biwa: Japanese lute.
hakujin: Caucasian(s); white(s).
Issei: First-generation Japanese immigrant in America.
kawaiso: Pitiful; pathetic.
Nihon gakkou: Japanese language school.
Nisei: American-born children of Japanese immigrants; second-generation Japanese Americans.
yoshi: An adopted son; a son-in-law; a man who marries the eldest daughter in a family without sons and is adopted into her family to carry on the family name.
ken: A prefecture.