Densho Digital Archive - Dan Hinatsu Interview (denshovh-hdan-01-0016)

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BH: You mentioned Massie went to Japan just before you were married. How about you? Were you able to take any trips to Japan?

DH: Yes. She went to Japan in 1952 or was it '53? I went in 1990-something, and we went over in September and I think we stayed 'til past Thanksgiving and came home middle of December. Second time we went, several years later, we stayed longer, because we traveled more in Japan.

BH: Were you able to visit relatives?

DH: Yes, we met her relative, all her relative in different city, Fukushima and Sendai, both places. Also in Toma, I think it was. The minister, he was Massie's cousin. And then we went to my side of the family in Kyoto, met them. And from there we went to, towards Hikone and Kawase, and I met my parents' side. My parents' side is quite different. The people that live there now, he's a principal and his brother is like a principal. And his father was my mother's younger brother. Because of the grandma that lived there... what was her name? She didn't have a boy, so she took my mother's brother and brought him to, married into that family and changed his name to Hinatsu. That's where two boys that I stayed with were Hinatsu, but they're actually my mother's side. But the real mother of the two boys was my father's sister.

BH: Looking back now, what are your fondest memories of those extended trips to Japan?

DH: We had a great time both the relatives and then in Fukushima, Massie's cousin knew his friend was a travel agent. So they set up this travel, like when we went to Hokkaido and all the northern Japan and different places, and the second trip, we had same kind of deal, you know. He sets up a deal that we go to a certain town and then the taxi picks us up, takes us all around where you want to go, then he'd drop us off at the Japanese inn. We stayed there, and then after couple days there, taxi comes and pick us up and take us to another town, or have a new taxi man come and pick us up. And it was all arranged. He did this tremendous job, it was just, all we had to do was just go there and he'd hold up the sign, and they'd come and pick us up, and said, "We're going to take you." One time when we, after Hiroshima, I think it was after Hiroshima, we went to this place and they, this guy picked us up, and says, "Oh, okay," and the next thing you know, we're going up the mountain, up, up, up, practically a dirt road by then. And it was this little tiny Japanese inn, had onsen, and we stayed there, and the food was fantastic. And like the ladies here, like Misa, she lives in that area, Hakone. She says, "How do you ever find a place to stay like that?" I said, "I don't know, but they took us up there." It was beautiful.

BH: It sounds like a wonderful trip. Did anything about your trip to Japan surprise you?

DH: Well, like onsen in Beppu, what surprised me was those different kind of onsen. The red water, green water, it wasn't dyed, that's the natural water. And the water with bunch of snowflakes in it, it's just bubbling it, and you could stay in any pool that you want to. That was different. But all the, there's only one place like that in Beppu, I think, where that different color water and so on.