<Begin Segment 45>

[Translated from Japanese]

TY: After you immigrated to Japan, I mean to the U.S., you found some events like Thanksgiving that you didn't celebrate in Japan. Such events, how did you do, how did you...

AT: We celebrated Christmas.

TY: In Japan as well?

AT: I don't know in Japan.

TY: That was after you came over here.

AT: Over here, yes. In Japan, we didn't even think about celebrating Christmas, when we lived in Japan. But, recently, we celebrate Christmas. In this country, we celebrate Christmas. Nowadays, all, all the children do that for me. They take turns. They take turns and tell me who does what the next year, and they say, "Grandma, go to this house. They take care of it tonight." Sometimes, I tell them, "I don't want to go, so can you just bring me some dinner." [Laughs]

TY: Have you been celebrating for a long time since your children were small? In American society, people in general celebrate Christmas, right? But, the Terao family has been with the Nichiren-shuu. But, did you do it after all?

AT: We do it. If we didn't do it, children would have pouted. They have friends that were both Christians and Buddhists. If we didn't do it, they would be embarrassed. So we did it every year.

TY: Thanksgiving and Halloween, too?

AT: Yeah, yeah, the same thing for all the events.

TY: These events, how did you learn? Like what kind of food you eat, what kind of things and what you needed to do.

AT: Yeah, of course, children learned it from others. They said that at so and so's house, they were going do such and such things. So I said, "Then, let's do such and such things here, too." We said such things. That, the children, they all went to school together. They insisted that some people made such and such things at their home. If we didn't have it at our home, they said, "Gran," um, "Mommy, next time you should make such and such things, you should make them." Now, I don't know any more. I don't care now. After all, among children, if they found out that they didn't have the certain things at their home, they would want to have it the next year. I saw some tendencies like that. They were doing that to each other. Now, all my children have grown older, and once they had their own families, they really couldn't say so many things any more, after all, how should I say, I just think that we have been just carrying out the old custom.

TY: Did you still practice otoshidama and nenshimawari even after you came here?

AT: About nenshimawari, we just wrote letters or called people on the phone. We didn't do it as much. Little by little, we became slow about it. Christmas, we still celebrate. Even if we don't celebrate the New Years that much. My family, we still celebrate Christmas. But, our children, too, even if I talk about the New Year's day, they just say, "Oh, it is the New Year's day," and they don't appreciate it as much as Christmas.

TY: After all, it is not a general event...

AT: Yes, that's right.

<End Segment 45> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.