All I Asking For Is My Body Part 2 Dialogue

Why does Kiyoshi believe Obaban is a substitute for his mom?

Kiyoshi believe that Obaban is a substitute for his mother is because his mother is very superstitious. When they eat his mother insisted that rice should always be scooped at least twice from the bowl to the individual even if the second scoop was a token one without any rice on the ladle. Her believe is that by scooping the rice twice it would protect her family from a second mother which means the mother would not die or run away. She believed that number four is a bad luck number because it is pronounced "shi." Shi can mean four or death. When her husband turned forty-two years old she was worried because it was pronounced "shi-ni" which had the same sound as "shi-ni-iku" which means to go to die. Even though her husband didn't believed it he almost had two fatal accidents when he was at sea. She also believe that any debts that is owed needs to be paid by the end of the year to avoid bad luck. She was so superstitious that she believed she was a substitute for someone elses sin. She had bad luck ever since she moved to Hawaii. She lost all of her teeth due to decays and that lead to other illness. She was thinking that she was dying, while she was at the hospital she wanted to see her friend Obaban. Kiyoshi went and got her shortly after while Kiyoshi was in school his Dad arrived at his school. He was very nervous because his dad never show up at school unless its a parents conference. He taught that his mother was dead but he got the news that Obaban died of a stroke. He was so happy inside and at that moment he believes that Obaban had substitute for his mother's death.