[chajin]

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

[CardCarryingMember.VastRightWC]

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

Nope. My folks were missionaries, and Dad worked in downtown Tokyo at AVACO (Christian Audio Visual Aids Center) near Shinjuku. But we lived within walking distance of ASIJ where the Mission Board built a house for us to live in, equidistant from either Mitaka or Musashisakai stations, right next to the ICU (Intnl Chrstn Univ) golf course fence. ("Go Mustangs! Beat the Devils! ... 2 bits, 4 bits, 6 bits, a dollar, all for Mitaka stand up and holler!" :-) :-) Nothing personal) So your "Devils" basketball teams would have also played the same other teams we did ... CAJ, St Marys, Narimasu, Zama, Canadian Academy, etc. Memories! Mukashi mukaaaaaaaashi...

[CardCarryingMember.VastRightWC]

Actually there was also a base in our own 'hood, thus much closer to us (than Tachikawa was) called Tama. This Google Maps aerial view here demonstrates how the layout of the streets within the base just to the west of ASIJ stands out so markedly from all nearby areas - this little US enclave of streets laid out in the tusual square grid that Americans are used to, surrounded by the typical jumbled, winding alleys of Japanese neighborhoods.

There were two parts to the Tama base - the one you see above that was a residential area for Armed Forces personnel in the 60s and close to where we lived, and then another much larger, heavily wooded base off to the southwest where we use to have Boy Scout campouts, Camporees, etc, called Camp Tama back then, but Tama Hills Rec Area now (see http://www.yokotasupport.com/tama-hills/