<Begin Segment 26>

TY: [Jpn.] By the way, you lived in Sunnydale which was far away from the Japanese community. What did you do about food? I mean, how did you get your food?

MK: [Jpn.] Food?

TY: [Jpn.] Yes. Where did you buy it?

MK: [Jpn.] Oh, food. If you come to Japan, no, if you come to Seattle, there are many outdoor groceries. I heard there are. Although I don't come here and so I don't know.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] That's what I heard since I came here.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] There was everything.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] There is a tofu maker, a tofu store, a fish store, a grocery, and then oh, you don't have to worry about a place to eat lunch.

TY: [Jpn.] Yeah.

MK: [Jpn.] Well, what is here. Oh, yes, Kinkaro. Kinkaro sold Chinese foods. Though it was owned by a Japanese.

TY: [Eng.] Uh-huh.

MK: [Jpn.] Then if you are a Japanese, of course, you want to go to a Japanese restaurant.

TY: [Jpn.] Yes.

MK: [Jpn.] Some run restaurants, don't they? So if you come to Seattle, you can get everything. Yes.

TY: [Jpn.] Yes, but Sunnydale is far away.

MK: [Jpn.] It is far away.

TY: [Jpn.] You didn't have a chance to come to Seattle.

MK: [Jpn.] So I had nothing. No Japanese foods. Uh-huh.

TY: [Jpn.] Then, what kind of meals did you cook?

MK: [Jpn.] So, you had to eat American foods. American foods.

TY: [Jpn.] Potatoes?

MK: [Eng.] Yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] Meat?

MK: [Eng.] Uh-huh.

TY: [Jpn.] Then, eating fish...

MK: [Eng.] But...

TY: [Jpn.] Yes?

MK: [Jpn.] Sometimes we bought fish in Seattle.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] And now Uwajimaya...

TY: [Jpn.] Yes.

MK: [Jpn.] The father. The father of the current owner was living in Tacoma.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] So he came there and did business. So many people were happy, I heard.

TY: [Jpn.] Yeah.

MK: [Jpn.] Uh-huh. The father did the business.

TY: [Jpn.] I understand.

MK: [Eng.] Uh-huh.

TY: [Jpn.] Then did your husband or father go to a Japanese town to do shopping?

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah. But when my father was alive, he didn't go out.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] My husband went shopping sometimes. Uh-huh. Yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] Did you miss Japanese foods?

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah. I did.

TY: [Jpn.] Naturally.

MK: [Eng.] Yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] Particularly since you are from Fukui Prefecture where you get wonderful fish from the Sea of Japan.

MK: [Jpn.] That's right.

TY: [Jpn.] You must miss it.

MK: [Jpn.] Of course, I did.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] Japanese people cannot live without fish.

TY: [Jpn.] That's right.

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah. I didn't care for meat very much. Though it's changed now.

TY: [Jpn.] Yes.

MK: [Eng.] Uh-huh.

TY: [Jpn.] Then you hardly had a chance to eat fish.

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah. But sometimes a man came to sell fish.

TY: [Jpn.] Oh.

MK: [Jpn.] You could buy it.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah. Besides, if you like fishing, you can go fishing.

TY: [Jpn.] Yes.

MK: [Jpn.] So you can catch yourself.

TY: [Jpn.] Yes. Then you cook the fish.

MK: [Jpn.] A lot. In Seattle there are a lot of shiners. About this big.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] Didn't you call that shiner? A small one. This big. I heard there were tons of them.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Eng.] Uh-huh.

TY: [Jpn.] How did you eat them?

MK: [Jpn.] Then perch. A perch is about this big. A round fish which looks like a perch. Perch. I hear there were a lot of them. I have never seen one.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] I heard about it a lot.

TY: [Jpn.] So people here were eating those kinds of fish.

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah. Uh-huh. So if you go fishing, you can have fish anytime you want. Yeah. There were a lot in those days. It's different now, though.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] We had everything in those days. Now less and less.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah. It cannot be helped.

TY: [Jpn.] So you were too busy with the greenhouse, and you didn't have time to come to Seattle to eat Japanese foods?

MK: [Jpn.] No. No. No time.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] I have never been.

TY: [Jpn.] Did you wish you could eat it?

MK: [Jpn.] But, on the fourth of July...

TY: [Jpn.] Yes.

<End Segment 26> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.