Is he your dad?

Being the only Japanese kid in my class during elementary school kinda sucked sometimes.  No... it wasn't because I was bullied or picked on.  It's because people always assumed that I ate fish and was good at math.  Well... they weren't wrong, but that's besides the point.

And having Fujimoto as my last name only made it worse.  Kids who didn't know me asked the same questions over and over.  Do you own that mountain in Japan?  Where can I get some of your apples?  Can you get me some free film?  

I could handle those questions.  Most of the time I'd roll with it and tell people that my parents sold the mountain to buy the film company, so I didn't have anymore apples that happened to only grow on Mt. Fuji.

But one question was asked more frequently than any other.  Is Mr. Fuji your father?  And well... the answer is and will always be... of course he is.

He's just not the famous wrestler who threw salt in people's eyes.  As a kid... and even as an adult... my father always taught us the importance of an individual's character and to represent the family name in a positive way.  

Cheating wasn't part of his teachings.

So even though I was a huge fan of Mr. Fuji and his antics, it kinda annoyed me that kids envisioned my father to be like him.

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Thirty years later, my students still get ask me about the mountain and apples.  And every now and then, I'll hear a question related to the film company.  But thankfully... nobody has asked me if Mr. Fuji is my father in years.

My guess is the majority of my students aren't fans of wrestling and the ones that are have never heard of the famous wrestler.  But that makes total sense, since none of my students were even born the last time Mr. Fuji made an appearance in the WWE at WrestleMania XII nearly nineteen years ago.

I wonder if he'll show up tonight at Levi's Stadium at WrestleMania 31.  If any of my students asks me if Mr. Fuji is my dad tomorrow, I'll know the answer.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!