Meika Hashimoto: Hello. My name is Meika Hashimoto. Hashimoto means living by a bridge near a river. Like my Japanese ancestors, I grew up next to a river by a bridge, but half a world away in the mountains of Maine. Meika means beautiful smell, which caused me terrible embarrassment when I was young. My childhood was spent on a mushroom farm, and I was always worried that the scent of fresh fungi wasn't exactly beautiful. I prefer another meaning to Meika, the one that my father gave me. Ka is part of my Chinese mother's name, Ka-Lin, so Meika in my dad's mind meant a beautiful part of my mother.