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TI: When... the other thing, and the way I got to know you was through your church. Can you tell me a little bit about the significance of that church? You mentioned a little bit of the history, but it's a pretty amazing history.

MO: Yes. That church is 120 years old. In fact, the first... you saw that Nobuko Miyake? She's one of our pastors now, the most recent pastor. And the first pastor was... the consul general of Japan became a Christian. Oh, this is -- sorry, I can't remember right now.

TI: Oh, that's okay. But the name of the church? What's the name of the church?

MO: Harris United Methodist Church.

TI: And was this primarily a Japanese, Japanese American church?

MO: Yes, uh-huh. In fact, it was, because there were, a lot of pastors are Japanese, and so in order to accommodate both those people, we have a... in fact, just last Sunday, last Saturday, we had a memorial service for one of our 102 years old pastor that just passed away, Reverend Tanabe. But that's how it is. Our church is really well-known. The first pastor, his wife... oh, he was a consul general of, the Japanese consul general, and he was a drunkard. He always drank sake. So the New Year's Day, they would send big barrels of sake to our Japanese consulate. And the wife got so mad she said, "No more sake." She just went and busted all the sake barrels that came from Japan. [Laughs] So that's another lesson, no more sake.

TI: Oh, that's a good story.

MO: But anyway, it is a very historical church. So I'm, at this point, I'd like to invite you to come and join us.

TI: I will do that. That sounds like an interesting place.

MO: I have a seat in the last row. That's where I sit every Sunday.

TI: [Laughs] Okay.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright ©2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.