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TI: For you, like hobbies, clubs, growing up what were some of your hobbies?

RH: For me it was music. I started playing the trombone when I was in third grade, just playing an instrument, and later on started playing piano, so music became really kind of an important part of my life growing up. And naturally, I mentioned we went to Japanese language school and, and also the church activities, but some of those were kind of important, too, just working within the community context of what, what it took to kind of help out at the, the church. We were more involved, actually, with the Eden Township area, which is in San Lorenzo, and so, it's a smaller Japanese community center area, and so we only went downtown to Oakland to the Buddhist church there on special occasions, basically, like the larger Obon or other festivals, so most of our activities were more in the San Leandro, San Lorenzo area, within that community. So, but it was, growing up and doing that, but for me, music was a big part of growing up.

TI: And why did you choose the trombone in the third grade?

RH: [Laughs] That's what my brother played, so it was in the family. It was already there. It was one of those things, well, you don't have a choice, this is your instrument. So I just started to play that, and then my, my mom really wanted us to try, all of us to try music in different ways, so they bought a piano. I remember having a piano in the house from very early on, and so none of them, neither of my parents played it, but they wanted us to learn how to play it, so they had a piano there.

TI: Did she ever say why, why it was important, music for the kids?

RH: Well, she just felt, just like, I guess she felt that it was important for us to have sort of a rounded experience in a way, and she did feel that music and art and culture was very important. And so she wasn't very much musically inclined, but she did do her own, she was actually in her own way a very good artist as far as doing other kind of crafts type of work, too.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.