Discover Nikkei

https://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/784/

On his grandfather (Japanese)

(Japanese) Going back to my childhood… my grandfather was a sailor, and even before World War II, he had been sailing from port to port, all over the world. After he returned, I was born, and when I was little I would love to go to my grandfather’s house and listen to his stories from his experiences abroad. He would talk about what this or that port in the Netherlands was like, or how London was, or what Peru and Argentina were like, about Montevideo… For each story, I would incessantly ask, “Who, what, where, when, why?” until I darn near annoyed my grandfather. So I’ve always had this infatuation with foreign countries, and that’s part of why I came to Argentina. I wanted to travel overseas. The first thing I know, I was in Argentina. So back then, I was in such awe that I was on foreign soil—I was so thrilled just to be here.


Date: 2006

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

Interviewer: Takeshi Nishimura, Ricardo Hokama

Contributed by: Centro Nikkei Argentino

Interviewee Bio

Masaki Tamashio was born in Okinawa. In the summer of his 3rd year in college, he took his first vacation abroad in Argentina, where a relative lived. He returned for a visit upon graduation, and stumbled upon a job as a Japanese teacher by chance. Currently he works as the Vice-principal of the Japanese class at Centro Nikkei Argentino. (2006)