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TI: So what other stories or things did your dad talk about? He has lots of these really wise sayings.

SK: Yeah. I always try to find the English version, but we used to play karuta. And that's, it's made up of game like "penny saved is a penny earned," or thing like that. "Ron yori shouko," in other words, truth is better than arguing. Always know the truth before you argue. It's a picture card, and one parents will read, then you have to go grab for that card.

TI: Oh, that's interesting. So it's a card game that kind of taught you values.

SK: Yeah.

TI: So it would be like you'd say one thing, and then you'd find the answer or the...

SK: Picture, yeah.

TI: ...the picture.

SK: Like they said "furuteru kasa, furuteru sasu," that means whether it's rain or shining day, what do you put out? That's umbrella. So there's a picture of an umbrella, you grab for it, see who gets more. But then they had a harder version where it's all written, sayings and stuff. More advanced, no pictures. You had to find the card.

TI: So this was a way of also teaching Japanese.

SK: Japanese plus proverbs, lot of them. Most of them were proverbs. "Inu mo arukeba bo ne otaru," means if even dogs, if they roam, they're gonna get hit by stick, stuff like that.

TI: Now, so was that common? Did lots of other, sort of, boys and girls your age do the same thing?

SK: I guess, I don't know. That was usually in the family. It's called karuta.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Watsonville - Santa Cruz JACL. All Rights Reserved.