Yokohama Navy Exchange was where?

It will be hotter than usual this summer. When I was a high school student and a university student, I often went to the beach of Kamakura with my friends during summer vacation. The beach was crowded with many people. We were listening to cassette tape at loud volume. And I got drunk with beer. That is a good memory 38 years ago from now.

Kisine Ballack is currently a good park. But I know that there was an Army hospital and had treatment of many serious injured soldiers. And many soldiers died. War is always miserable.�@

Wally san
I am sorry to hear about your frends passing. Kamakura was such a special place and we went there often. Sometimes just sitting on the seawall and looking at Sagami Bay and the shonan coast.
As I studied the maps of the proposed invasion, in 1945, which never happned, I realized that the one of the main landing beaches would be on the shonan coast and Kamakura . Preceded by a bombardment would have ment that all of what we know now would have been utterly destroyed if this had happned. History contains great ironys. So as I sat on the seawall in Kamakura I had to enision that landing and the carnage that would have proceeded it and the great loss of life. very sobering.

The deep snows have gone here in New Hampshire and we await spring that continues to avoid us. But as it ''warms up '' I am down to wearing only one pair of long johns. [ you needed to know that right ?]

Kamakura was the home of our dear friend Robert Lang and his wife in the 1950s.
Bob was a commercial photographer, producer of educational films and film strips for an American publisher. I liked to accompany him on visits to silk farms (now gone from Japan) and other typical locales of the 1950s.

I recall seeing an intinerant puppeteer in a small community who attracted local kids with a story he told while working hand held puppets acting out the author's narrative. The kids' moms stepped forward and donated coins and small bills to pay for the entertainment.

Bob was imprisoned in Japan during the war years but survived making and repairing shoes for the military and others.

I note Prime Minister Abe has sent a token to the Yasukuni Shrine that commenorates the nation's war dead. The usual criticism has erupted from elsewhere in Asia.

Japan should be allowed to mourn.

I think that it is impossible for Prime Minister Abe to win the third term. Liberal Democratic Party governor is decided by party election. I hope that former Prime Minister Koizumi's son Shinjiro Koizumi will win the president. He is young, but he has a strong will. After earthquake of norther part, he worked on the policy of displaced people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinjir%C5%8D_Koizumi

Thank you,

We happened to go to Kamakura on a weekend where they were having a sourt of rennasance festival featuring samurai sword fighting [kendo] horseback archery sumo wrestling and other skills and arts and crafts.
The streets were alive with vendors and all kinds of activities. We happened on an archery exhibition [ which seems more like the important thing is the form than the accuracy . I was asked to try, and I thought that I would fail miserably but luck, and years of archery practice as a kid , paid off and I hit the bulls eye on the first try. all to there utter amazement. Mine too, when asked again I declined, not wanting to press my luck. Later there was this totally make-shift sumo event where this wrestler took on all comers with no formality. Someone pressed me to run up against this
huge guy, and after taking off my shirt and pretending to duplicate the classic introductory moves , hand clapping ect, I ran at him. I am not quite sure how far he through me but it was way outside of the ring, I was lucky I didnt break anything. All in good fun we posed for pictures as the Japanese people laughed there butts off. What a great day.

Thank you Peter san,

I just came back from Yokosuka.

I and my friends enjoyed the BBQ on the beach of Kamakura, drank a lot of beer. My friend did girl hunt,
but it was refused. We enjoyed the fireworks at night. Now we can not do BBQ and fireworks there.
Good 1970s.

BBQ on the beach--how I miss old Yokohama.
I remember harvesting crab on the beach and in the bay below Sankien Gardens. The Japanese guys were doing the same thing and we shared our catch without BBQ sauce or Kikkoman.
When we returned stateside and resumed life in my mom's hometown, I remember shopping at my uncle's small grocery store. Mom asked Uncle Max if he stocked five pound bags of rice. His reply: "Sis, we don't sell five pounds of rice in a year!"

Then there was Kikkoman, or lack of it in small town Iowa. My dad still did a bit of traveling and I reminded him to keep an eye out for my favorite soy sauce but he never brought any home. I suggested perhaps some American city with a sizeable Asian population would be the place to look. He wrote a note to a pal in California and with a month, a large can of Kikkoman arrived in the mail. I marveled at the taste of old Yokohama and today discover I was not the only ex-patriate with a taste for things Nihon. Kikkoman built a soy sauce brewery in Wisconsin sometime in the 1970s to serve North America.

Maybe Wisconsin could be exporting the marvelous liquid to Japan...

