Yokohama Navy Exchange was where?

Quote- �gWally-san: Stay out of places where guys at the door are trying to lure customers. They are not your friends!�h -unquote. Dave-san, now you tell me!

Kozue-san, I experienced the Yokohama Harbor New Year�fs Eve thing! A bunch of us from Kishine Barracks rented a couple of rooms in the Silk Hotel on New Year�fs Eve, December 31, 1967, and at midnight all the ships in the harbor blew their horns. You are right, it was quite a sound, and one that you never forget. You would have thought that Peter-san would have remembered that sound since he lived so close to the harbor, but then he was probably passed out by midnight.

Kozue-san: Welcome! I hope you will continue reading this forum and posting.
I was in Yokohama December 31, 1963 celebrating New Years' Eve at the Peanuts Club on Isezaki-cho. Somehow I ended up drinking with a bunch of sailors who turned out to be off a Russian Navy ship. I hadn't run into too many Russians and I guess they hadn't met too many Americans. We were having a great time drinking and talking like sailors and Marines from different countries do when at midnight all the normal New Years' celebration music and noisemakers started. Above all the racket we could hear the ships, with horns and whistles loud enough to override the noise at the Peanuts Club. That may not be unique to Yokohama because I was in Singapore December 31, 1967 and the same thing happened. My most memorable New Years' Eve memory is Da Nang, South Vietnam, December 31, 1965. Everyone on the perimeter fired off all their flares and pretty much everything else that could be fired and put on quite a show and made lots of noise. Needless to say, that didn't please the brass. As a result December 31, 1966 was remarkably quiet because everyone got the word that they better be able to account for all their flares and ammunition when they came off post on New Year's Day. Yokohama was a lot more fun.
Steffi-san: Thanks for looking after Peter-san this weekend. I hope you fed him some dried squid and osenbei with nori. We went out Friday night and had shrimp tempura and various kinds of sushi, one of our favorite treats. We have a Japanese place close by that we hit every couple weeks and always order the same thing. I always drink Kirin Beer and Barbara always drinks plum wine. Unfortunately everyone who works there is Korean and can't speak a word of Japanese but the food is good and the Korean waitresses are cute enough to be Japanese.
I think all of us but you lived in houses in Yokohama that are no longer there. I guess that makes us all the rest of us homeless Yokohaman's. When Jeff visits Berrick Hall he should him tell them that you once lived there and see if they know what became of Ann Pendleton. Of course I'm sure you've already given him those instructions. I'm looking forward to his report and pictures.
Dave-san

Steffi, I found this notice and thought of you and Jeff:

We�fll Meet Again: The Love Songs of World War II
Smithsonian, two CDs $32.97, CODE: SMP-1; two cassettes $29.97, CODE: SMP-2

May/June 1994 American Heritage magazine

The songs in this marvelous collection, writes the music historian Robert Bamberger in the excellent explanatory pamphlet that accompanies it, �gcannot be mistaken, or burdened, to tell all we want and need to know about that time. But there is still much that these songs do tell, and what they obscure may not be as important as what they illuminate. Though not shared memory itself, the love songs of World War II are a window into its heart, against the day that is coming, when remembrance is second-hand.�h
It�fs extraordinary, the artless power these songs can exert fifty years later. While a sometime rouser like �gGoodbye Mama, I'm Off to Yokohama,�h has become the quaintest of period pieces, Peggy Lee singing the number from which the album takes its title can break your heart. It may not be surprising to find that Bing Crosby�fs canny, honeyed fluency doesn�ft age much, but how nice to rediscover the melancholy ease of the Ink Spots singing �gDon�ft Get Around Much Any More.�h
There are forty-two songs on this album, and every one is worth listening to. Even the silliest of them (probably �gMa, I Miss Your Apple Pie,�h by the Jesters) is both sweetened and magnified by the tremendous time whose travails and yearnings it helped express.

http://search.americanheritage.com/search?q=cache:E1sbHl-rQv...

Okay, been there, done that, time: Vinh Long Army Airfied, Vietnam, December 31, 1971. At midnight the troops fired off flares, colored smoke grenades, M-16s and 30 cal. machine guns. The tracer bullets really stood out against the black sky. The next day the scuttlebutt had it that the only casualty was an old man in a village downrange, and it was only a flesh wound. You're right, Yokohama was the best!

Concerning your statement to Steffi, "I think all of us but you lived in houses in Yokohama that are no longer there. I guess that makes us all the rest of us homeless Yokohaman's.".....the houses I lived in are still there. (I will grant that I lived in Yokohama "more recently" than most of the people who participate in this forum.) The first time we lived in Japan, we lived in the U.S. Navy housing area, Negishi Heights. I can see the house we lived in on Google Street View. The house we lived in during our second time in Japan is in the very southern part of Yokohama or maybe just outside.....in an area called Kamariya. I can see it on Googlemaps (satellite view). So, I guess I'm not in the homeless category.

