Down Town Chitose

The town of Chitose in 1965 was a very unusual place.  Most of the US Military was station in Southern Japan.   Chitose is on the island of Hokkaido, the most Northern island in the Japanese chain.  Most of the Japanese that I met in southern Japan looked  down on the people of Hokkaido.   The climate is very cold and has some of the largest snowfalls of any place. In 1965 WW2 had only been over for 20 years.  Lots of Japanese had lost family members in the conflict.  It was very interesting to listen to their stories of the war.  Chitose was a small city or town.  Other than the Agency there was not much other Military on the island.  There were some Air Force up north but i never had much dealings with them.  The Japanese Self Defense force was near the Airport  but I dont think they went to town  much.  I heard their pay was was something like 12 dollars a month .  So,  you have a small town in a very remote Northern   area of Japan with small group of American Service men living near by.  Most of the citizens were tolerant of us.  We were crude but we tried not to be rude.  The called us "barbarians' and many times rightfully so.   I would say that 99 per cent of us tried not to be offensive  and  treat them  with respect.   Chitose for the most part was a city of bars.  Not big night club places like here in the states but small coffee shop type bars.  Many bars could only hold 10 or 12 people.  People went to certain bars and that was it.  Most were very simple establishments.  Just a bar/stools, a record player and some type of heater.  Most of the heaters burned coal.  Many of the bars were owned by women who could speak a little English or had a bar maid that did.   Most of the bars did not have "Hostess" or girls who sat with you.  A very few places did but I never went to them very much.  In Southren Japan it seems to be much more more prevalent than in Chitose.    There was very little prostitution.  Hard to believe but true.   For  a Japanese girl to go with a American like a White girl going with a back guy in the 1950s in Mississippi.  Sometimes the bar owner had a boy friend and sometimes they did not.  I think some of them may have got set up in the bar business by former boy friends.  Not all women wanted to marry a soldier and come to the United States.  It was a very difficult physiological issue that some people had to address.  People went down town and started drinking in their favorite bar.  No age restrictions, 7 days a week, Some places had to close at 2 am or so but others did not.  Guys brought their favorite albums, they cost 2 dollars at the PX, and sat around and listened.  Bird of feather flock together so do Army guys.  One shift or "Trick" would only go to certain bars.  The bars took pretty good care of every one.  You could run a bar tab most of them never tried to cheat you.  If you got hungry they could order stuff from the many different food shops.  There was a young lady that  had a small food shop close to the Bar "Ronnie".  She cooked something  we called a "Chow Hound"   Most likely a gross mispronunciation of the real item. It was kink of a fried rice dish.  She also cooked "OM rice" It was fried rice with a omelet wrapped over it with Ketchup.  I think she could cook more but that is all she understood.  There were women who had what looked like Hot dog carts.  But they had different items in them.  Some sold  corn on the cob and others sold steamed sweet potatoes.  They would stand outside and it would some times be -20 below and sell their wares.  Most of the time we tried to buy something from them if we could.  They would put the little sweet potatoes in a rolled up piece of newspaper.  You would break them open and they would just steam all over they place.  We called the lady that sold the corn "Bar Corn"  ie Lets go eat at the Bar Corn.  A very hard way to live.   Back to the bars we would just sit and BS then go to another bar and repeat the process.  After a few months I had chance to take over a small apartment from a guy who was leaving.  It was  not very expensive.  I got to know the man who ran the little store and he liked me .  I bought a LOT of Beer and Wine from him.  One day I went in the store and they had a student that spoke pretty good English.  He said that since I was such a good customer and was always polite that they would offer me credit.  WOW  Very neat.  In Japan people used to carry a little rubber stamp, looked like a tube of lipstick, that you put on bills and such instead of your name. They had it in a nice little box.  I was very very proud of that stamp.  When I left I gave it back to them. ...................................................................................................................... Quote More than just rubber stamps, hanko--horn, wood or stone seals imprinted with the bearer's name, like a signature to a Westerner--are indispensable tools for Japanese adults in authorizing a myriad of transactions, from automobile registration, to bank activities to setting up house utilities. Nearly any occasion that would call for a Westerner's signature would call for an impression of a hanko in Japan.

Hanko were formally introduced to Japan in 701 AD, but were available only to those in positions of high authority. During the early to mid-seventeenth century, hanko were adopted by the general populace. Interestingly, the common people of Japan were not allowed to have family names until the late nineteenth century, so there must have been much confusion with hanko prior to this time with so many people having the same name.........................................           I always paid on time and never abused it.  I used the apartment to just get away from everything and read and just think.  Times were hard and I really did not like the Army but I had to do it.