I go to QiGong exercise class and volunteer on Tuesday and Friday mornings at Seinan. On Thursdays I play Mahjong at Hiroshima Kenjinkai. On the other days, I go around to my other friends’ houses and help out with their cleaning and cooking. I sometimes arrive at their house saying “Housemaid Kazuko is here!” I also occasionally help with housekeeping at my second son’s family’s home too.

I also do yardwork at home. I just hate to stay at home and do nothing. I love going out.

I look forward to coming to Seinan, and playing Mahjong every Thursday.

I also love casinos. Once every other month, Seinan organizes a casino day trip by bus.

I really enjoy spending quality time with my children, who live fairly close by.

Working. I really love doing service for others.I worked part-time as a seamstress while raising my children, and from age 52 to 72, I worked at a factory assembling electronic equipment.

Once my children went off to college, I became an assembler at a factory, making parts for electronic equipment. I worked there for 20 years. It required very detailed work looking through a microscope and connecting wires. 

Volunteering, too. I don’t understand the language as much, but because people were patient when teaching me, I was able to continue here at Seinan. And I’m learning more English.

I don’t really have any at the moment, but I am grateful to be able to enjoy every day with joy and a healthy body. I’m sure if I spoke more English, I might have more of a goal.

I think my children are actually happy that I don’t speak much English. If I did, they would be worried that I might travel far away without them knowing. But I enjoy my life every day.

Also in Japan right now, the term P.P.K, pin-pin-korori* is a trend. I pray for this every day. (She said with a laugh)

*Pin-Pin-Korori (PEEN-PEEN-KOROREE) – a term to describe living a very healthy life, and then having a painless death.

I think health is number one. To be able to live life without relying on or burdening my children.

I never went to high school. Once I graduated from junior high school in my small village in Wakayama, I longed for somewhere more spacious. I moved out to Minoh City in Osaka, where I lived as a maid learning proper manners (gyogi minarai). I was hoping to move to an even more spacious place, when talks of marriage with my late husband happened and I hopped over to the United States when I was age 25. I was a picture bride. I left Japan by boat from the Kobe port, and arrived in San Pedro.

I was a rather quiet girl, but brimming with curiosity. Back then, I constantly wanted to move to somewhere more spacious.

I think socializing with everyone here [at Seinan].

And also, being able to spend quality time with my children, and living a life without any worries.

In fact, since I moved to the United States, I am the happiest right now. Every day, I am happy. Who would have ever thought such happiness was in store for me at this stage in my life!