<Begin Segment 5>

TL: Let's see. I'm wondering if you could describe your family's restaurant. What did it look like and...

HN: Oh, gee.

TL: ...what did they serve?

HN: Oh, I remember he had a counter there. And then on the side they had table and chairs, and some with booth. And oh, he served American food. But I remember my dad used to make dessert. I remember he used to make pudding and pies and things. And oh, when it wasn't busy, after hours we used to play card games and things in the booth with our friends, 'cause next door, and next-next door, had kids our age. And then, oh, I remember we had a slot machine back in the '30s. [Laughs]

TL: Oh, my. Uh-huh.

HN: When the gambling was legal then.

TL: Sure. Was that pretty popular...

HN: Oh, yes.

TL: ...with the adults? What was the name of the restaurant?

HN: It was the Sunrise Cafe. And then next door was the Sunset Laundry. And then the other side there was a tavern right next to us, Mr. and Mrs. Nishikawa used to own it. And then they made tofu in their back.

TL: Oh. Probably lots of people --

HN: Used to buy tofu there.

TL: Buy it. Did your father buy the restaurant from someone else, and did he kind of buy the name or did he start it out himself?

HN: I think he had a restaurant first on Main Avenue...

TL: Oh.

HN: ...when we were babies. And then he bought that restaurant on Bernard Street. So I don't know how he got the name Sunrise. I guess, kind of like the Japanese sunrise.

TL: Could you describe the kind of customers that would come?

HN: Oh, there (were), mostly Caucasian. But on Saturdays quite a few of the farmers, Japanese farmers, used to come and eat at our restaurant. And that time my husband's father used to come and eat breakfast 'cause they'd bring their vegetables to the market and then they'd come and eat. So I knew his father when we were kids. And I knew my husband faintly 'cause quite a few of the farmer boys used to come in, too. So that was back in the '30s.

TL: Was this mostly serving breakfast and lunch or did he go all through the day through dinner?

HN: He had dinner too.

TL: Wow. Made for a long day.

HN: I know it. He was working all day.

TL: So your family ate all their meals there too?

HN: Uh-huh. Then we'd have to walk home to go to the hotel to go to sleep.

TL: Did he ever ask you and your sister to help in the kitchen, or were you a little bit too small?

HN: I think we were kind of young, so we never -- 'cause he had a waitress and my mother waitressed. And then we had a dishwasher. So I don't think we did much. We had to do our homework and we had to practice our piano lessons. We had a piano in the restaurant.

TL: Oh. Well, that's kind of unusual. Did anyone else come to play, or was it there because, for you girls to practice?

HN: And then they had that -- it was more like that play -- that piano where you could put the tape in?

TL: Oh, like a player piano?

HN: Player piano. It was a player piano.

TL: Oh.

HN: So we could just play, practice, and then if we felt like it we'd just stick the tape in and --

TL: To listen.

HN: Uh-huh. Or pretend like we were playing it.

TL: So the customers could even play music for entertainment.

HN: Uh-huh.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 1999 Densho. All Rights Reserved.