Yokohama Navy Exchange was where?

OK Sometime we would like to hear the story of finding the Sase family, I am not quite sure how you did it. There are two people that I would like to find but I have diminished hopes that I ever will. Time and space. There was a photo that I saw of Mr Sase and a boy and a Jeep, not sure where that was perhaps you could re-direct me too it. The photo was circa 1950. Was it taken in Yokohama ? Funny, in my time there I was never much aware of the Japanese police. I was concerned that in my ignorance that I would break some law that I did not know even existed. Did break some. Later.

Hi, Peter san

Sorry, I have new work now. It is real estate management. They are apartments, parking lot and the office lease. Thus I did not look at this site for a while. I am always around you. Yes, many shops did sell in Bonodori. They are Yakitori, Wagagashi, Okonomiyaki. You may find these immediately if you search by Wiki.

Kaoru sama I am glad you are back! You change jobs a lot ne? I expect that the cherry blossoms have come back to Yokohama. Eric-san has told me about early days in Honmoku with your father. I am still interested in learning how he found you after all these years. i have been OK and have missed you. I have been looking at Naka ku on Virtual earth and I think I have found the place where my old apartment once was. I am still not sure if it is there or not. My old apartment was new when I lived there and it is hard to think that they would have taken it down and replaced ti with something new. Hope you are well. My best regards to your family. I have a new camera and will try and get some photos up sometime. I am glad you are back.

Kaoru-san

I looked on Wikipedia and also put "wagagashi" in a search engine for the internet and both places had no results. Would you be so kind to please explain wagagashi? I don't remember this food when I lived in Japan and would love to learn about it.

Lori san

I'm sorry. I mistake in the Roman alphabet. The correct name is Watagashi. It is a cotton candy. It might be sold in the festival of US.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_candy

Kaoru san

Thank you for answering my question. Cotton candy is VERY commonly sold at fairs, carnivals, and other public celebrations in America. If there is an American who doesn't know about cotton candy, I think there is something wrong with them! I hope you enjoyed cherry blossom season this year. Here in my home state of Washington (not Washington D.C.), Winter stayed a long time this year. Just now the fruit trees are blossoming and they are very beautiful. I love the Spring season.

Peter and Lori sama

I wish sincerely to express my gratitude for your goodwill. Yes, I enjoyed cherry blossoms. My family stayed in the rest home of the police of Hakone for two days in April. There was a big cherry tree there. The flower was just full-bloomed. Ohanami is a meaning of flower viewing.

We lived in Honmoku in one year. I had not entered primary school still young. I had a lot of boys of the American and girl's friends there. To our regret, I cannot recall their names. Sailors came to our house every week. They were very gentle. I do not remember the house where we lived accurately. I think near PX there.

This link is Ohanami. Please try.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanami

PS: Ohanami and Hanami are the same meanings. Ohanami is a politer word.

Thank you.

Now I am a little confused. When I took my friend Chibita to the Friendship Days we tried the cotton candy and he did not like it as it was too sweet [ previous post] he seemed as if he did not know about it at all and had never tasted cotton candy as I had to explait it to him. Yet, I now know from Kaoru that there is a name for it in Japanese. Prehaps at the time 1968, it was little known then.. OR I know he was from Hokkaido and maybe that had something to do with his not knowing about cotton candy.. any thoughts ?
It is still quite cool in New England and we have not planted our flowers yet. We do this after " Memorial Day " Had a nice trip to Florida reciently but spent much of it working on a book auction that we just finished. Seems like Lori is now a sama.. good for you. Kaoru.. I have a letter that is in Japanese that perhaps you could translate for me? I have no idea what it says I hope it is not "blue" or anything but I would trust your evaluation. Another question.. is the name Chibita a regular Japanese name or is it a [ Nickname]..like a friendship name?

Peter san

A Japanese name does not have "Chibita".
Most Japanese willingly eat the cotton candy.
Yes, Hokkaidou is also the same as it. "Chibita" is a man with low stature. Or, it is child's nickname.

Kaoru-san
Thank you, my old friemd Chibita used this name as a stage name in the rock group he was in, the other members were Yousuke, Conchan, and George. I don't think George was a Japanese name. Ha! Good luck on your new job. I remember your e-mail address if it is still the same, I will try and send you the old letter there, if that is OK and you can translate for me.