Passed out by Midnight
..... YUP......

Dave-san and Wally-san,

Thank you for welcoming me. And also, Eric-san , I am the one who is a friend to Masahiro who is a photographer to whom I've translted your letter or his back and forth.
He has been taking pictures of Yokohama from all angles ever since his junior high school days including Yokohama Naval base housing facilities in Honmoku and Negishi some of which I've introduced a few months ago and somebody(I forgot his name) has put it in this forum. Just to be in time to help celebrate the 150th Anniversary of Yokohama Port Opening, he has published his book titled ''Yokohama Night & Day'' (collection of his photographs of Yokohama, old and new including lot of scenes in the US Naval base) in early May. I volunteered to help him in translating all captions of the pictures and postscript into English. Following is FYI:

ISBN978-4-8179-2118-5 COO72 (2000 Yen)

9784817921185
1920072020005


So many fond memories came back to me as I read this interesing forum. Let me go back to around 1958 when I was a high school student at one of the girls' mission schools in Yokohama which is not in the Yamate area. As an exchange program or something through good offices of my missionary teacher, two girls (their names were both Mary) and a boy from Nile Kinnick High School visited my school and myself and a couple of girls showed them around. In turn, we were invited to visit their school but I don't remember anything at all.

World is so small that my late husband knew Nile Kinnick who was a Navy flyer(?) and also recipient of the Heitzman Trophy(?), if my memory serves me right.

It was my missionary teacher who took me (I'm a fourth generation Christian) and my class mate to the evening service at Chapel Center in Yokohama Park on Sunday. We took street car from Sakuragicho Station to go there. Service was held in English and was attended by foreigners (perhaps, all Americans?). WhatI enjoyed most was not necessarily a service but after the service, refreshments were served in the adjacent hall. Cakes, cookies and punch, they were so good and selicious! This Chapel Center which was a little America to me no longer exists and at present there is Yokohama Baseball Stadium on the site.

Talking about Kishine Base, my primary school was relatively close to that base. I bet that even at Kishine Base, that ships' horn on the New Year's Eve could be heard. There used to be Silk Hotel but that building is now being used as Silk Museum/Shop and also there are lot of offices there.

Sorry, I'm just writing at random. As I recall back in 1954 or 5, that one day a chaplain(?) of the Kishine Base visited my high school(Baptist mission school for girls) to be a guest speaker at morning service. He was the first black American who visited my school.

City of Yokohama has been celebrating the 150th Anniversary of Opening of Yokohama Port and so many events (International parade, special exhibition of Yokohama history, art exhibit and so on) have been taking place from April through October. I was lucky to be back in Yokohama this April and had a great 23 days getting together with my siblings, relatives and friends and also had a home-coming to my high school! I was staying at a nice hotel just in front of the Marine Tower and it was a walking distanced from China Town. I visited the Berrick Hall, Foreigners' Cemetery, former Japanese diplomat's house, Tennis Museum in Yamate Area and also Motomachi Shopping Street and Isezakicho Shopping Street.

Thanks for your commentary on the early days of Yokohama. I recall you mentioned a trip to Europe this summer. Did you make the trip?
Are there other web locations where we can observe this phtographer's work?

Dave san.. I am comming to know and respect you..but..I doubt that anyone could hear anything from inside the Peanut Club other than the loud bands! Dispite my previous statement to Wally.. I "believe" that I was at the Peanut Club on the evening of 31 Dec 68.. well.. can't be quite sure.. I know that in 69 I was at Bayside Courts at midnight and did hear the ships.
Both Wally and I are very aquainted with the Peanut Club. Made some good friends there especially with a rock group called the Voltage. Every night was a cockroach convention and whiskey co-co's. Sailors from all over the world.. what an idea for a theme-bar. And I.. like you called it Peanuts [plural]. Wally correcd me. [ he's good at that] Takes a pro drinker to remember this arcane stuff.

I just googled Peanut+Club+Yokohama and came up with this. Those of you who frequented this bar may want to check it out:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/huffstutterrobertl/3837430091/

Hi Eric-san,

It was not me but Masahiro who went to France and Czech Republic this July. He seems to have had a great time there.

With regard to Masahiro's photos, variety of pictures done by him which I put on in early June was found and was transferred to this forum by Dave-san(Thank you Dave.) on June 5. Perhaps, some of you must not have had a chance to see this, so I'm repeating this again here.

