Rio Hospitalized

Dear loyal readers & followers of Rio’s blog,

I am Rio’s son and I wanted to provide an update on the condition of my father’s health. Rio was admitted into the hospital on May 10 with aspiration pneumonia. I flew to Japan from the US to watch over him late May and arranged his transfer to a different hospital / hospice on June 6. He is visited regularly by his wife and sister-in-law. He is in good spirits and is communicating (although sometimes it is difficult to make out what his is saying). While I was there, he was able to FaceTime with his daughter, granddaughter, grandson, and great-granddaughter in the US.

Right up until he was hospitalized, he was avidly reading & writing various essays & articles, as he had done for many years since his retirement. He surrounded himself with books, newspaper clippings and interesting articles & tidbits that sparked thoughts and inspired commentary only he can come up with. Many of his musings have ended up on this blog.

Please do not send emails to him directly. He will not be able to access them and you will not get a response. The best thing to do is to direct all messages to me at kirk.imamura@gmail.com with subject line “Message to Rio”. I will try to find a way to get the messages to him.

Thank you for the support and friendship you have shown my father over the years. Kindly remember him in your prayers.

-- Kirk Imamura