<Begin Segment 7>

MN: Now other than like the judo, shiai, and you going through Little Tokyo to go to Chuo Gakuen, how often did you go, did you and your family go into Little Tokyo?

KM: Oh, I'd say we probably went down there once a week or so. I think that grocery shopping, the things that my mother wanted were, so she'd go, went down to shop in Little Tokyo. So maybe we used to have more, go down and have dinner. And I remember one time when, my first experience of going to lunch with my dad, you could go in there for two bits or something like that and get a meal. But his favorite dish was hamyu at this restaurant, Far East or something. Order hamyu and napa soup and two bowls of rice, I think it was not more than two bits or fifty cents.

MN: For those who didn't grow up with hamyu, what is hamyu?

KM: Well, it's a mixture of pork fat and... what do you call it? Funyu. And I don't know how you make it, but I remember my dad used to make it and freeze it. And I remember, I think he was about eighty-five or eighty something years old when the doctor told me to, "Tell your dad to cut down on his eating of that hamyu." And I told the doctor, "When you're eighty or eighty-five years old, you don't tell the guy what he can't eat or not. Let him enjoy life." [Laughs]

MN: Like and on these visits, did your father treat you to anything special like candy? Did he buy you little things like that at all?

KM: No, I don't recall, but I imagine I had my share of candies. I still like candy.

MN: Now at home, what kind of food did you eat? Was it Japanese food or American food?

KM: You mean at home?

MN: At home.

KM: Predominately, my mother was all Japanese food, all kinds. And then once in a while she learned how to make an English dish, well, she may have made it, but that's very rare. She's used to making Japanese food, so she might as well do things that are easier for her.

MN: So by "Japanese dish," you have rice, and what else did you have? What kind of okazu did she make?

KM: Well, we had a lot of fish dishes. I think Japanese, they would love the fishes, so I like fish today.

MN: Where did she purchase the fish from?

KM: Huh?

MN: Where did your mother purchase the fish?

KM: Well, the fish, you couldn't store it, but we used to have what they call icebox, so we used to get a delivery man to unload a block of ice in the, what they call icebox, not a refrigerator. And then store there, but we used to have a fish man that had, we used to go around to the various Japanese neighborhoods and sell fresh fish off of his truck. And so she used to patronize that one, too.

MN: Did he sell other items other than fish?

KM: Oh, yeah. He probably carried rice and some other Japanese staples.

MN: What kind of fish did you mostly eat?

KM: Fruit?

MN: Fish.

KM: Fish? Oh, fish, well, it was sashimi, predominately tuna, and sea bass, any kind of fish, you name it. Octopus, too, oyster, abalone, everything that's sort of scarce today.

MN: You had oysters, huh?

KM: Oysters are getting scarce.

MN: Now, did your family eat a lot of meat?

KM: No, I would say that probably not as much as the Caucasians. Because it was mostly, my mother wasn't very... what do you call it, efficient cook that would cook a nice roast or something like that. She never had time for it 'cause she was running that laundry. So anything that was quickly, so the meats would always usually be fried or something like that.

MN: Now I know you weren't living on a farm, but did you keep chickens?

KM: No, I remember... when I came back from the army, my dad used to raise rabbits for meat. But he didn't have the heart to kill 'em, so he had to ask a friend of his to come over and do the killing for him. [Laughs] But he used to sell the dang fur, I remember, to somebody.

MN: What does rabbit taste like?

KM: Hmm?

MN: What does rabbit taste like?

KM: Tastes like chicken. About the same taste.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.