Interest in Japan stemmed from his mother and grandmother’s stories
They talked about Japan sometimes, you know they talked about all the things that they enjoyed to do in Japan. You know, my mother, she enjoyed going to watch samurai movies, and she still does watch samurai movies to this day. You know, it’s very reminiscent of her childhood and things of that sort—but they never spoke actual Japanese to me so…you know, because I had an interest in Japan and I had more of an interest in Japanese—in speaking Japanese—I studied on my own when I was in elementary school and I entered a class formally in high school.