<Begin Segment 20>

TL: Back in Yanai when you were, I guess you would have been a teenager, what are some of the other social things you did when you weren't studying and going to school?

HN: Oh, well, we used to go to the beach, walk down to the beach because Yanai was right on the shore, shore of Seto Naikai, Seto Bay, I guess they call it. Oh, no, Seto Sea. And we used to walk down there. It was quite far, walking. Maybe about three, three miles. Then we used to go swimming because from school they used to take the whole class, the whole school, to take swimming lessons. And we used to walk down there. And gee, there's really not that much recreation in Yanai. Can't even remember if they even had a park.

TL: Did you go to maybe some of your school friends' houses?

HN: Uh-huh. We used to go --

TL: Keep company?

HN: -- visit. Most of them lived in different towns, so we had to take a train to go visit. And then we kind of helped our mother in the field, the rice field, go out there and plant rice and vegetable garden. So I felt like we didn't really have that much time to play because after you walk home from school it's quite late, and then we had homework. Then over, in Japan we'd go to school (five) and a half days. Go a half day on Saturday, so only day off was on Sunday. So yeah, they kind of kept us busy when we were going to school.

TL: In Yanai, were there community festivals or celebrations that you had never experienced before, like back in Spokane?

HN: I think they used to have a celebration at the temples. I remember during the New Year's we used to go there and play, oh, gosh, they had this board that, you hit the little ball-like thing. And we used to dress in our kimono. And they used to do dancing and things. Other things, I can't remember what other recreation they had.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 1999 Densho. All Rights Reserved.