Transcript:
Craig Nagasawa: "Mihoya was a manju shop run by my grandmother. It was just down the street from the fish market. They would daily make a whole new batch of manju and there were these glass cases in the front that they would all go in and these little lacquer boxes. People would come in and either buy a whole bunch at one time in a big box or you could buy even just one manju if you wanted. There was all kinds, there was the steamed kind, there was the sort of soft, chewy kind. At New Year's, there was the pounded rice mochi, and then there was all this Japanese confectionery stuff in packages that came from Japan—candy, kids’ candy, and senbei, all of those kinds of Japanese goods were all in there.
My grandmother was mostly—at first, she was always at the fish market, but once things—when I grew up, my mother started working there as well. So then my grandmother moved down and opened Mihoya. So again, we would just run back and forth between them. I used to play them off against each other. I'd be like, “Can you give me a dime so I can go get some candy at Mihoya?” and then give me a dime at Sunrise, I'd run down to and buy something for a dime. then I’d asked my grandmother, “Can you give me a dime so I can buy something back at Sunrise?” And of course, it was all the same family, so they could care less. They'd give me a dime and I'd run back up to the fish market and I'd buy like an orange soda pop or something.There was always this going on. We were always bargaining with the adults to try to get some candy or something."
]]>Transcript:
Craig Nagasawa: "Once I went—I was in the Mihoya and I got a manju. Well, first I went into the Mihoya. and my grandmother was working there. So I went in there. And I had gotten all dirty because I was out in the back playing baseball. So I was all covered—my face was all dirty and stuff and she was just aghast that I was so dirty. And so she takes me to the sink. We have these huge restaurant style sinks in the back that are about three feet deep, those big stainless steel things. There was a bank of those that had like three or four things. They were almost like a bathtub. Anyway, she takes me over there and she holds me up over the thing off of a small ladder and douses my head with water and then pours [emphasis] Tide. That was the only soap she had, I guess. She reaches under there and she pulls Tide clothes detergent out and she pours it on my head and she washes my hair with it and my face and it stung like crazy! I was screaming! But I was clean [laughs]. Then she rinsed me off and for suffering through that—she was afraid I was going to run back to the other end where my mom was and my mom would come down and they'd get in a big argument because she washed me.
So she gave me a manju that I could eat. So I went out in front and I sat on the curb and I ate my manju. I got up and started walking back, but I was so preoccupied with eating this manju that I ran smack into a parking meter pole. There used to be these things, you know? I looked up— I'll never forget that—I looked up and it was just like there! It hit me square in the head and it knocked me out. I just fell backwards and I was laying on the ground. It was the first time I ever hit my head that hard. You used to watch cartoons where Donald Duck would get hit and stars would come out. It was just like that. I was like, “Oh my God, that's true.” You see like little spots and stuff. And so, of course, there was all of these other people and businesses so people came running out, and instantly I was completely taken care of. They came with ice packs and all this stuff and walked me back home. That's the kind of thing where. if this happened today, you'd probably lay there for an hour before anybody even stopped to check you out. "
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