Kaoru,
As I have mentioned before, I was a Candy Striper, not Stripper, Peter or Eric, at the Kishine Hospital in 1968 and 1969. We wore red and white uniforms, culottes I think. The soldiers were terrific , my fellow stripers less so. A little catty, meow, and an incidence of missing money, oh dear!
I live in California, and am leaving for a week of Musicals and Plays in New York on Monday. After that I will fly to Niagara, NY and meet up with a Yokohama High School friend and we will "do" the Falls. I have 3 boat tours booked and we are staying on the Canada side at the Hotel where the movie Niagara, with Marilyn Monroe, was filmed in 1953. The views are spectacular.
I loved the Great Buddha of Kamakura, but its size overwhelmed me, like a little kid and a huge airplane. We visited there a few times, but knowing it was so near was a cool feeling. I could not believe we had the Great Buddha in our backyard, so to speak.
I went swimming at Kamakura one weekend and came back the next weekend to find that the stretch of Beach we had been playing on for hours was Closed. It said, It was Contaminated Water. Lol. Might have been somebody Reserving their Spot with a Fake sign!
In case anyone is interested, the shows i am seeing in New York are: Boys in the Band, Hello Dolly, Three Tall Women, Carousel, Mean Girls, My Fair Lady. Quite a few Revivals which just goes to show that an Oldie is always a Goody. I saw Bette in Hello Dolly last May, and I love Bernadette Peters, so I had to see it again! I love the scores of Carousel and My Fair Lady. Mean Girls is Tina Fey's new show. Edward Albee's play stars Glenda Jackson, Laurie Metcalf and Allison Pill. And Boys in the Band is on Monday when Theatres are usually dark, Opening night too. Stars Jim Parsons, Zachary Quinto, Andrew Rannells.
Hope everyone here is well and happy.
Always so fun to read the Posts.
Sorry, Wally, for the loss of your good friend, Reggie. He made a difference in this Life and changed Lives for the Better. Sad to lose our old pals.
xo

Hello,

Thank you for your answer, I hear that you are enjoying life very much, it is nice. I traveled to the US West coast. My favorite is Yosemite National Park. The very big cliff there is spectacular.

I also like Kamakura 's great Buddha. There is a theory that the Great Buddha had a main hall. That is a story the main hall was destroyed by a big earthquake tsunami. But it is not mentioned in the ancient document. The Great Buddha was made at the end of the Kamakura era, when the regime changed at that time. It seems that it is true the shogunate was short of funds to build the main hall.

When I was a high school student, I often went to Kamakura with my girlfriend. She is my wife now.

About 48 years have passed since the VN ‚—ar ended. I am very sad to lose members and their friends.

Hi Louan, welcome to New York, and what a great time you will have. I have seen the original productions of the musical revivals you're seeing......and they are the best! The amazing Renee Fleming, I believe, is in Carousel.........New York is presently at its most beautiful, as spring is definitely here, and the weather is comfortable. Lots of flowering trees, including the cherry blossoms and magnolias, and flowers blooming on every patch of grenery. If you're a walker, take a look at the High Line, a newly created elevated linear park and greenway, formerly an abandoned part of the NY Central Rail lines, running along midtown on the West Side......our nephew created the lighting...... it offers nice views of the Hudson waterfront....Have a wonderful time! Best of health and happiness to everyone here...

The iconic Daibutsu was on everyones must see list.
When I first got to Japan my suervisor told me to go see it as it was not far away. Little did he know that we had our sights much furthur and broader that Just Kamakura and in out 3 1/2 years there got to visit some very out of the way places. All the while knowing that Daibutsu was patiently waiting. Sometimws even with our many trips to Kamakura we were within a fue blocks.
Finally in the late summer of 1969 our time had run out and my wife was booked on a flight to Hawaii.
So..after all we had seen and done..Sendai, Sado Island ,Kyoto, Oshima Island, Mt Fuji..ect it was our time.
We took the then familiar train to Kamakura and walked the streets to the temple.
How strange that after all that time it was there just as we had envisioned. We spent about two hours on the grounds
Thinking all the while how strange that this marvel of the ancient world was right next to us but we failed to visit it until the last moment.
In a was it was a perfect culmonation of our whole experience. Saving the best for the last.
Perhaps its common for people not to visit the landmarks so close to them, and thus take them for granted.
Like having dessert at the end of dinner.
The next morning I went to work as usuall and Ozzie took the train for Hanada Airport and flew to Hawaii.
Leaving me '' all alone'' in Japan.
A week or so later it was my time to go, having shipped our stuff ahead of us, it was my last night in Japan, with all my language skills, knowledge of the hot spots ect. What a rare night. You would think that I would have hit i off to the Peanut club and had a wild night ..on my last fling..So ...what did I do ?
I stayed at Bayside courts , not wanting for anything to happen to me that would cause me to miss my flight.
Now it seems silly, but at the time it made perfect sense.
And seeing Daibutsu at the end now makes sense ..it always did...

