Yokohama Navy Exchange was where?

Yes, one can go inside (but not "up") the Daibutsu at Kamakura. The statue "Kannon" (the large white statue at Ofuna) also has a place at the back of the statue where one can go in. These are both literally chapels.

Thanks Steffi. I�fve been following the posts and they have been very interesting. It must have been magical to have been an American child growing up in Japan back in the 1950s and 1960s. I am doing okay, but disappointed: I had a cataract removed from my left eye and an artificial lens implanted, and I can see much better, but have found out that I'm not as good-looking as I thought I was. I bet your son is having a blast in Japan, and I envy him. �gDon�ft say kikko til you�fve seen Nikko!�h When I went to Nikko, someone told me that little ditty means: Don�ft say beautiful til you�fve seen Nikko. It is a beautiful and serene place.

Dave -san.. wondrful site, but try as I may it wouldn't open for me.. any suggestions?
I simply love the koto and played one once in Japan, had a bit of a knack for it if I do say so,
In Kamakura there is another temple as well, the Hase Kwannon, not far from Daibutsu, very very magical place.
Hi Wal-san welcome back we missed you.
Try this.. close your left eye and look in the mirror with your bad right eye... there ! [what a handsome guy].. better yet.. get out your old army photo and toss the mirror altogether.
We trust Steffi will keep us informed about all of Jeffs travels and experiences...well not ALL of his experiences..ahem..
[wally knows what I mean.]

Try this link:
http://www.cc.kyoto-su.ac.jp/information/sounds/home.ht...
It plays with Windows Media Player. Free download, koko,
http://download.cnet.com/windows/media-players/
Dave-san

Forty-two pages of modern Yokohama. Some will lead to more when you click them. Sumimasen, no translation.
http://image-search.yahoo.co.jp/search?p=%E4%B8%AD%E5%8...#
Dave-san

Thank you, Dave-san. What a melange of pictures: buildings, floor-plans, streets, flowers, food, and many great pictures of Yamate-cho landmarks -- makes me wish I could read Japanese. Thanks, too, for the link to Japanese sounds -- how clever of you to find that website! Having listened to some of the sounds, I now think that I may be confusing the noodle man with the sweet potato vendor (sigh), but I clearly recall my father saying "there goes the noodle man" -- seems he might have been mistaken. I loved reading about the specific sounds that Eric and Peter remembered, and I laughed visualizing Steffi playing hopscotch in getas and Peter climbing a mountain in them. Steffi did you ever play double-dutch jump rope in Japan? Regarding the Great Buddha of Kamakura, I have a picture of myself looking out of a high opening at the back during the early fifties when apparently you could go inside and climb at least part way up. Welcome back, Wally.

Dave C., did you live in military housing on Yamate-cho? Your 243 address doesn't correspond to the military housing addresses on the maps I have; however 243 Yamate-cho would correspond to existing Japanese or so called foreigners' homes. Maybe you have already done this, but Google Maps ("street view") provides access to 234 Yamate-cho and 235 (Christ's Church) but stops there. At the other end of Yamate-cho, street view is available as far as the Foreigners' Cemetery. You must have lived on Yamate-cho somewhere between those two locations. Does that sound right to you? Have you tried Google's satellite view?

Dave C-san: I think this is where your house was:
http://maps.google.com/?q=%E7%A5%9E%E5%A5%88%E5%B7%9D%E...
It should be across the street from quarters 9-31 on this map:
http://yohidevils.net/kanto/maps/15ympblf.jpg
Dave H-san

Quarters 9-31 should read 9-531 on my previous entry.
Dave H-san

Eric-san:
I can't find your address. Either it no longer exists or I am doing something wrong.
http://diddlefinger.com/m/kanagawaken/yokohamashi/38642...
I think this is your street.
http://diddlefinger.com/m/kanagawaken/yokohamashi/38642...
Dave-san

Jeff, who is in Nikko, is absolutely amazed at the sights there. He says the main temple is the most beautiful thing he's ever seen.

He also emailed that he felt his first earthquake today - it lasted just a few seconds and was not very strong. He'll find out that it's almost an everyday occurrence in Japan.

Rather than the everyday experiences of war, it was earthquakes that I truly dreaded in Japan. Does anyone have this fear also? I remember being in our kitchen in Yokohama, and having all the dishes and glassware suddenly start to shake and rattle. I also remember walking down a street in Karuizawa - and having the earth open up in front of me. I had mightmares for years afterwards of being swallowed up - I'm still a bit claustrophobic.

Barbara - I was an avid rope-jumper - and in getas - but not double-dutch - that was always a bit too hard for me. Isn't it strange to now see these plastic "flip-flops" on everyone's feet - They're so shallow-soled that people look like they're going barefoot - and that's a strange sight in NYC, where no one is barefoot. Here is Mass. they seem to be less popular.

Dave;

I suspect # 91 Sannotani (next door to 108 Sannotani) was done away with when Avenue D was replaced as the major thoroughfare on that side of the metro. The property probably became quite valuable after the Area 2 housing area was returned to Japan.
At about the same time, considerable landfilling got underway in the bay near San Kaien Gardens and an oil refinery and other industrial facilities were built there.
Is Ave D still called "Avenue D" ?

