What I've been up to since High School?
I attended Kapiolani Community College out of High School and graduated with an A.A. degree in Liberal Arts. Transferred to U.H. Manoa, and earned a degree in Accounting in 1991. I wanted to switch my major to Education during my senior year and become a teacher, but I would have to spend another 1.5 years. Being in school for 5 years was enough and I wanted to get out.
The first job I got out of college was with Servco Pacific Inc. in Accounting at the Corporate office. And later transferred to the Automotive Division as a Marketing Management Trainee. It was the most exciting job I had working in advertising, marketing, product planning, promotions and car shows. And of course driving cars I could never afford. I was part of the last group of "New Trainees" that attended "Boot Camp" at T.F. Game Ranch with the late Servco Chairman/President Tom Fukunaga during the frozen Canadian Winter. Winter was the hardest tour of duty because we had to fertilize all 100+ fruit trees with horse manure. And I'll never forget "Papayas on top of the Pineapples."
I left Servco Pacific Inc. for Graduate School at Hawaii Pacific University, and did really well. But I didn't feel I was learning anything new. With the high cost of tuition, and other interest that required my time, I left with about a year to go. Looking back, I wish I would have completed my MBA. I not sure why that piece of paper still mean so much to me.
My time and energy was devoted to the Honolulu Japanese Junior Chamber of Commerce (Jaycee). The mission of the organization is "Leadership development through Community Service." The hightlight has always been the Cherry Blossom Festival, where I chaired many projects including the Queen Pageant. I concluded with the honor to be the 46th President, and traveled to the Neighbor Islands, Los Angeles, and Japan, including a visit to the Imperial Palace where we met Princess Sayako. The Jaycee experience fulfilled a lifetime of being in the arena. In the end, I was burnt out.
I arrived in California in 1997 to start over, and quickly got a job at Stanford University Alumni Association. Then got involved in Sponsored Research Project where I was the Senior Financial Analyst with the Dept of Pathology at School of Medicine. My responsibility was to do financial reporting on the grants and contract awarded by the federal government for medical research, to ensure that funds that were spent were justified, allowable, and allocable. It's interesting to know that researchers are so close, and yet so far, to an answer to illnesses such as cancer or aids.
My free time was mostly spent on my car. My then brand new 1997 Honda Civic was fixed up before the license plates arrived. Improvements in suspension, wheels, intake, exhaust, engine, audio system spared no expense. I was never part of the Import Scene and avoided illegal street racing (ok...only did it once). I was becoming too old for the Fast and the Furious crowd. I sold my Honda to a younger person who had plans for it before she even saw it.
My wife and I got married 6 years after we met. Without $700,000+ for an old rundown house, there was no other option but to live outside the San Francisco Bay Area. We lived in a beautiful house way out in Central Valley of California. Our drive to work was 2 hrs one way, on a good normal traffic day. That's 4 hrs a day on the road. Waking up the whole family at 4:00am and getting home sometimes at 8:00pm, it's not something we wanted to do anymore. Plus the risk of being on the road for that long, there was no time to really be a family, with the addition of our son being born. So we decided to leave California for a more simple life in Arizona.
I "retired" while I took on the job as Mr.Mom. It's a position I would not want to trade. Some said that taking care of a child is hard work. Well, it's never work when it's someone you love.
Like former U.H. Football coaches Dick Tomey and Bob Wagner, I too, joined the University of Arizona. Not, not in Football, but for the Dept of Chemistry. It was a mirror image of my old job at Stanford except for the 115-degree summer heat. It make work more meaningful to know that in some very small way, I'm part of something that help provide funding to develop instruments to detect chemical weapons currently used in the Middle East. Currently, I'm with the College of Nursing, where I'm involve in funding for regional health centers in rual areas of Arizona and near the Mexican boarder.
Without a car to work on, I had to get something else to tinker with. The latest project I'm working on is my 2006 Nissan Sentra SE-R Spec V. Although it's almost track ready direct from the factory, I just can't resist in fixing it up, and completed the project in less than one month. I would like to compete in the SCCA Solo competitions locally here in Arizona. It's my new hobby, and I'm sure there's a lot to learn.
In the future, I would like to return to Hawaii. Time on the Mainland has given me many new opportunities. Arizona is where I live, it's home, but somehow I feel more connected with Hawaii. Maybe it's the land, the air, or the water. I think you know exactly what I mean.
11/15/06