Where Did I Come From?

Such an existential question.

A month after turning 30, it was confirmed that my father was adopted by my paternal grandparents. Granted, I sort of suspected as much more than a decade ago when I was still in high school, but having my grandmother finally tell the truth to my mom really hammered the point home.

I don’t have any problem with adoption per se. It was customary for Chinese couples like my grandparents to adopt a male child to carry on the family name in the old days, if they were unable to have one.

However, for a large part of my life I was left wondering who I really was. I was raised to be Chinese, raised by my parents and grandparents to be proud of my heritage. And I’m damn proud of being Chinese, my ancestors, the traditions and trappings that came along. I knew that the grandparents who adopted my father, were both from Xiamen, China, and I still regard that as my ancestral homeland.

It was just strange when I realized in University that I didn’t have eyes like my “pure” Chinese friends (e.g. those who could trace both sides of lineage back to China). And back in High School when I heard hints that my father was traded for two sewing machines from a half-Japanese couple who needed to make a living, for some inexplicable reason I bawled my eyes out. That’s teenage angst for you.

I’ve entertained idle thoughts about going to the Japanese community that settled in Calinan, the part of my country where Japanese settlers set up their plantations before World War II, and embarking on the grand search for my true grandparents like what I’d read about in Reader’s Digest. I’d think about the teary reunions. Hey, I might be related to the Japanese Royal Family for all I know, or at least give me the excuse to move to Japan and get a Nissan Skyline.

But nah. I don’t want to. I wouldn’t know what to do if I ever found them. And I certainly wouldn’t want to trade the memories and times I had with the grandparents who raised me. Those who put me through school, and loved me as their own grandson. The Amah and Angkong who helped me become who I am.

Anyhow, I’m okay with it now. Enough with the sentimentality, it doesn’t suit me, as my friends would say.

Regardless of who I came from, I’m still the Chinese guy who’s reasonably intelligent (well, I know how to use the Jinternet but not so sure if that’s a sign of intelligence), if a bit awkward person who rose up from being a lowly network cable crimpler to where I am in the IT world, with a moderately successful business on the side.

Well.

Writing this was certainly cathartic. I feel better now.

Thanks for reading, fellow denizens of the Jinternet. Trust that I’ll still continue to put more Junks on your Internets.

Super Aguri F1 Team Merchandise

I’ve received quite a few questions on where to get Super Aguri F1 (SAF1) team merchandise.

They’re quite hard to get, it seems. I was asking for SAF1 stuff at the Sepang F1 racetrack merchandise booths earlier this year and was met with blank, if pretty, stares from the ladies manning the counters.

 This unabashed fan of Takuma Sato and SAF1 has done quite some bit of rummaging around the jinternets and did find Bosco Moto, perhaps the only place you can see decent Super Aguri merchandise. They certainly have pretty stuff.

The Super Aguri F1 Cap

The obligatory Super Aguri F1 Polo / Pit Shirt

A cool-looking, if a bit impractical, Super Aguri F1 Backpack

 

Or… The All-You-Can-Eat Super Aguri F1 Team merchandise set (approx. JPY73,500/USD600), complete with several shirts, backpack, caps, trolleybag, neckstraps, beltbag, stickers and a brolly (umbrella to us US-English folks, for those rainy British GPs)!

That said, I haven’t tried ordering anything from them as I really don’t have the extra cash for an SAF1 shirt. Plus the fact that there’s no option to order online. Anyone from Japan want to send a pit/polo shirt over? I think my size is Medium.

I’ve also seen them being sold on Ebay.

BTW, you might see “Samantha Kingz” plastered all over the merchandise, and even on the Super Aguri F1 SA007 racecar. That’s because Samantha Kingz is the men’s line of leading Japanese fashion house called Samantha Thavasa. Why they would be pouring a lot of money (judging by the size of their sponsorship logos on the cars and merchandise) into F1 is something beyond me. Hugo Boss does the same with McLaren, but they’re not as prominently displayed.

All-in-all, cool SAF1 stuff from Japan, but always be careful about ordering anything over the internet!

Go Sato Go!

Reading the few entries here on my blog, one would get the impression that my favorite Formula One driver is Lewis Hamilton.

 True, I’m a fan of Lewis. I don’t get to watch the European-based feeder series such as F3 or Gp2 a lot, and don’t really pay attention to news bits about them. As such I only saw what Lewis Hamilton did in this season for my favorite championship-potential team, McLaren.

I also used to be a really big fan of Juan Pablo Montoya. Now that was a real firebrand on the track. Indy 500 winner and CART champion before moving to Formula One, he certainly showed what he was capable of when he was in the Williams team, showing Ralf how to race wheel-to-wheel with the latter’s brother, the great Schumi. Unfortunately things went downhill for JPM when he was paired up with Kimi at McLaren (a dream team pairing supposedly), and he left F1 mid-season and joined the American stock car series NASCAR, where he recently won his first event. WTG, JPM!

 That brings me to my favorite driver for the past seveal years. Bear in mind that I am fully aware that his hopes of winning the Formula One Driver’s Championship are quite dim, but still… Takuma Sato is my man.

Known as a crashaholic, Takuma Sato is a firebrand on the track. He’s not afraid to mix it up with everyone else, and is known to make bold overtaking moves. Granted a lot of times that those moves weren’t successful and often took him out of the race (and took others out too; who can forget that time Schumi slapped Sato on the helmet for taking both of them out of the race, haha!), he still is what I consider a real Formula One driver to be – a racer.

Schumi laying the smackdown on Taku:

Off-track, he’s also known to be an immensely likeable guy, if you believe F1 websites (I wouldn’t know as I haven’t met him, but he does seem to be always smiling). Plus he can be counted on to give excellent quotes like “very slippery oily stuffs“ after he crashed into the barriers one time in Monaco.

But that’s besides the real reason why I like him. For me, it’s because Sato had an exceptional entry to motorsports: He started karting in 1996, when he was already 19. Most other Formula One drivers started way earlier than that (Schumi and JPM began when they were seven). He impressed Honda so much that they put him in racing school and started him out in real racing.

Sato then moved to Europe to race in the Junior Formula series there in 1998. He was reasonably successful there, and cutting a long story short, ended up in Formula One in 2002 joining the Jordan F1 team with Honda’s backing (the latter wanted a Japanese driver). He got into the points at his home race at the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, much to the delight of the Japanese fans.

In 2003, he moved to Honda-backed British American Racing as a test-driver, but replaced Jacques Villeneuve at the last race of the season at Suzuka, finishing in 6th place.

He stayed there for until 2006, where he joined the Honda-powered Super Aguri team after being dropped by BAR. This team has had made an impact on the 2007 season, with Sato having four points and the team currently sitting at 8th in the Constructor’s Championship. Here’s a pic I took of him at the Malaysian Grand Prix this year:

 I certainly don’t entertain hopes of entering motorsports at my age, but it really gave me that nice warm fuzzy feeling that someone that I’m older only by a couple of weeks could get into Formula One at the ripe old age of 25. Go Sato Go!