<Begin Segment 5>

TI: Now did you ever go to, like, the city, like San Francisco?

PF: Yeah, yeah, and then we went to the fair, San Francisco Fair. That was 1935, I think.

TI: And what was that like for you to go the...

PF: Oh, it was fun. My father would take us, four of us, yeah, we'd go there.

TI: And would you ever visit, like, the Nihonmachi in San Francisco?

PF: Yeah, yeah, we'd go there, and then right here in San Jose town, my grandfather used to come every week. But we used to come here, yeah, and see Japanese people. And then Bon Odori, the Buddhist church had every year Bon Odori, yeah. So my mother used to put the kimono out for everybody, so we used to dance. Oh, and I loved that. Sometimes we'd come one or two days, but practice, but you're young so you could do it. But right now you do it in ten days' vacation, you forget. [Laughs] But I loved to dance.

TI: And how big was Bon Odori back then?

PF: Oh, we used to do... not on the Fifth Street, on the Jackson Street. And the singer people would get on a truck. There was a truck there, and the dancer. And it's like one block like that and make a circle, yeah, couple of circle.

TI: It sounds like fun.

PF: And everybody could dance. It's nationality, right now it's all mixed. Yeah, it's not all Japanese, no.

TI: But back then...

PF: It was Japanese, more or less like it was Japanese. But now, it's all mixed. Again, the guys dance too.

TI: In the old Bon Odori, did they have lots of food and things like that?

PF: Yeah, yeah, they had food, yeah. And we used to wear that long sleeve, yeah. Everybody dressed. I loved that, the dance.

TI: It sounds like a pretty good childhood that you had.

PF: That I tell you a hundred percent, I was happy, yeah.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.