Densho Digital Archive - Mary Suzuki Ichino Interview I (denshovh-imary-01-0012)

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RP: Mary, tell us about this family from Maryknoll who sent the noodles?

MI: Yeah. They made the best, those real fat homemade noodles. I mean they weren't those little skinny little things. It was, it was made from scratch. And then they would have the best soup base on that thing. And then they would have fried tempura shrimp. So my dad and I, that was our beat together. We didn't go anywhere else but we would always hit that place. Gee, I wish they were open today. That was so good. I could have one now. [Laughs] And let's see, what other place did most people go... oh, and remember the Far East?

RP: People have mentioned that.

MI: Have you heard of the Far East?

RP: I've heard of it.

MI: The Far East is a Chinese restaurant and just about everybody used to go to Far East to eat. And they had these little cubicle like places to sit, go inside and sit and eat. And I think they remodeled it with the same concept. But at that time they had, everybody would order like sweet and sour pork or pork chow mein or fried rice, almond duck. Those were kind of like a standard. Egg foo young. Nothing anything other than that. Like some of these Chinese restaurants today, never had those other kind of stuff. We just had the down home nice homemade food. And so that's a nostalgic place and it's reopened recently. So that's another good memory. And then the photographers would be like Toyo. Everybody went to Toyo. Or Ninomiya, there was another photographer named Ninomiya.

RP: Ninomiya?

MI: Yeah.

RP: Can you spell that for us?

MI: N-I-N-O-M-I-Y-A. Ninomiya Studio.

RP: And so did you have pictures taken in Toyo's when you were growing up?

MI: No, Toyo has my graduation picture, my wedding picture, our family get-together picture. If I have to go back they have it. My grandchildren's picture now. Yup, they're the one. And then we had the, gift store was called the Rafu Bussan. And those are all long established. Everything else in Little Tokyo now is new. So it's, it's sad to lose those places. So I think they're trying to keep that going, and I hope they do. Yeah. Something from the past.

RP: So Sacred Heart high school is a Catholic high school?

MI: Uh-huh. It was called Sacred Heart Academy.

RP: Academy. Where was it located?

MI: It's on Sichel in Los Angeles.

RP: Uh-huh. How far would it be from say Little Tokyo or Maryknoll?

MI: Well it wasn't, it wasn't exactly close. 'Cause I remember we had to... I had to take the, at those days it was a streetcar, the F-car. Then get off at Soto, and then from there we got transferred onto a bus and get off at Sichel and then walk to the school. So it wasn't that, it wasn't that far but neither was it that close. Yeah.