Did you all know that Satomi is professionally-recognized traditional Japanese dancer? She’s been dancing since she was 3 years old.
Satomi received her “natori” (professional title) back in 1996 and her professional name is Hanayagi Tokusatomi.
This photo was taken a few years back and includes everyone affiliated with the group. Sensei is the older lady with no makeup in middle of the first row. Can you tell which one is our Satomi?
Hard to tell with all the makeup, huh? The dancer to the right of sensei in the photo is our girl.
Sensei passed away in 2006 so the entire group gathered to join the Nisei Week parade to pay tribute.
Here is Satomi with our good friend Peggy. She also has her Natori and her professional name is Fujima Kisei.
I spoke to Satomi’s mom about odori. She said that back in Japan the different Odori schools are basically different clans and you chose them for life. Intermingling was not encouraged. Rivalry could be a better description. Interesting!
So maybe Satomi’s and Peggy’s ancestors were bitter rivals that battled for dance supremacy?
Sorry, my imagination can get the better of me sometimes.
Here’s a wikipedia link for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_traditional_dance
As you can imagine, I have a bunch of photos of Satomi and I. I’ll post a few of them for giggles.
I edited together these photos to make a short movie. I think it adds to the drama.
If you can’t tell, Satomi had a hold of my neck and took me down when I tried to throw her into the wave. She has a crazy grip for a munchkin sized person.
During the same vacation in Hawaii as that video dunk. Dig those tans! She looks so happy, huh?
I’ll post more when I dig them up.
So I went ahead with reducing her bedtime meds again. This time no Ambien at all, only a small bit of Oxy and her normal Ativan. This morning she’s sleeping like a rock. She did wake up when I gave her morning meds but went immediately back to sleep. No eating. No drinking.
It’s now lunch time and she still out cold. On a positive note, there is no signs of pain or agitation. I’d be happier if she drank some water at least.
We have some friends visiting later today and her entire family will be here for dinner so I’m going to let her rest up now. Hopefully later will go smoothly.
Unless something changes, I’m not going to reduce her medication again tonight. I want to let things stabilize for a few days.
Sorry I clumped some school and work pictures together. Satomi was getting tired so there isn’t much organization to these things.
I tried to put them in chronological order using Satomi’s changing hair length and style as reference. Besides that, who the hell can tell how old she is?
I “accidentally” edited out the beer in Satomi’s hand. Now only her friend Charro looks like a lush.
One of what seems to be endless PT parties. When did you guys study anyway?
Here’s a pic of our Satomi and our angel from New Jersey, Sandra back in ’93 or ’94 when both of them were in Physical Therapy school at Cal State Long Beach.
I also found a bunch of photos from a Halloween Party and a mermaid costume but I think it may be too risque for this PG-13 blog. I’ll just have to hold on to that one.
Satomi's Cancer Blog 
