Watermelon Sushi World

Monday, September 30, 2024

Fall N2 Hapa Holidays

Aloha, Hip Hapa Homeez!

At last, we're in the process of setting up several online ‘stores’ where you can purchase our merch—like buttons, posters, stickers and t-shirts for your ‘hapa holiday’, hapas!

Under the banner of ‘YayoiClanArt’, there will be several designs for our films: ‘Tokyo Lily’, ‘War Brides of Japan’, and ‘Watermelon Sushi’; ‘hapa*teez’ for mixed-race folks, ’T_zing’ for the metaphysically inclined, ‘Vegan*Jin’ for those embracing the eating of plants and not animals; and finally, ‘Palm Island Tropical Tease’ which showcases island culture.

‘Tokyo Lily’…war bride. wife. mother. artist. poet. dancer. seamstress. home chef. …

‘War Brides of Japan’…Japanese women who married American military men after WWII endured many hardships including raising mixed-race children while navigating a new language and culture…

‘Watermelon Sushi’…a film about two biracial sisters that explores identity, family, love, birth and death against the backdrop of 1980’s African American hiphop and Japanese traditions…

‘hapa*teez’…for the mixed-race community, no matter how you choose to identify…

’T_zing’…designs for spiritual folks include both Asian and Western Astrological symbols, as well as other metaphysical signs from world cultures…

‘Vegan*Jin’…art that embraces vegans and animal rights activists. the word ‘jin’ is often used in Japanese language to denote benevolence…

‘Palm Island Tropical Tease’…a gentle ocean wave, a cooling breeze, a swaying palm; welcome to the peace & zen of caribbean & pacific islands in Tropical Tease…

YayoiClanArt is reflective of Yayoi Jidai, a period of artistic achievement in Japan. It’s believed that the Yayoi Clan crossed the Korean peninsula 2,000 years ago to settle on Honshu. Not only were they the first to cultivate rice in Japan, they were also fantastic artisans and created bronze works, especially temple bells.

Our store links below will be made clickable as soon as they become functional over the next few weeks:

RedBubble

Teepublic

Zazzle

If you made a purchase at our former Cafe Press store, then rest assured we have your donation for ‘Watermelon Sushi’ noted in our records and you will be credited on the movie. Here just a few of our generous supporters:

Andye

Teri

Cassie

Ro Lee

Carol

Eva

Julia

Ejiro

Meanwhile, in other news:

‘WAR BRIDES OF JAPAN, A DOCU*MEMORY’ can still be viewed on Gumroad. The five part series includes interviews with Japanese war brides, their husbands (and former enemies), their adult children, and their grandchildren. There’s an intro and trailer for each segment explaining the stories before you watch it.

https://watermelonsushi.gumroad.com/

War Brides of Japan website
War Brides of Japan on Youtube

War Brides of Japan on Facebook

'TOKYO LILY, A WAR BRIDE DOCU*MEMORY’ is still fundraising and still in its research stage. The story of Tokyo Lily (or Yuriko), a war bride who eventually became an artist, should be completed in 2025. Arrigatou! to all of our past donors whose names can be viewed here:

Tokyo Lily website

donor page

Tokyo Lily (left) in front of one of her paintings

‘WATERMELON SUSHI’ is in the editing stages thanks to our Executive Producer Lowell Douglas Ing. We are so proud of how the footage has held up all these years and the stellar performances of our amazing actors. The narrative will feature a vintage look with hiphop music from the mid-1980’s.

Watermelon Sushi website

Watermelon Sushi on Youtube

Watermelon Sushi on Facebook

selling copies of 'Watermelon Sushi' chapbook with Tokyo Lily (left) and her husband

We’re now preparing for 2025 interviews. Are you a mixie with something to say? We’re always looking for folks exploring their ethnic identity. If that describes you, drop us a note.

Have a hapa fall!

Your Hip Hapa,

Yayoi

Sunday, June 30, 2024

Summer Sushi And Tokyo Watermelon

a normalized mixie!

Aloha, Hip Hapa Homeez!

In the 18 years that we’ve been publishing this blog, a lot has changed for us mixies. We multi-culti folks have grown from being a minority within minorities to becoming a rather large presence as more people mix and mingle outside of their own racial groups.

