Yokohama Navy Exchange was where?

My father was ocean-going Army and we lived at 614B Area X, now Negishi Heights, from 53 to 55. I started school there. I remember that we could see Mt. Fuji out our back door, and there was a wooden slide in the playground. It's my favorite place from my childhood. Except that I hated going to the post dentist. :-)

Welcome.. I hope our friend Eric finds you on this as he was there about the same time as you. I was there 67-69. Ah the post dentist ! Shortly after I arrived they said i had to get two wisdom teeth removed.. took three hours.. think it was his first one. The Japanese taxi driver was shocked I think as here is this guy pouring blood and all swolen, he must have thought I was tortured. I also remember a sign in the dental clinic.. to the effect.. miss one appointment and you get no others.. keeps one on time.

When I got to the 106th Army Hospital, Yokohama, I had a couple of cavities on my front teeth, and an Army dentist, a captain, filled them. The problem was that he used silver fillings instead of white procelain and it looked awful, but the captain didn't care what they looked like, and I was afraid to say anthing because I was just a private. The head of the Dental Clinic a Lieutenant Colonel, was from Missouri and when he heard that I was from Missouri he invited me to his office for a chat. When he saw the silver fillings he hit the ceiling and chewed the Captain up one side and down the other, and made him put in white fillings. We Missourians stick together!

My main remembrance of going to the dentist is that the instant I opened my mouth to cry (I was 5 or 6 years old) the dentist clamped his hand over my mouth so that I couldn't make a sound. Ever thereafter I managed to be very quiet. It did have the advantage, though, of winning me an award from my father for not having cried!
Oh, and trolley tracks -- was anyone else terrified of them? I practically refused to cross them because I was sure that a trolley would suddenly appear from out of nowhere and mow me down. Strange child that I was.

Welcome to this thread. I was wondering - what school did you go to? I had been in Yokohama when I was a little kid from '45 to '48 and went to St. Joseph's, which was on the Bluff. I had also gone to St.Mauer's for a short time before that. Either of these familiar to you?

I think he [ or she?] went to the lighthouse school. Just a guess, howd I do ?
I was 20 when in Japan so rode the trolleys everywhere. Now there in a museum!

Welcome to one of the longest running (and rambling) discussions related to where, exactly the Navy Exchange was located in Yokohama. We've wondered off point a few times as you can see if you review previous posts...
Yes, I recall Area X/Negishi. I think all that's left now of the American footprint is a remnant of Negishi Heights.
The trolly, or streetcar tracks crossed directly in front of our house, across from Area 2 in the Sannotani
neighborhood. The Sannotani station was a "turn around" spot where the streetcars reversed course. The conductor would get out and pull on a rope to relocate the electric wire connector (looked like a big bottle opener) as the car slowly moved to the other track.
I remember watching this process from a little grocery store, just as a big "up & down" earth quake hit. The streetcar was halfway across, just as the street rolled a couple of times. This pitched the streetcar off its tracks with a huge shower of sparks from the wire scraper. I expected Gojira-san to emerge but he never did.

I went to Negishi Heights School for 1st grade. Kindergarten was full, so I missed that. The school was just down the hill from where we lived, and we could hear "She ain't got no yoyo" playing from the speakers at the racetrack munitions dump.
P.S. I'm a she. :-)
As to where the Naval Exchange was, you just got on a bus with your mother, got off with her, and you were there . . . no problem.

"She ain't got no yo-yo." Does anyone else remember that song. I think the correct title was "China Nights."

Navy Exchange? What Navy Exchange?

You nailed it Wally.

Wally san, Try it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahUr1fF7ISo

Thanks for the YouTube link. I really enjoyed it, even if that song was popular about the time I was born. I clicked on some other video links within YouTube and saw some singers that were popular on TV when I lived in Japan in the 1980's. Brought back some very pleasant memories. Domo arigato gozaimasu.

Oops! I went and looked at the video again and it says 1940. That was actually 16 years before I was born.

The only song I remember singing is "Sakura, sakura...." Its cherry blossom time in Japan - just heard from my friend Michiko in Kyoto. Here's a youtube video - enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKTRnO7SV68&feature=rela...

I remember a few verses from a childrens' song about a little bird who wanted to go to school with the neighborhood kids. It starts;
Chee-chee, pa-pa,
Chee pa-pa,
Suzumeno gakko no sensi wa...

Kaoru-san,

What a great flick, it has a wonderful melancholy to it. I had never seen it before, but I had heard the song many times. I have some questions:

1. Was Eric and I right about the name of the song being China Nights? What is the name of the film?

2. The actor who plays the bridegroom looks familiar. Did he play the role of the blind samurai in the TV series?

Thanks,

Wally

You are 52 years old? You sure don't look it.

Wally:

If you click around on Kaoru's Utube connection you'll find three or four versions of this song.
I remember a friend of my dad's named 'Tiny" Alford who could sign this song loudly at any gathering we attended. He liked to dress up as Santa around Christmas when dad's lodge members brought special gifts to the orphanage they had adopted. The orphanage was made up of "lost seniors" parents and grandparents of Japanese soldiers lost in the war. "Tiny" would wear his Santa suit as he handed out presents to the old folks while belting out "China Nights" in Japanese. The folks at the orphanage probably thought he was nuts.

Ohhhhh! So, you can see things thru your computer?!
:)

Suzume-no-Gakkou meaning "Sparrow's school"is nursery rhymes of Japan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=JP&hl=ja&v=y5pdACpum38