<Begin Segment 16>
TS: They used to have a deal where the Japanese businesspeople, they had a pot where they would put in so much --
YM: Tanomoshiis?
TS: Tanomoshii? Yeah. Put money in. And then somebody wants to borrow it, to start a business...
YM: (Yes).
TS: Or something.
SF: So did any of your parents belong to a tanomoshii?
YM: I think my folks, (yes).
CK: I think my folks did.
YM: (Yes), my folks did. They used to...
CK: Because somebody used to...
YM: Come collecting.
CK: Yeah. Come collecting...
YM: Come collecting down the store.
CK: Every week.
YM: (Yes).
SF: So when -- did your folks ever get the -- well, they must've gotten the pot once in a while, right? Or the money?
CK: I don't think so, my folks.
TS: You get interest back?
CK: I don't, I don't know.
YM: I never did ask --
CK: Oh, yeah.
YM: My dad, anything on that.
CK: You just see this one guy...
YM: Yeah, coming for
CK: Coming every week.
YM: Collecting for every month, or whatever.
CK: Yeah.
YM: And --
CK: They never told you what it's for.
TS: Boy, that kind of reminds me of Hideji's father. He used to go out every night. You remember Hideji?
YM: (Yes). I don't remember his dad.
TS: He used -- well, his foster dad.
YM: (Yes).
TS: And what do you call those Chinese things where you mark up?
YM: Bakape.
CK: Bakape.
TS: Yeah. Used to go around...
CK: It's a Chinese...
TS: Collect --
CK: Lotto.
TS: Yeah. Money on that.
CK: Or --
YM: They used to gamble and bring it down to Chinatown, and --
TS: There's a central place that collected it, I guess. And they made a drawing or something or...
YM: Yeah.
TS: Somebody won.
CK: They'd have a drawing and then --
SF: Was that mostly an Issei thing or a Nisei...
YM: Issei, no.
CK: That was --
TS: Nisei wasn't involved...
YM: No, not too much.
CK: No.
TS: Period. It was Issei.
YM: We were too young to be...
TS: But --
YM: Doing stuff like that.
TS: Yeah.
CK: That was basically the business of the Chinese, I thought.
TS: It was a Chinese business.
CK: Yeah.
TS: But the Japanese would gamble a lot.
CK: Yeah. Yeah, they would gamble what -- it's just like the Chinese gambling places. You find Japanese people there.
TS: Yeah. Well, there again --
CK: They'll let you in because of the fact that you're...
TS: Yeah.
CK: Oriental.
YM: Well, Chinese and Japanese, well it's, they were in the same --
TS: General area.
YM: General area there.
TS: Yeah.
YM: In fact, after King Street, it was mostly Chinese, wasn't it?
CK: After King Street? How do you mean?
YM: Yeah. I mean, around King Street, it was Chinatown.
CK: Oh, yeah, well...
TS: Except south of --
CK: Above Maynard Avenue, yeah.
YM: Yeah.
TS: Yeah.
CK: Because there were very few people, Chinese people, below Maynard.
TS: Oh.
CK: As far as I know.
<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.