<Begin Segment 4>

MA: Did your family celebrate any holidays or have any special traditions, you know, when you were growing up?

KY: When we were growing up? Well, my mother did cook New Year's, celebrate New Year's. We used to play, you know what karuta is? The Japanese cards, we used to do that. And what else?

MA: What types of things would she cook for New Year's celebrations?

KY: Well, you know the red rice, the sekihan red rice, mochi, of course, we had chicken on the farm, so I'm sure we had chicken. [Laughs] And let me see. Well, my mother didn't, she was, she was not a meat eater. In those days, that was unusual, but my mother never ate meat. And I don't think she even ate chicken, so we had a lot of vegetables off of the farm, just go out and pick your vegetable and eat on the farm. But this being New Year's, I don't know, she must have bought the vegetables, but my mother was a vegetarian in those days.

MA: Was there a reason why she didn't eat --

KY: I don't know, never found out. Never found out, but she never ate meat. But she died early, at age fifty. [Laughs] She died when she was fifty years old, so even being a vegetarian, she had high blood pressure. Going back to the New Year's, okay, we did have omochi, sekihan, you know the nishime, the cooked vegetables? I don't remember too much else, but we did celebrate New Year's.

MA: Did you celebrate with just your family, or were there neighbors coming over?

KY: Mainly, mainly, uh-huh. And we did invite a few people, I remember.

MA: But I think the main New Year's celebration is eating that omochi, the New Year's omochi. That, that was the main menu.

MA: And I guess day-to-day dinners and stuff, would you have Japanese food?

KY: Always, always. Japanese food meaning rice and vegetables, tsukemono.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.