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MK: But my father had a Japanese bath (built). We had to go through the window, climb through the window, and he had a Japanese...

BY: Like an ofuro?

MK: Yeah. So we had to climb in and out of the bath. And the window stayed, so when we didn't use it, it closed, so you have to crawl. [Laughs]

BY: Did he build the ofuro, do you know?

MK: Hmm?

BY: Did he make the ofuro?

MK: Oh, no. He had carpenters work on the house.

BY: That sounds pretty nice, actually, to have an ofuro out your window. [Laughs]

MK: But we never had a toilet on that floor.

BY: Yeah, that's hard.

MK: So we always had to share a toilet with the...

BY: The tenants.

MK: ...with the tenants.

BY: So how many tenants were there at any given time, would you say?

MK: I would say I know there was at least eight downstairs.

BY: Wow, that's quite a few tenants.

MK: Yeah, because there were just single rooms with gas plates.

BY: And did your mother cook for all of those people, too?

MK: Oh, no, they cooked for themselves.

BY: Oh, they did? Okay.

MK: Yeah, she had to cook for just us.

BY: Okay. But she was in charge of cleaning and doing the laundry and all of that.

MK: Yeah, just the sheets. So I don't know how they did their laundry. They were responsible themselves.

BY: Yeah, wow. That's very, very interesting. So your mother was busy, I can see.

MK: And then it even had an attic, the house, so I remember staying there at night sometimes, on summer nights.

BY: In the attic?

MK: Yeah, in the attic. And that's where we stored our belongings.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.