Peter san

I remenber this name. The name is characters of animation. He was a child. The animation was broadcast to 1960s.

My mail add:

y355f355@yahoo.co.jp

Kaoru-san
Thank you for remembering the name was an animation or cartoon. All this time I thought that it was his real name. Now, because of this, I do not know his real name and I will probably never find him.. unless.. there is some Japanese web site that helps people find long lost rock group members?? The name of the group was the "The Voltage".. If I ever find them I would thank them for all of the kindness and friendship that they gave us, and taught us things that we would never know. My only wish for that time is that we could not speak to each other as much as i would have liked to. Today in New England is the most beautiful of all days.

Todays Haiku:

The time,
Between the ice,
and the bugs,
ah! Heaven !

The Ozarks in hot.
Global warming, maybe not,
AC and Iced tea!

I remember the hotdog stand at the PX. The hotdogs were so good I think is because they put ginger in the craut, or on top of the hotdog, anyway there was ginger in there somewhere!

In the complex was a small store I think it was the Stop and Shop. My Parents visited us and on a very snowy day we hosted them to dinner in our tiny apartment. We had no rice so I walked all the way [ no cabs that day] to the little store and back. What an exercize in futility as I later learned that there was a small Japanese market just around the corner. I shopped there some but much of what was offered i couldn't understand how to use,, except the soba, lived on that. Would cook it up and mix in leftovers.. vegetables. There was a vegetable pushcart vendor that came into the neighborhood. I would stand in line with all the other mama-sans to buy vegetables. One day I purchased some tomatoes. Weird.. that same day our food inspection unit inspected 30,000 pounds of tomatoes and here I was buying them. Go figure. Hey Wall.. welcome back.

Two or three times each week in the 1950s, a Japanese man would arrive in our neighborhood selling white rectangles of tofu. He had two bamboo tubs, carried via a pole over one shoulder. He had a brass horn that he announced his arrival with and an open outcry that was, essentially, "tofu seller!"
Housewives from the apartment house came out to meet him and paid in coins, taking away their tofu on a plate.
Another peddler in our neighborhood was the knife sharpener. He had a booming voice and we could hear him from inside the house when he made it to our block. It was his practice to thrown open our front door without knocking and shout out the one line of English he had mastered, "Sharpen Knife and Scissor!" This always happened around dinner time, just as we were sitting down to eat and irritated my dad no end. After the knife and scissor guy had done this eight or nine times, my dad made a practice of locking the front door just before meals.
I caught up with him one afternoon and asked if he could sharpen my Cub Scout knife, which he did with great care, on a little grinder wheel, attached to his bicycle. He had a polisher on the other side of the wheel and turned my cheap pocket knife into a mirror. His price was 50 Yen and all I had was a 100 Yen note. He couldn't make change but made me understand he would sharpen another blade for me later. I didn't realize until I got home that the man was so poor that he couldn't break 100 Yen, about $.28 at that time.

There was a nice little old man at the milk plant where I worked. I was trying to cut open a box with my very dull knife and he took it from me and offered to sharpen it for me. He walked around the gravel parking lot and came up with some rock. I thought he was kidding. He rubbed the blade on this old rock and wouldn't you know it it turned out pretty good, I could not believe it. Was in Tokyo one christmas season and ran into a street vendor selling roasted chestnuts. They were heated in sand or some semi-fine balck rock and he used a strainer to retreive the chestnuts, then served in a small paper bag. they were wonderful. What a strang world.. chestnuts roasting on a open fire.. in the Ginza.. we didn't even get these at home in New England!

Sorry about the typos..long days.. little sleep.

No one has posted in several days; everyone must outside enjoying Spring or Summer weather, and not inside at their computers. Our weather here in western Washington state is still very cool for June. School is out for the summer now, so I have more free time. (I work as a substitute educational aide in public schools - all grade levels.) Now I have to finish projects that I put aside over the winter.

Hello to everyone. Please post what you've been doing lately.

Have been very busy, had two large book and paper auctions that we conducted. Also working on our huge internet project and had several birthdays. Floods in MO but don't think this effects Eric. Wx has been just beautiful. Nostalgia time.. look up " Blue Light Yokohama" on you tube.. hope you enjoy it. Hope you are well.