Hello everyone,

This clips are Japanese, enjoy only videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Sa-9olgNo8&t=627s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57eNLerJ7x8&t=116s

Hello everyone. I just discovered this forum after reminiscing with my mother and exploring. I was an Army Brat, and my father was stationed in Sendai and then at Camp Zama in the mid 50's. I went to 4th grade in Camp Schimmelpfennig, started 5th in Camp Sendai (then separate places) and finished 5th in Yokohama.

In Yokohama we lived in Yamashita Park. At that time, the park was split into three sections - American housing at each end and the park left in the center. When you faced the ocean we were in the section on the right. I remember the cherry blossoms very well. When the houses were built, I think most of the trees in the park were not torn down. The houses are now gone, and pictures of the park look beautiful.

On Saturdays, the kids in the area would catch the military bus to the base for kiddie matinee. Then my sister and I would wanted the village across the street from the main gate until my folks would come to shop at the PX and commissary.

I remember a school trip (5th grade) into town to see a Kabuki play. The school then staged a Kabuki version of Rapunzel - lion dance and all. Some town folks were invited, and we found it necessary to extend the production several weeks as public relations so more local Japanese would have an opportunity to see it. I remember that it was quite well done - we were told so by impartial folks attending.

As a brat I've lived in Japan, England and Germany and enjoyed everyone of my Dad's tours. I've returned to Germany and my wife and I are thinking Japan in 2020 - Sakura time - we hope.

Welcome to JG, Mike.
Your experience is similar to mine.

Dad worked at Zama, then moved to the Japan Procurement Agency as a purchasing officer. We lived in Sagamihara and then Yokohama, across from the Area 2 military housing area. I road the streetcars, traveled on the big green Army buses up to Yokosuka to the Navy base. The base had a great roller skating facility on the second floor of one of their buildings. Skate all day for $.25 skate rental.

Dad was planning to move the family to Laos in '60 or '61 but fortunately, that project was skuttled. We came home on the MSTS ship named General W. A. Mann.

I had intended to comment on all the previous posts, however, my Twin Brother died a week and a half ago quite suddenly. and I have only his Death on my mind.
Unfortunately, we had a very complicated and confusing relationship. We were brought up in a dysfunctional, aggressively tension filled home and he was emotionally and physically abusive to me. I loved him and forgave him, at the time, as I was always encouraged by my Mother. At 30 he married a psycho shrew who brought untold misery upon our Family. I was informed by text a week before his death that he was in the hospital, that he was in Heart Failure and there would be No Visitors or Calls, per wife's instructions. Then she gets banned from the hospital. I contacted the daughter, but my request for a visit was ignored, in days he was brought home to Hospice and I was summoned to the house after he had lost consciousness. He died 4 days later. Before this, I had not known he was in ill health. It was a shock.
First thing I use to tell people about myself when explaining who I was is that I was a Twin. I was always so proud. It made me feel special and unique. My brother would deny it, even deny we were Family.
I never understood him, but I always held out Hope. Now that is gone.

Louanne....
I am sure we are all very sorry for your loss, and the preceding trauma with your twin.
Unfortunately, it seems as if totally happy family histories are rare, in spite of what the movies tell us.
We wish you all the best. The pain will gradually subside, though that will be hard to fathom right now.
Steffi

Thank you, Steffi.
I have many thoughts on my Twin Brother's death that are confusing to me, along with my sadness and anger. I made an appointment to speak to a counselor that I saw for another issue a decade ago. I know she will be helpful in assisting me to sort out my thoughts and feelings about my Twin brother. It is very hard to see the Picture when you are inside the Frame.
Thank you again, Steffi.
Louann

July 20 1969 the first landing on the moon by Apollo 11

On that date I was on the summit of Mt Fuji after a 10 hour climb. I had almost forgotten about the moon mission. Some guys we met had a transistor raido and were following the descent. Then the
announcement, Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed ! A moment I will never forget.
We whooped it up and the Japanese people looked at us strangely until we explained it to them
then polite applause.
That was 49 years ago. Seems like a lifetime

I had just finished a round of golf, not far from my residence in Bayside courts, Yokohama, & was in the clubhouse watching the landing. A small crowd of Japanese were also present. Everyone watching were cheering. Memorable indeed.
Peter: Peanut Club...lots of good times there.
Joe

The Peanut Club was our favorite hang out. A little divey..a little dangerious..very loud.
I went to the bar and ordered a drink. They came back with " whiskey co co" I asked them to correct the order...they came back with ''whiskey coco' ...so it seemed like that was it ! One size fits all. It came to be my favorite...[with no choice] drink.
Some times it gave you a buzz..other times..not... watered down..ya think !
I even took my parents there when they visited. My dad said..." what IS this place ! " He thought it was a divey bar in Yokohama..he was right ! Had to watch my mom..she wound up dancing with some very drunk Japanese man. Not sure she ever lived it down.