Who is Memi Sakurai?
Memi Sakurai is my mom. She is from Tokyo, Japan and has lived her for almost half her life. She then moved to America because she got married, she knew nothing about the country. She has been so scared of living in a new country, until she had taken English school. She has persevered to become a nurse assistant.
Scroll down to look at the interview I had with her. This interview contains a topic about sarin. The definition of sarin is, an extremely toxic chemical weapon. |
The Interview
I have 2 sisters, so 3 girls. There’s always talking, loud. House is always like talk talk talk because girls talk. We spend a lot of time together. It’s always happy.
My house smells like food, my mom always cooks Japanese food.
I feel comfortable because this is my house. And I have a room, I share my room with my sister.
I am the middle sister, my oldest is Kana, and my youngest is Aki.
After dinner, I always watch TV while eating tangerines with my family until bedtime, 9 o’clock. It’s my favorite part of the day.
I worked at a Hello Kitty store as my first job, because I love Hello Kitty when I was a kid. I was 19 years old and I worked there for 2 years. Everyday I had to go from my house (Chigasaki) to (Tokyo) by train for work. Then I stopped working there because my paycheck was so little.
So I wanted another job that would pay more so I worked as a secretary for Subaru Car Company.
I did the office work for the parts department. I would always have to calculate how much we sold, it was really tiring. I was about 21 years old, the year of 1991.
In 1995 these crazy people put sarin in the subway. And many people got infected like some people vomited, and they can’t see anything lost vision and some people fell on the train. I was at the house with my mom and we were watching TV and then the breaking new appeared. I was so scared, so shocked. And my mom quickly called the family, all my family worked around Tokyo. So my mom called my sister Aki, my uncle, my brother in law. My sister used this subway, but she used it earlier than the event. So she was ok, she was lucky. But if she rode the train a little later she would’ve got infected.
These people were from a religious group called Oum. Very weird religion, sick.
In 1998 I moved to America because I got married to an American. My family was kind of sad that I was moving somewhere far away from Japan. But my mom told me that if I’m happy, she’s happy.
In America, I was shocked, a new experience, a new life. I didn’t speak English, I was very scared, even to go to the store by myself. And I got sick, really sick, I was home sick.
I always had free time because I was scared to go out and I didn’t work.
When I went to English school, I understand more English. So I started to get more comfortable going outside, independent.
I wanted to be a nurse so I went to college. The college was very difficult because my original language was Japanese. I was so proud when I pass the test. Even the teacher said I was really good because English is my second language and I didn’t use a translator. Like in the test, I asked my teacher if I can use my translator and she said no. She told me, “You want to be a nurse? You need to speak English.” So I tried really hard and I passed, I was happy and the teacher was too.
An important memory is when I spend time with my family. Because family is an important things, spend with family is the most important thing. My father already died but… a very important memory was in summer break, my family and always my grandma always comes with us. 6 people in the car, we do a long drive to the mountain side which is the other side of Japan. We went to a lake and hot springs. It was so relaxing, a lot of nature, I can smell the fresh air, I also saw a deer on the mountain. I had no worries and all my family was together, a happy moment.
My family are the most important people in my life, including you.
Nande? (Japanese for why?)
Because family is the most important. For example, we fight with somebody else not family, maybe we don’t get along after the fight. But if I fight with family, when we fight we are very mad at each other but we quickly forgive each other. Because we are related, we have same blood. That’s why family always get together again, even if we fight. That is family.
My house smells like food, my mom always cooks Japanese food.
I feel comfortable because this is my house. And I have a room, I share my room with my sister.
I am the middle sister, my oldest is Kana, and my youngest is Aki.
After dinner, I always watch TV while eating tangerines with my family until bedtime, 9 o’clock. It’s my favorite part of the day.
I worked at a Hello Kitty store as my first job, because I love Hello Kitty when I was a kid. I was 19 years old and I worked there for 2 years. Everyday I had to go from my house (Chigasaki) to (Tokyo) by train for work. Then I stopped working there because my paycheck was so little.
So I wanted another job that would pay more so I worked as a secretary for Subaru Car Company.
I did the office work for the parts department. I would always have to calculate how much we sold, it was really tiring. I was about 21 years old, the year of 1991.
In 1995 these crazy people put sarin in the subway. And many people got infected like some people vomited, and they can’t see anything lost vision and some people fell on the train. I was at the house with my mom and we were watching TV and then the breaking new appeared. I was so scared, so shocked. And my mom quickly called the family, all my family worked around Tokyo. So my mom called my sister Aki, my uncle, my brother in law. My sister used this subway, but she used it earlier than the event. So she was ok, she was lucky. But if she rode the train a little later she would’ve got infected.
These people were from a religious group called Oum. Very weird religion, sick.
In 1998 I moved to America because I got married to an American. My family was kind of sad that I was moving somewhere far away from Japan. But my mom told me that if I’m happy, she’s happy.
In America, I was shocked, a new experience, a new life. I didn’t speak English, I was very scared, even to go to the store by myself. And I got sick, really sick, I was home sick.
I always had free time because I was scared to go out and I didn’t work.
When I went to English school, I understand more English. So I started to get more comfortable going outside, independent.
I wanted to be a nurse so I went to college. The college was very difficult because my original language was Japanese. I was so proud when I pass the test. Even the teacher said I was really good because English is my second language and I didn’t use a translator. Like in the test, I asked my teacher if I can use my translator and she said no. She told me, “You want to be a nurse? You need to speak English.” So I tried really hard and I passed, I was happy and the teacher was too.
An important memory is when I spend time with my family. Because family is an important things, spend with family is the most important thing. My father already died but… a very important memory was in summer break, my family and always my grandma always comes with us. 6 people in the car, we do a long drive to the mountain side which is the other side of Japan. We went to a lake and hot springs. It was so relaxing, a lot of nature, I can smell the fresh air, I also saw a deer on the mountain. I had no worries and all my family was together, a happy moment.
My family are the most important people in my life, including you.
Nande? (Japanese for why?)
Because family is the most important. For example, we fight with somebody else not family, maybe we don’t get along after the fight. But if I fight with family, when we fight we are very mad at each other but we quickly forgive each other. Because we are related, we have same blood. That’s why family always get together again, even if we fight. That is family.