<Begin Segment 21>

TI: Okay. So you're, I think of you, so you come into Seattle, you're a young woman, what were your impressions of Seattle versus Beaverton or Boise? What was Seattle like for you?

TH: I didn't remember any...

TI: Well, in terms of, did it seem like a bigger city?

TH: Oh, of course.

TI: And what about the Japanese American community? Did they seem different?

TH: I moved into the YWCA, so they were all hakujins.

TI: In downtown?

TH: Yeah, Fifth and whatever. So other than that... I just associated with Japanese here, though

TI: And where was your sister living when she was in Seattle?

TH: In Seattle, I mean, on Spruce Street. Lot of Japanese around there.

TI: She was already married by this time?

TH: Uh-huh.

TI: So what was it like being a single woman living at the YWCA downtown Seattle?

TH: We had a lot of fun. [Laughs]

TI: So tell me about that. What kind of fun did you guys have?

TH: I think the third floor was the kitchen, and we can cook in there. And you know, you could cook for yourself or invite your neighbor or something. It was a lot of fun. And one night we decided we'd go to, this Caucasian girl said, "Let's go down and see what they do with the shuffleboard." And I said, "Okay, where's that?" And she said, "At that tavern right there." [Laughs] So that was my first experience in a tavern to see what shuffleboard was, but I got scared and I said, "I don't want to stay here." [Laughs]

TI: Because it was a bar, it was a tavern.

TH: Yeah. But she used to like to play that. I don't know, you scoot the round thing.

TI: And when you were in Seattle, did you do anything with the Japanese American community?

TH: Because I went to the Buddhist church. Right away I met Yoshi (Mizoguchi), Yoshi Miyauchi and Anna Kurata. And so we always did things together.

TI: And what would be some of the activities that you would do together?

TH: Well, we invited each other to... see, we all, I worked for my room and board and I can't remember. And Yoshi Hiro, her dad owned N-P Hotel. So anyway, we went to each other's place to eat or cook or something.

TI: And were you a little different because you lived at the YWCA? Or did the other girls live in similar places?

TH: No, Anna (...) had her parents. No, they all lived at home, I was the only one that was homeless. [Laughs]

TI: And how would you compare the Seattle Betsuin to Portland?

TH: Or Ontario?

TI: Or Ontario? Because the Seattle one, that's a pretty nice Buddhist church.

TH: I thought, wow, it's a big church.

TI: They have a gym there and all those things.

TH: It was pretty nice.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.