember hearing stories about her adventures abroad, spiritual enlightenment journeys, and about her everlasting love for her family. I had no idea, that when I would meet her this time around that her health was in question.
She told me that when she was in the hospital, she had come across a soulless Doctor that told her that it was all over, and by this time in 2 weeks, she wouldn't last. With the unyielding strength in her faith and spirit, Saiyuri essentially said "F" that! Left the hospital early on her own regards and called her family home from all over to meet her in South Carolina.
Kirby, Goki, Brandon
Brothers came home with their families to add to the love needed for the mission
Together
The energy that was summoned home and the power of the physical connection from her sons and daughters and their families, prolonged her life and strengthen her in one of the most beautiful ways I have ever seen.
It's been months since that time, and she is still doing here alright.
2006
2024