Eric-san:
As far as I know, Avenue "D" was never called Avenue "D" by anyone but foreigners. The US Army assigned letters to the main streets and numbers to the cross streets in part of Yokohama in 1945 to simplify making maps for occupation forces. The Japanese name is Honmoku-dori and it runs from the intersection with Sangyo Doro (Nations Highway) in southern Yokohama to Yokohama Koen (Yokohama Stadium, formerly Lou Gerhig Stadium). Those of us who lived in Yokohama long ago still call it Avenue "D" because that's the name we used then. I doubt anyone else calls it anything other than Honmoku-dori but I don't know what the Navy calls it these days. http://www.city.yokohama.lg.jp/naka/english/wardoffice/englishpublicat... gives street names and addresses for many places in Yokohama.
Japanese addresses don't follow the American system. Addresses were assigned in the order buildings were built much like we assign building numbers on military bases. Hence # 91 Sannotani being next door to 108 Sannotani. Now they are often assigned by block with the numbers running around the block.
Your address may still be in the data base. I will investigate further when I get smarter on how to find addresses.
Dave-san

Dave is right. The Ave A, D ect were occupation forces names. The Japanese never really used them, except for taxi drivers. When I lived by the canal near Chinatown the street was called Texas Street. I never knew this until I Started poking around this forum. For taxi drivers I would just give "straight , left and right directions." Early on, fumbeling badly in my Japanese dictionary, little did I know that the driver already knew where I lived [ 6th sense?] I'm sure they enjoyed my inept attempt to get around.
Taking a little trip tomorrow.. may have a little surpriese for you all. Any guesses ?

Peter-san: What you would like to do is meet up with Wally and go bar-hopping in Yokohama. What you will do is take your wife to Boston and visit the Japanese exhibit in one of the museums. LOL.
Dave-san

Dave-san

You are VERY warm !!

Hint.. its not Wally and its not Yokohama.

But the State is Right.

No one should go bar hopping in Japan with me, I would get them in trouble. In 1972 a Japanese friend (Sgt. in U.S. Army) and I were in Akasaka in Tokyo and we went to a bar where the hostesses charged $100 per hour to sit and drink with you. We couldn�ft afford that, so didn�ft stay, and when we went out, a barker was bringing an American into the bar. I warned the guy that it was expensive, so he didn�ft go in. A few minutes later the barker and a couple of his friends cornered us in an alley, and he warned me to leave his customers alone or I would be terminated, and they had guns to back it up as one guy pulled a pistol out of his belt. My friend was really scared, as he said they were Yakuza, and he wouldn�ft let me contact the police, as he said it wouldn�ft do any good. A couple nights later I went back to Akasaka (I�fm a slow learner) and saw the same barker have some poor Japanese guy spread-eagled across the hood of a car and was beating him with a chain. Gun control advocates always point to Japan as a place where there are no guns and the crime rate is low. Well, I know first hand that the Yakuza have guns, and the crime rate is low because the Yakuza control it, and they don�ft allow petty thieves cutting into their territories.

Surprise.. The game is up and all but Dave missed the clues.
Steffi and I are visiting with our respective spouses at her wonderful cabin in The Berkshires. We had wine.. a swim in a beautiful lake..more wine....beer...wine. We're having great conversations, non stop, mostly in English, some Japanese.
Wally - that is a scary experience - glad you came out of it intact. We had always felt Japan was so safe - Jeff is there now, and says the same things.
Greetings from Peter and Steffi, from Massachusetts - Happy Labor Day - hope everyone's got great weather as we did here.

One of the things I've really enjoyed on this forum is how others posts keep reminding me of things I had forgotten. Geta, for instance. I never could get a pair big enough, even when I was twelve. So I never got to play hopscotch, or anything else, in geta. That brings up another shoe size memory.
When I was back in '65 I used to travel to Tokyo to hit the book stores because there was a lot better selection of English titles in the book stores near the universities than in the base PX or library. It turned out that I met a nice young lady during one of my trips who went to school there and we ended up having coffee and seeing each other again and going to movies and other entertainment places. She was a college student and a nice change of pace from the more worldly girls I knew in Yokohama and Yamato.
She had never been bowling so I decided to take her. The Japanese have a wonderful sense of humor when it comes to things that would be embarrassing anywhere else. We get to the place in the bowling alley where you rent shoes and caused an uproar among the employees when they tried to find a pair of bowling shoes big enough for me. It seemed like everyone in the place was laughing including my friend and me. No shoes but no sweat, you can bowl in your socks. Bad idea! I learned that bowling in your socks is not the way to impress a date. It was kind of like ice skating with a bowling ball and I am not a graceful skater. Of course everyone in the place was watching the American with the big feet make a fool of himself. I never went bowling in Japan again.
Wally-san: Stay out of places where guys at the door are trying to lure customers. They are not your friends! Before being stationed in Japan I had been aboard ship in the Mediterranean and got a good education while on shore patrol duty in the various ports we hit. That and having lived in Japan for awhile as a kid kept me out of a lot of bad places in Japan and taught me how avoid trouble everywhere else. Going to school in Newark, NJ before I joined the Marine Corps probably helped too. I don't think I was ever in a bar in Tokyo but I hit a lot of good ones in Yokohama and Yamato.
Memories!
Dave-san

As Hamakko (nick name given to those who were born and raised in Yokohama)who lives in California, I've been enjoying reading this forum with great interest especially about the sounds of Yokohama. There is a sound which I can't forget as Hamakko. But none of you mentioned about this deafening sound of ship's whistle on New Year's Eve at midnight. All the ships (from a small tag boat to big oceanliners) anchored at Yokohama Port sounded their horns simultaneously which could be heard by all. They literally broke the silence darkness of the night. I would say if you don't know and never heard this ship's whistle on the night of December 31, you are not Hamakko. I was living about ten kilometers away from Yokohama Port, still I could hear that. This particular time-honored custom at Yokohama Port has been observed up to the present but I haven't heard it for a long time because I don't go back to my hometown in winter except spring or fall.