<Begin Segment 2>
JS: So can you describe the Fujimoto boarding house and business and what it was like?
BK: Well, I mean, the only thing I know is we didn't have too many chores to do because we had an older sister. And my chore was going (...) upstairs to empty the wastebaskets, and that was about it.
JS: How many boarders did you have?
BK: I think she had, we had twelve rooms. Yeah, we didn't have number thirteen, we had twelve rooms. And then downstairs, I remember Mom telling me... and to this day, I like shoes, and my mom used to say I used to wait for the shoe salesman to come, and I would get a new pair of shoes.
JS: So was the business a shoe store?
BK: It's a, it was a shoe store. And I think she sold a lot of work boots, and then, yeah, and then she had the rooms to take care of.
JS: Was it also a shoe repair, or just shoe sales?
BK: No, just selling shoes, yeah.
JS: Selling shoes. And so would your mother also provide meals for the boarders?
BK: (No, she just rented the rooms). And then only time that I know that she went to work outside the house was during cannery season and after we grew up.
JS: I see. So, so did she have to cook for the people that lived there as well?
BK: No, no.
JS: No. So it was just a boarding house.
BK: It's just a rooming house, yeah.
JS: Rooming house, okay. And then was there a bathhouse in town that you would go to, or did you have a shower and bath?
BK: No, we had a furo.
JS: Furo?
BK: Yeah. And then upstairs for the people that rented rooms, they had showers. Not individual showers, but, you know, community shower.
JS: I see.
BK: And we had regular running toilet, so I didn't know what an outhouse was.
JS: Oh, so very modern.
BK: 'Cause, yeah, 'cause I have friends that, you know, lot of 'em lived out in the country and they talk about outhouses, and I said, "Well, what is that?" And he said, "Well, that's where we go to the bathroom." I said, "Outside?" [Laughs]
JS: So who were the boarders who stayed? Were they...
BK: Mostly people that worked in the canneries. And then farm workers, and I remember -- and then they had a different entrance to go upstairs. My mom wouldn't let them in the front door, but we had an extra door that they had to use. And at certain time, she would lock it, so she won't get any...
JS: So did you interact with any of the boarders?
BK: No.
JS: You never saw them much?
BK: No.
JS: Okay.
BK: It's, yeah, it's like... 'cause Japantown was Japantown, so we kind of stuck to ourselves. And we didn't even, after school, I mean, we didn't even talk to the Chinese people. And we didn't know where the whites were.
<End Segment 2> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.