Today I learned that our dear Japanese friend Tokiko Imai passed away last week. She was 44. I’ve no information about the cause of death, just a quick note on her Facebook page posted by her sister.

Tokiko was my administrative assistant when we moved to Japan in 1985. She was young, naive, delightful, a bit nutty, and spoke excellent English and Japanese. Her bilingual capability got her hired. She was the perfect match for Nina and me as we moved to Japan and set up our housekeeping. She traveled around Japan with us. She managed so many things for us that she literally became part of our family.

After a couple of years as my admin, an opportunity came up for her to move her career along and become part of the SAP Implementation Team for LSI Logic. I encouraged (pushed, actually) her to take the jump and move from being and admin to becoming an individual contributor. She never looked back. She’s been part of implementing and maintaining that complex software product at several companies ever since and traveling throughout Asia as part of her assignments.

She came to the administrative assistant position after escaping a very bad marriage in Oregon that lasted only a few months. After that she wasn’t very interested in marriage or even serious relationships. She lived alone, occasionally with a cat for company. Over the intervening years we messaged each other less often and now she’s just gone. It has been a sad day.

Meanwhile, on the health front, I think I’m back to about 80% and continue to improve.

Ta ta for now!