Yokohama Navy Exchange was where?

I have known about the 5-7-5 form for many years but have not really faced it. Like something that you don't want to deal with.

I have tried to incorporate this form into the ones I have done, and thought about, but I just can't seem to mesh the form with the subject. Just when I think I am close its always off. I suspect you know what I mean. So in frustration I throw myself on the poetic mercy of the reader. As you say, this is very difficult in English.

So, ok my next step would be to try this in Japanese. On second thought, I think I am crazy enough thank you.

I am very impressed with the ones you posted.
You truly have a gift of this.

I wonder if there is a support group for struggling English haiku writers ? Hmmm I guess were it.

My thoughts today are for our friend Kaoru-san, in Yokohama. I hope he and his family will be ok in the super typhoon.

The super typhoon rages

On the Yokohama shore

We pray for our friend.

I suppose each of us at some time comes upon an item from our past which invokes memories perhaps both good and bad. Maybe people are hard wired for this and that might be why we all seem to cherish photo albums and such.

Recently I had such an experience. Truthfully it was a while ago and I just got around to writing about this.

it was about a month after arriving in Japan.
I had moved into my apartment near Chinatown by the "canal". Like most young people just starting out, I arrived in Japan with my duffle bag containing all of my Army clothes.
I also had what was called an AWOL bag. This small suitcase was equivlient of a carry on bag of today and had a change of civilian clothes, a couple of shirts a light jacket and little else.

My apartment was only semi-furnished and had
a couple of pots and pans, a bed, and little else. But it was home. The Navy had a program
to lend families cooking gear, but even though I got this "care package" I didn't really use it. So, I was on the hunt for
"stuff".

Soon after that, someone told me about this place called Isezaki-cho. [ Of course now "famous" because of the Peanut club] where, on a given night the patrons might even outnumber the cockroaches. And the whiskey co-cos would never think of giving you a buzz.

Yet, on this street where many neat shops. The propriators had this uncanny ability of guessing your nationalality as you got close to their shops, or perhaps they just knew the curse liners that had docked several blocks away.

One of the shops sold knives. Now at the risk of seeming a little creepy, I am fond of edged knives, perhaps I got it from my dad. So I went in. They had a display on the wall. It was of the special Japanese hocho knives, made with arguably the finest steel in the world. The display showed little tiny ones on the left and gradually increasing in size to outrageous 6 foot long monsters designed just for display. Even back then they were not cheap, and because I was new to the country I did not really know how special they were. Today an 8 inch general purpose knife is about a thousand dollars.

I settled on what I knew, I purchased a 6 inch Sheffield stainless kitchen utility knife. And I was happy with my purchase.
I used it of course in Japan and shipped it back when I returned.

Life takes twists and turns and places and time come and go.

I was going through a box of "junk" some time ago, and low and behold. There it was, after all these years. It was very shop worn, having been sharpened hundreds of times and the tip re-ground after trying to chop something I shouldn't have. I re-sharpened it and oiled the dull handle.

Looking at it tonight after cutting some carrots I thought back on that sunny day on Isazaki-cho and all of the beautiful things in that shop. Since then I have picked up a couple of used hocho knives, the ones that have a bevel on only one side. They are quite remarkable, but unlike stainless, they rust at the blink of an eye.

I remember fondly my time in Japan and every day when I use this nearly worthless old knife these times live again.

It is my hope that all readers of our little forum, [if there are ant left] have a similar little object of rememberance. If so, I would love to hear about it.

Or maybe they were no longer around.

The TS Ticket for EMs.

Get it punched every time you got lousy duty.
The story was, your chaplin would hear your complaint, then "punch your ticket."

It is a little troubling, isn't it, Peter, than Kaoru-san has not checked back with us. I hope you are doing well, Mr. Kaoru.

I'm sorry, reply was late.

Yokohama had heavy rain typhoon last week.
Since my house is on the hill, there was no damage of flood.
But, in the area around rivers, evacuation order was issued from the Yokohama city disaster control center.
Japan has many natural disasters, this summer from autumn. Other Large typhoon hits Okinawa now.

I always have gratitude to American friends.

I know Kaoru-san has been busy with typhoons
and other things. He is a good friend of the forum.

I understand that people get active for awhile and fade away, and they are missed.

It is remarkable that our little chit-chat has gone on for so long, albeit not as strong and frequent.

What I do find surprising is that given the
hundreds of thousands of Americans like us who lived in Japan over the years that more new people haven't found us. As this forum is so extensive the indexing of the search engines would have to drive us right up there. Were easy to find.

Also, I wonder who might be following the forum and have never posted for some reason.
If that might be the case I would invite them to join in, and share there thoughts.

Alas, I am one of those past contributors who have dropped out of sight for a while. Eric knows me as the guy who bought up gobs of comics at his favorite used bookstore in front of the streetcar stop in Honmoku.
I am back in Yokohama for a visit meeting family and friends and exploring the daintiest and most exquisite form of Japanese culture--the kaiseki. Yes, perfection can be found in the tiniest dishes!
I would like to recommend two walking tours:
1: From Zushi station walk to the beach and head towards Hayama along a narrow road until you reach Hikagechaya ( there are two: one for French cuisine, the other, Japanese. Choose the latter and, if you can afford 5,000 yen for lunch, choose the kaiseki course. From there, take a bus to Ishiki and walk along the beach towards Chojagasaki, where you will walk along the back of the imperial summer resort. After viewing Mt Fuji from that vantage point past Enoshima, imagine Hokusai's famous woodblock print, "The Great Wave."
(More later.)

