<Begin Segment 5>

MK: What kind of meals did you have on the trip? Packaged meals? Did you buy them on the train?

CE: Well, sometimes on the train. Where was it? When we went past Shizuoka prefecture, we started to see fish in our packaged meals and were told to watch out for it. [Laughs]

MK: Is that because it was not fresh and could be spoiled?

CE: Fukushima is far away from the ocean. Women in the region did not used to eat raw fish just in case. We were afraid of food poisoning.

MK: Did men get to eat fish?

CE: Yes, only men could eat fish. [Laughs]

MK: Was that because it was expensive?

CE: No, no. We were trying to avoid food poisoning. The ocean is far away from where we lived, and fish had to travel a long way. We were not supposed to eat raw fish. The ocean is getting closer though thanks to the modern transportation. Now, everyone is eating it. [Laughs] We would not even dream of eating raw fish when we were living in Japan.

MK: Did you eat tomatoes?

CE: We did not have tomatoes.

MK: How about lettuce?

CE: Lettuce...

MK: Lettuce came into the market after the war, I guess.

CE: That is right.

MK: I am assuming you didn't have celery either.

CE: We didn't back then.

MK: I bet you had spinach.

CE: We did have spinach. That is Japanese. [Laughs]

MK: And daikon radish.

CE: Daikon radish, nappa cabbage and kabu radish, you know.

MK: You grew them all.

CE: We were all farmers and grew them all.

MK: Did you learn how to sew?

CE: Just at school. I came over to the States while I was still learning. That's why I am not a great seamstress. [Laughs]

MK: Did you make waraji straw slippers?

CE: Waraji...

MK: I made them when I was a young child just in case we could not get new shoes.

CE: Oh, right. We did. We made straw boots too when it was snowy.

MK: It is very cold in Fukushima, isn't it?

CE: We were wearing those boots.

MK: You made them.

CE: We made them at home. We spent long winter nights making things when the cold season arrived. That was one of our activities. [Laughs]

MK: Winter season in Fukushima is pretty long. Did you read a lot under a heated table?

CE: We went to school and studied. We didn't really read for pleasure.

MK: Didn't you read any novels?

CE: I didn't read a lot.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.