Ishiyaki Imo

Another sound we sometimes hear outside is a plaintive, slow, sing-song, chant, "shi..... yaaaaa kiiiii... iiii mo..o...o..." which is difficult to describe but you know it when you hear it!  It is played over a loudspeaker from a truck moving very slowly down the street.  I guess you could compare it to an icecream truck in the United States.  There seem to be at least several in our neighborhood, and they appear in the afternoon and evenings.

Mmmm... but does this look like an icecream truck?

Look closely and notice the fire burning in the back!

The driver is selling not icecream, but.... sweet potatoes!    This is an Ishiyaki Imo truck.


Ishi (stone), yaki (grilled), imo (sweet potato). The potatoes are cooked right in the back of the truck.

The other day on my way home from errands, I stopped at one truck to get Kaela an after-school snack:

The woman lifted up the lid of the roaster to reveal the delicious potatoes.  The potatoes you see on the little shelf are for demonstration only - to show the two types available.

I chose my type of potato, she showed it to me for my approval, weighed it, and put it into a paper bag.    

 Add a little brown sugar, and... yum!

Another mysterious sound...

Last time I posted about a sound we hear outside each night - the fire prevention volunteers.

There's another sound that was a mystery until recently, when one of Tommy's school friends explained it.

Every evening at 5:00 pm we hear a short (maybe 10 seconds) instrumental tune being played, from a loudspeaker.  It sounds a bit like the music on a carousel, but it's slower and gentler.

It turns out that the tune is a signal for children in the neighborhood to go home (presumably for dinner).

Children of all ages here freely walk around, play in the park, and take trains or busses home alone to and from school.  It is not unusual for me to be on a bus and see just one young child traveling alone.  This is perfectly natural here and not considered unsafe.

So, the 5:00 pm broadcasted song indicates a sort of curfew.  I imagine that Japanese Moms are home cooking and they know that when the song is played, their children will hear it and immediately get home.  Sounds like a great system to me!

What's that 9:30 p.m. sound?

For weeks now, we have noticed a peculiar sound out in the street next to our apartment building, always at around 9:30 pm.  It is the sound of two wooden sticks being struck together, like a percussive instrument being played in a very slow, steady rhythm.

Last night when we heard this now familiar sound, we quickly turned off our light and opened our window to investigate.  Looking down from our third story window, we saw four people wearing orange vests, walking slowly down the alley.  One carried a traditional lantern, two carried flashlights which they shone here and there as if looking for something, and the fourth beat together two large sticks.  

I was told today that these groups are traditional volunteer fire fighting groups.  They go around the neighborhoods at night signaling with the wooden sticks and checking around for any obvious fire hazards.  The sound reminds citizens to be careful about fire by turning off kerosene heaters before bed, etc.  That makes a lot of sense!  Mystery solved!

In Japan, fire prevention is considered a civic responsibility -- each person feels personally responsible for helping to keep the neighborhood safe from fires.  Long ago, when houses were made of wood with thatched roofs, if a fire broke out in one house, it would quickly spread and could mean the destruction of a whole neighborhood, or worse.  Even with today's modern building materials and methods, earthquakes still increase the risk of fires, and Japanese people take that very seriously.  Some people in country homes still leave buckets of water standing ready outside their doorways, just in case there's a need to douse a fire or soak a roof to prevent fire from spreading.

Mr. Nanto remembers that his Japanese Grandma's very biggest fear was that a fire would break out in her home, even though her home was a farmhouse in the United States.

Can you think of any Civic Responsibilities that you have, as a citizen of Massachusetts, and as a member of your own particular neighborhood?