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To: chajin; mollynme
Thank you for that! I never thought I'd hear that sound again. In my memories, it's drifting through the cold night air, not from a loudspeaker but from the vocal cords of a WWII-generation Yaki imo vendor in the 1960s at Musashi-sakai Eki (or was it Mitaka Eki?) The moment the doors of the Chuo-Sen densha would open, he'd let out that call to all the latest arriving passengers. We'd have to walk down the platform island and climb up to a small passenger bridge with creaking wooden slats going over the eastbound train tracks, over to the Taxi stand where the Yaki imo man waited with his steaming cart. I'll bet he placed it upwind of where we all had to walk past, eh? I don't remember if he used wood or a charcoal hibachi on his cart. Anybody exiting the trains had at least a minute for their tummies to think about what he was selling, before having to walk right by him in order to exit the station.

I should probably post that video to some ASIJ or Nojiri-Lake FB groups, but then I'd have to get on FB again.

So.... you say Hayama in the 60s, eh? I'm guessing a "Navy Brat"? :-) Your Dad stationed at Yokosuka Naval Base right next door?

Do you remember Kamishibai?

38 posted on 03/08/2016 8:25:35 PM PST by CardCarryingMember.VastRightWC (Folks ask about my politics. I say: I dont belong to any organized political party. I'm a Republican)
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To: CardCarryingMember.VastRightWC
OK, I'm two days late, but here goes...

Yaki imo vendor in the 1960s at Musashi-sakai Eki (or was it Mitaka Eki?)

If you were getting off the train at either station, your dad must have worked at Tachikawa.

I don't remember if he used wood or a charcoal hibachi on his cart.

The full word is ishi yaki imo 石焼き芋, literally "stone baked potato"; the potatoes are baked on a bed of hot stones, which in the old days would have been above a wood- or charcoal-fired stove, though I suspect that LP gas was the heat source.

you say Hayama in the 60s, eh? I'm guessing a "Navy Brat"? :-) Your Dad stationed at Yokosuka Naval Base right next door?

Well, my father was a civilian GS-11 Electronics Tech, who took a three-year contract to work at Yokosuka; I knew the base well, but spent most of my time going to middle/high school at Kinnick ("Yo-Hi") in Yokohama.

Do you remember Kamishibai?

There wasn't much in our neck of the woods, but just to remember, click here

39 posted on 03/10/2016 3:17:45 PM PST by chajin ("There is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12)
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