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.