Unlike back in the day when I was growing up, today there are numerous commercial advertisements featuring interracial couples and sometimes their mixed kids. Wow. We’re actually becoming normalized! Hopefully, in the future, seeing mixed-race families will no longer be surprising or shocking to anyone.

Apologies for this quarter’s slim blog, but the new news we have to share continues to be the old news we’ve been sharing.

War Brides of Japan, a docu*memory

First, the ‘War Brides of Japan, a docu*memory’ series is still available for viewing on Gumroad. For less than the price of a latte with foam, you can learn all about these brave Japanese women who married their former enemies:

War Brides of Japan, a docu*memory

https://watermelonsushi.gumroad.com/

Since late last year, we’ve been crowdfunding for 'Tokyo Lily, a war bride docu*memory'. With the money we’re raised so far, we were able to get hours of super 8mm and mini DV tape footage digitized. However, we still need more donations for animation, music and for licensing WWII images.

Tokyo Lily, a war bride docu*memory

Here’s where you can help us:

https://crowdfundr.com/tokyo-lily?ref=ab_3TBXPWE4mYE3TBXPWE4mYE

Watermelon Sushi

And, finally we’ve been editing ‘Watermelon Sushi’ which our Executive Producer (award-winning filmmaker Lowell Douglas Ing) recently had digitized. This feature narrative was first shot in 1998, and today, we have beautiful 8K vintage footage that reflects 1980’s hip hop. The story of two Japanese and black sisters searching for identity also features a deep message of acceptance.

https://watermelonsushi.com

Lowell Douglas Ing sets up his camera at Tokyo Lily's house

We’re also fundraising for that film, and you can donate to it or ‘Tokyo Lily’ at the top of this page. Family, friends and fans of ‘Tokyo Lily’, ‘War Brides of Japan’ and ‘Watermelon Sushi’, we are enterally grateful that you have helped us make these films possible.

Meanwhile, we’re back to interviewing anyone with a multicultural background, or who has projects about the subject matter. Drop us a line if that’s you!

Please check out the links below to learn more about our impactful movies.

Watermelon Sushi website

Watermelon Sushi on Youtube

Watermelon Sushi on Facebook

Tokyo Lily website

War Brides of Japan website
War Brides of Japan on Youtube

War Brides of Japan on Facebook

HAPA summer!

Your Hip Hapa,

Yayoi

Sunday, March 31, 2024

Enter the Dragon with War Brides, Watermelon Sushi and Tokyo Lily

Aloha, Hip Hapa Homeez!

Welcome to the New Year of the Wood Dragon (as of February 10). So far, the charming and fiery creature has propelled us forward—and, fast.

dragon time

For one, we are now in possession of our original ‘Watermelon Sushi’ reels converted to 8K! The footage is just gorgeous, subtly vintage, and with an authentic 1980’s look.

watermelon sushi

Thanks to our Executive Producer, Lowell Douglas Ing--a Dragon himself, we will now complete the film that’s been languishing for decades!

dragon Doug Ing

Currently, we’re busy editing, but we’ll soon be recruiting animators, composers and voice actors for some scenes that weren’t shot the first time around. If you fit any of those talent and crew categories, please get in touch with us.

Meanwhile, we’re also working on ‘Tokyo Lily a war bride docu*memory’. This film is a continuation of the ‘War Brides of Japan, a docu*memory’ five-part series that was released in 2019. But the focus of ‘Tokyo Lily’ is on one war bride who eventually became an artist.

Tokyo Lily

War Brides of Japan, a docu*memory

Ironically (or not), today is ‘Tokyo Lily’s’ fake birthday. Unbelievably, she celebrated two. Since the cut off date for the birthdays of kids starting school in Japan is April 1, 'Tokyo Lily’s’ father reported her birth as March 31. So even though ‘Tokyo Lily' was really born on Buddha’s April 8 birthday, she commemorated both. Otanjoubi omedettou gozaimasu, Yuriko-san!

Since we’re using some of the same sources for both ‘Watermelon Sushi' and ‘Tokyo Lily, a war bride docu*memory’, we’ve made a slight change in our donation link. Please note that any contributions you make may be marked either for ‘Watermelon Sushi’ or ‘Tokyo Lily’.