Walk further along the beach until you see a small strip of land jutting out to sea. This is Chojagasaki, where I used to go swimming. We used to walk to the tip of the tiny peninsular but now the place is shut off for pedestrians and fishermen. Two places I would recommend for drinks nearby: Plage du Sud right on the water, and Otowa no Mori Hotel on top of the hill.
(More to come)

Begin with a kaiseki meal atop the Landmark Tower on the 69th floor where you have a fantastic view of the city. Walk along the water towards Akarenga (former warehouses, now with shops and a beer garden. Take a boat ride to Yamashita Park, where, once upon a time, had housing for US navy families. Then walk to Chinatown and Motomachi. Or the New Grand Hotel that was Gen. MacArthur's hangout.

How wonderful for Honmukujin to be in Japan and share his walking experiences.

I loved to walk around town when I was not in a rush, at every street there was something new wonderful and different.

I have a request of you . If you are down by the Red Brick Warehouse. and walk further towards the 2 piers there are 2 small monuments, one in English and the other in Japanese. I would like to know what they say and what it is about. I suspect that it might have to do with embarkation point for troops to Korea but not sure. It is very close to where I worked at center pier and while you can see the monuments [in stone]
on Google street maps, the text is blurred.

Thanks. I hope you have a great stay, I envy you.

Stan W. - we must have been in the same class together with Miss Lily in (6th?) grade in 1970-71. She was a very sad story but as kids, we only knew that she would come to school drunk sometimes. Not a mean person, but completely erratic. Do you remember that the sleeve of her yukata caught on fire at her home and she was very badly burned? We had the most wonderful substitute! I also loved the principal but don't remember his name. Anyone?

I so liked your walking tour. I lived in Hayama for almost two years, in Isshiki in fact. I never walked (the beach) all the way from Zushi to Hayama, although now I wish I had done so, since I never will now. :) But I did often walk to the beach on either side of the Palace. A local friend had a rowboat which we occasionally took out (not far) in the bay. And there were occasional encounters with then-Crown Prince Akihito as he, and his small retinue, also walked the beach.

I googled 'us navy commissary yokohama japan' and came across this thread. Such an innocent looking google search.

I started reading, and realized .. I remember some of this stuff! Not much, but enough to keep me skimming. And once I started, I wanted to finish.

That was four and half hours ago. My entire Saturday afternoon was devoted your meandering time travel adventure. (Yes, I realize it's been 9 years for some of you, so four+ hours isn't much investment.)

I'm going to have to organize my thoughts a bit before I contribute what I can remember, but I promise I'll come up with something. Until then, I'll just say that my family was in Yokohama from Jan '69 through January of '71. That covers ages 8-10 and grades 4-6, which I spent at Richard E Byrd Elementary. We lived at 579B Negishi Heights in the units directly across from the grandstand. We were in the first group of units on the right as you came up the hill. Fire engine hill? I've seen that referenced, but I'm not sure that's right. I'm also not quite sure of the name of the area; I just remember it as Negishi Heights.

Anyway. You're a lovely group of people. Hello to the little piece of you represented by these many (many, MANY) words.

Hi Paul

Thank you for your nice comments. Maybe we should post a warning on this site.

Caution:

This forum can either wreck or make your Saturday Afternoon.

Glad your abored. OOps pun not intended. Just my bad spelling.

Paul, where do you live now ?

I've lived in Atlanta since 96.

When we came back from Japan in 71, we settled in the San Francisco Bay Area. My dad shipped out on the carrier Hancock, and retired from the Navy after that tour.

I went to college at UC Irvine in Southern California, and also lived in Pittsburgh and southern Michigan before landing in Atlanta.

Peter, one of the interesting things about reading this forum was watching the evolution of your posts. At some point you discovered the virtues of adding an extra space between paragraphs, which made your posts *much* easier to follow.

Paul

Thanks for that. My wife lived in Atlanta for 20 years.

'' The evolution of my posts'' now that is a scary thought.

So what your saying is that being spaced-out is good ? I feel much better.

How much did you read ?

In 69 I was at medori Gaoka, just in the other side of the fence from Negishi.

My wife at the time taught kindergarten at the Lighthouse school. As for me...well you probably know more than I do at this point.

Honmokujin san:
If you're still taking great walks around our old neighborhood, try to look up where our house at 91 Sannotani was. I have to assume it was taken down years ago since the value of the land has probably eclipsed what the house was worth.
Take a picture...

Tnx,

Eric

Honmokujin san:
If you're still taking great walks around our old neighborhood, try to look up where our house at 91 Sannotani was. I have to assume it was taken down years ago since the value of the land has probably eclipsed what the house was worth.
Take a picture...

Tnx,

Eric

Eric is most probably right. His old house is probably torn down.

In my meanderings on Google street maps
[Eric you might try and see if its there.]

I have noticed complete changes to neighborhoods. I have a friend here who is Japanese and parents live near Yokohama. Thru her they advised me to forget coming back to Japan to visit places I once knew as they have all changed.

I know that my apartment by the canal across from Motomachi, is gone and the apartment at Medori Gaoka is also gone. That surprised me as that apartment building was pretty new
when I was there and I would have guessed that it had many many years left. Perhaps as Erick suggested that the land was worth more than the rentals would bring in.

I know Shinto temples are renewed every 20 years or so, thus perhaps there is an inherent nature to Japanese re-building.

On the other hand some temples in Kyoto are hundreds of years old, Buddhist .

In an unrelated thought I ran into a you-tube video blog called Dochi Hoko . Its quirky and funny if not more than a little off color.
I liked it but try it at your own risk.