<Begin Segment 5>

JS: So did you used to help at the general store?

RN: Huh?

JS: Did you used to go and work there?

RN: No.

JS: No? You didn't have to do that?

KN: Would you get the sodas and drink a lot of the stuff?

RN: Yeah. When the church had some, Hanamatsuri or something, then a lot of the kids would come. I'd get ice cream cone, I'd help.

JS: That must have been fun. And then your mom, Mrs. Fujimura, she was quite an entrepreneur as well.

RN: Yeah.

JS: So, and then this is her business?

RN: Yeah, she opened a restaurant.

JS: It's the grand opening?

RN: Uh-huh.

JS: So can you tell us the name of the restaurant?

RN: Matsunozushi.

JS: And what did they serve at Matsunozushi?

RN: It was on E Street.

JS: On E Street.

KN: What does "Matsunozushi" mean, Mom?

RN: Matsu is "pine," sushi. "Pine sushi."

KN: But didn't it have a deeper meaning?

RN: I don't know.

JS: Well, pine is very symbolic, isn't it? Japanese pine? So this is... what year did we say this was? The grand opening. 1936, approximately?

RN: Yes, uh-huh.

JS: And they would serve all kinds of Japanese seafood?

RN: Yeah, all our friends, business friends, some businesspeople were sent a sack of rice or soy sauce.

JS: For the grand opening. It was like a congratulations? Looks very fancy.

RN: Yeah.

JS: Uh-huh. And you were saying there was another, there's a back room?

RN: Uh-huh, there's a big room in the back, where they used to have big company parties.

JS: Uh-huh, company parties, banquets.

RN: Banquet.

JS: And this is... so 1936, you were a teen, right? You were already in high school? No, this was after. This is when you were married.

RN: Uh-huh.

JS: You had gotten married. 'Cause your husband is in this photo, too, the celebration.

RN: Yeah.

JS: Okay.

KN: So what were kind of the specialties of, on the menu, Mom?

RN: On the what?

JS: For the restaurant. What would you serve?

RN: Sushi. My mother was a good cook.

JS: Uh-huh.

KN: Sushi, what else?

RN: Sushi and donburi. All you know donburi, huh?

JS: Oh, I do know donburi. What kind of donburi did she serve?

RN: Like oyako donburi and ten don and all that.

JS: And then you used to work here and help?

RN: Yeah, I used to help.

JS: There's a nice picture of you all dressed in a kimono.

RN: Yeah, uh-huh.

JS: Is that, you would wear that regularly?

RN: No. For special occasions.

JS: Special occasions?

RN: Special occasions, special customers, you know, the one that, steady customer. That's when I would serve.

JS: Wow, that's nice.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2010 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.