Pictures & Old Map 2009/6/5

I just found this on Japan-guide.com Bill Chickering Theater present today? forum.
http://www5.ocn.ne.jp/~matida/gallery2.htm
http://www5.ocn.ne.jp/~matida/map.htm
http://www5.ocn.ne.jp/~matida/gallery2a.htm
The arrows on the bottom will take you through the entire album.
Also found old racetrack pictures by following links.
http://hisa491.fc2web.com/list8.htm

Hope all of you will enjoy each picture again.


Kozue

Hi Eric-san,

I've asked Masahiro if there's other works of his photography on the site, but the answer was ''No''. He asked me to say ''Yoroshiku'' to you. He's going to visit Instanbul and Athens in the latter part of this month.

Regarding the sound of Japan, you asked about the wooden clappers used in kabuki theater last month. It's called in Japanese, ''HYOSHI-GI'' or ”�Žq–Ø�B Also,�@Hyoushigi is carried by voluntary night watch in winter who walks in town alerting people by shouting ''Hi No Yojin!'' which means ''Be careful about fire!''

Do you remember a picture-story show (KAMISHIBAI,Ž†ŽÅ‹�)man who came around the town everyday or every other day on his bicycle with all equipment to show and tell stories to children? To let children know of his coming, he also clapped his Hyoushigi. Kids gathered around his bicycle and bought a starch syrup or wafer-like senbei in lieu of ''ticket''. Only the kids who bought ticket could enjoy the show.�@�@This was before the advent of TV set. I long for the days when I was a kid.

Wally-san,

Did you say that you were living once at Hakuraku Mansion? I used to live near Hakuraku Station (private Toyoko Line) till the age of 15.

Hey, I thought I recognized you. I lived there 1967-68, and I used to go to the movie theater near Hakuraku-station. Also, there was a little pastry shop where I used to buy delicious puff pastry filled with cream. I sure miss those. There was also a little restaurant that had great shrimp fried rice. What does Hakuraku Mansion look like now? It was brand new when I lived there, and was painted beige, and there was a perpetual waterfall on one side from the water tank on the roof. I was told that the loose construction was to sway with earthquakes. The last time I was there (1980) the Mansion was painted green. Hakuraku was, and probably still is, a beautiful area of nice homes, hedges and stone walls, and I used to like to just walk around and listen to the wind chimes and take in the noises and smells of the daily activity. Were you living there during my time there? Hakuraku Mansion was mostly rented by U.S. Army personnel and we were kind of noisy, so I hope we didn�ft cause too much trouble for our Japanese neighbors, who by the way were wonderful to us. I think I can identify Hakuraku Mansion on Google Earth, but am not sure.

This means 'take care' of yourself...
(I confess, I my first stab at this was wrong and had to look it up.) Yoroshiku has several meanings all having to do with good tidings. Correct me if I've overlooked one or another meaning.
Thanks for solving the mystery of the wood clappers...

Konbanwa Wally-san,

When you were living in Hakuraku area in 1967 - 1968, I was not there. I was there ten years prior to your days. Perhaps, our paths didn't cross. However, I vividly remember that movie theater ''Hakucho-Za'' near Hakuraku Station where non-Japanese movies, American and European movies were shown. I remember seeing ''Snow White'', ''Cinderella'', ''Fantasia'', ''The Robe'',''The Four Women'' and ''East of Eden'' etc. as a low-teen.

Delicious puff pastry filled with cream is called by Japanese ''Shuu Cream'' which sounds like shoe cream. I like this pastry very much. It's a Japanese abbreviation of Choux-a-la-creme which roughly means cream in the cabbage in French. To French people, shape of the puff looked like cabbage.

Regarding Hakuraku Mansion, I don't know anything about it.

Eric-san,

Yes, ''Yoroshiku'' has several meanings like for instance when you are introduced to a person, you might say ''Douzo Yoroshiku'' which means ''I'm glad to make acquaitance with you and hope that you'll remember me.'' Other use of ''Yoroshiku'' is expressed when Masahiro wanted me to conveys his regards or ''Hello'' to you. Thirdly, when you ask someone to do something, you'll say ''Yoroshiku.'' which means ''Please take care of this matter.''

When you say ''Please take care of yourself.'' or ''Take care'', I say ''Ki o tsukete.''

Well, I wish you all a nice weekend.

Kozue-san;

I promise to study harder !

Is this thing working?

Just coming down from the Iowa-Arizona football game in Iowa City on Saturday.
The Hawkeyes are 3-0 for the season.
Next week, we play a real team, Penn State, in Happy Valley.

Rots-o-ruk.

IA-PSU will be on ABC TV Saturday night.
Hawkeyes will need it.