And when we got engaged, it was very interesting because George's parents came over. We had a baishakunin, you know, like a go-between, both sides. And they came with a huge red fish and an envelope with money in it, and they asked for my hand in marriage. And it was on my birthday. And it was something very new to me because my parents were very Americanized—my mother was born here in Hawaii. And it wasn't until I married into his family did I really learn a lot of the Japanese traditions.

His family was a very traditional family. And we ate soba, you know, on New Year's Eve. We had ozoni, on New Year's Day. And we decorated our front door with those good luck leaves. And the first person into the home was supposed to be a male, not a female, because female meant bad luck. And so I learned all of this from living with George's family.