<Begin Segment 15>

MR: How many times have you vacationed in Japan --

MY: After leaving?

MR: -- after leaving?

MY: Oh, five or six times.

MR: Quite a few then?

MY: Uh-huh.

MR: And what do you like to do when you go there?

MY: Well, we generally visit our relatives and friends, too, because we had a couple of students who came to America to study and they're all grown up, have families of their own, so we visit them too. Then we like to tour and to shop and to eat. It's always great planning our next meal there, and we're never disappointed. It's wonderful.

MR: Homer was talking about getting mushrooms here. Do you look for mushrooms there?

MY: Well, no, we didn't, but they do have mushroom stores. These open up during the season, and they have just mountains of mushroom at various prices and various stages of development. But we found that the Japanese mushrooms are a little different from the ones that we have here. They seem to be more aromatic. I don't know. The taste is very different. But we went to an inn once on our way to Kyoto, and we had dinner, and it was in the fall when the mushrooms were out, and they had sukiyaki on the menu, and they said, with matsutake, a certain price, without matsutake, much cheaper. And because it was so expensive, we decided to go without the mushrooms or the matsutake, and it was delicious. It was wonderful. So we thought, boy, we should have ordered the one with the matsutake, that would have been heavenly. But the Japanese do appreciate the mushrooms, and we've grown to be very fond of them too.

MR: Did you travel anyplace else? Have you taken trips for vacations at other places?

MY: Yes. We've gone to Europe, we've gone to Alaska, we've gone to Bermuda, we've gone to Tahiti. We've gone to Hawaii many times. Let's see, where else have we gone? That's probably about it.

MR: That sounds pretty good.

MY: It was fun.

MR: And since retirement, it sounds like maybe you traveled since retirement, but what else have you done since you've retired, activity wise in the community?

MY: In the community, well, when the Oregon Nikkei Endowment was starting up, we helped out with that and sat on the board for a while, and the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center started up at the end of the '80s, and opening of the park... not the park. But anyhow, we really got started in 1990, I believe. We were very much involved in that project also. I was active with Folk Fest until they disbanded, and I don't know. When there was a call to go out to different schools and organizations to give talks, Homer went quite often, and I went sometimes to the middle schools to speak to the kids.

MR: When you look back on all that you've done, it must feel quite rewarding.

MY: Yes, it was. I'm glad we did the work that we did. I should have done more. I wish that we could have continued, but we're ready now to slow down and to enjoy the opportunities that are coming up now, and we do like it here at Cherry Wood, and we look forward to getting involved in the work here too. I notice that a lot of the residents do volunteer work around the hospital and the areas in this neighborhood, and I think maybe Homer and I will get started on that too pretty soon.

MR: Once you're settled in?

MY: Uh-huh.

MR: We're sort of coming to the end of the interview. Is there anything that I didn't ask you about that you would like to talk about?

MY: I don't think so.

MR: Okay. Well, is there anything that I did ask you about that you'd like to go back and expand on?

MY: No.

MR: Well then, thank you very much for your time and your hospitality.

MY: Thank you, Margaret.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.