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’. 

Additionally, ‘Tokyo Lily’ has her own crowdfunding page here:

https://crowdfundr.com/tokyo-lily?ref=ab_bCoUv9_ab_3e8AhlTqLsY3e8AhlTqLsY

It goes without saying that none of these projects could exist without you, our generous supporters. We truly appreciate you!

Please visit our December post below to learn about some of our most ardent contributors.

Here are some links to where you can stay updated:

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

Let’s meet again in June, mina-san! have a Hapa Haru (spring)!

Your Hip Hapa,

Yayoi

Wood Dragon and Watermelon Sushi

Aloha, Hip Hapa Homeez!

Are you ready to leave 2023 behind while embracing the incoming Wood Dragon?

While we’re still over a month away from Lunar New Year, we can already feel the excitement of what the Wood Dragon year will bring.

Watermelon Sushi

For us, it’s all about Watermelon Sushi. In fact, our Executive Producer, Lowell Douglas Ing, is a Dragon!

We’re almost ready for editing all the footage that Doug is currently having digitized. Besides adding new hip hop tunes to our decades-old project, we will also be incorporating animation to complete the story.

Follow us and stay updated. We’re everywhere!

You can heck out our website here:

https://www.watermelonsushi.com/

And, you can also meet us here on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/watermelonsushi

There are so many folks to thank for their dedication to this project over the years. Some are no longer with us on this planet. But here’s a partial list:

b.r. Winfrey

Rob Lee

the late Derrick Holmes

the late Jaz Dorsey

Darlene Romero

Joe Calhoun

Mike Reed and friends

Mia Gonzalez

Johl Smilowski

Pearl, Jr.

Quie Bwoy

Miwa Lyric

Larry Gamell, Jr.

the late Eric Eugene Doboy Williams

Our late Facebook Friends Jeffrey Daniels and Correnna L. White

All of our Hapa*Teez t-shirt supporters, although this is an incomplete list:

Cassie Hayes

Eva Abram

Julia Baker

Teri LaFlesh

Ejiro

Z Enterprises

Lisa M. Corey

Leslie Morishita

Lola Mann Smith

Corinne D. Spector

Carol Harris

C.A. Harris

Aja Robinson

Tracy Hatico

Rob Lee

Eva Abram

Ejiro

Julia Baker

Carol Harris

Cassie Hayes

Our gratitude also goes out to all the high school, colleges, universities, newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations, and internet websites and community organizations that have invited us to speak and/or featured us in their publications and other media.

See you at the end of March when The Dragon will be in full force.

Akemashite Omedettou Gozaimasu, Hau'oli Makahik Hou, Happy New Year!

Your Hip Hapa,

Yayoi