May 14, 2008
Yesterday was a full day with lots of delightful surprises. In the morning, Gladys Konishi showed me Denver’s Sakura Center while her husband was being interviewed. This is the central location for Denver’s Japanese stores, restaurants and the Buddhist temple. I bought a variety of Japanese snacks and drinks for each studio. In the afternoon I interviewed Al Miyegishima who was born and raised in Scottsbluff Nebraska. One of the interesting discussions we had was about the differences between West Coast Japanese Americans and interior Japanese Americans. And then after the interview with Al, Richard Potashin and I drove up into the foothills to visit Bob Fuchigami. The scenery was spectacular and by the time we got to Bob’s house, there were several inches of snow on the ground. That morning they had about 8 inches of snow. Bob showed us some fabulous photo collections and is allowing me to bring back to Seattle four of the collections for scanning. Today is another full day of interviews.