wandering vendors

[torakris]

Ok, I really couldn't think of anything else to call this and I am not even sure if there is a collective Japanese term. I am talking about the trucks usually with loudspeakers attached that drive through the neighborhoods selling certain food products.

The yaki-imo (grilled sweet potato) truck is probably the most familiar of these, but in my neighborhood we also have a yaoya-san (vegetable seller) and a sakanaya-san ( fish seller) and not too far from my house I have run across a traditional tofuya-san (tofu seller) pulling her cart full of various tofus as she walks down the street.

Well yesterday for the first time I saw a panya-san (bread seller) on wheels, this man said his actual store is a good 30 minutes from our area but he has been delivering from his truck for some time now and yesterday was the first time to try in our area. He plans to return every Friday around 2pm. He truck sells teh typical offering available at every Japanese bakery and it was quite good, we will definitely be enjoying more of his sweets.

Being the good reporter that I am I even took pictures!

The truck (and my neighbors )

the goods

So what kind of roving vendors do you have in your neighborhood?

[MRX]

Check out the Quirky Japan Website's comparrison of the Yaki Imo Man Vs. The Ice Cream Man. It's great http://www3.tky.3web.ne.jp/~edjacob/food.html - basicly the Yaki Imo Man is the Ice Cream Man's Evil Twin....

[smallworld]

What a terrible site!

The author seems to have been extremely sheltered (culinary-wise) before coming to Japan.

This quote is revealing:

In my years in Japan I have eaten octopus, squid, seaweed, and even fried grasshoppers, so there is little on a menu that will frighten me.

Funny, I had eaten octopus, squid and seaweed long before I ever came to Japan, or even tried Japanese food, and I don't think I'm unusual.

As for fried grasshoppers, I have come accross these (always braised, not fried) so rarely that I would classify them as a novelty rather than a typical Japanese dish. Every single Japanese person I know thinks eating 'inago' is gross (in fact quite a few of my students had never even heard of Japanese people eating grasshoppers), and it seems the only people who enjoy them are old folks who got used to them during and immediately after WWII.

A great many cultures do, out of necessity, eat insects, and with extreme poverty a not-too-distant memory for many Japanese, it's hardly surprising that people who acquired a taste for inago during those years of hardship continue to eat them.

But what really ticks me off about this site is that the author goes on to insult all Japanese sweets and snacks and calls sweet potato bland! Sweet potatoes are one of my all-time favourite Japanese treats, and they are far from bland. And nothing 'quirky' about them!

The history of the yaki-imo truck is really interesting. Although Japan has a long history of itinerent vendors who sold a huge variety of items, the yaki-imo vendors weren't always as ubiquitous as they are now. Apparenly just after WWII food was in very short supply, with few people left in the countryside to grow crops. But somehow the Kawagoe area (north-west of Tokyo) was able to produce bumper crops of sweet potatoes, which would be brought to Tokyo to be sold by itinerant vendors. The little hand carts (no trucks back then) could easily traverse the rubble left behid from the fire-bombings, and soon everybody was familiar with the yaki-imo vendor's cry.

The Quirky Japan site mentions the grizzled and rather frightening appearance of yaki-imo sellers, who work in the winter, and unfairly compares them to the summer-time ice cream trucks of America. These guys look tough because their job is tough!

Actually, these guys ARE a bit shady, since itinerant vendors, as well as yatai vendors, are usually organized into yakuza-like groups. In fact the yakuza are thought to have evolved from wandering peddlars.

I know very little about it but I find it sad that this site doesn't mention anything. A history of the yaki-imo man and itinerant vendors in general would have been far more interesting (quirky even) than a simple comparison to American ice cream trucks, especially given that the Quirky Japan site seems to have quite a few pages of yakuza stuff.

[wesza]

Kristain:

Are you aware of the unique "Quiet Vendors" whom have been traveling routes selling in Japan from the days they traveled with Carts and eventually to motorized transport.

These are the Medicine and Herb Vendors who visit several times yearly to various neighborhoods. Sort of like our Custom Peddelars but generally welcomed and reffered to new customers by the families they visit.

My friends Have operated this type of Business for over 300 hundred years from Okinawa with a Father to Son route business that's always been successfull, even though many of their items are now being carried at regular Department Stores, Super Markets and Drug Stores.

There still are various Route Sales Companies but the Street Peddelar seems to be disappearing in most areas.

I remember the call "Fresh Fish"or "Veggies/Fruit', but lately even the Ice Cream truck is rare.

Irwin

[torakris]

Kristain:

Are you aware of the unique "Quiet Vendors" whom have been traveling routes selling in Japan from the days they traveled with Carts and eventually to motorized transport.

These are the Medicine and Herb Vendors who visit several times yearly to various neighborhoods. Sort of like our Custom Peddelars but generally welcomed and reffered to new customers by the families they visit.

My friends Have operated this type of Business for over 300 hundred years from Okinawa with a Father to Son route business that's always been successfull, even though many of their items are now being carried at regular Department Stores, Super Markets and Drug Stores.

There still are various Route Sales Companies but the Street Peddelar seems to be disappearing in most areas.

I remember the call "Fresh Fish"or "Veggies/Fruit', but lately even the Ice Cream truck is rare.

Irwin

We have "medicine" vendors in our neighborhood, maybe a little bit different from your friend's family. Ours gives us a kusuri-bako (medicine-box) full of various medicines and we keep it in our house and use what ever we need, then at the end of the month (or les often I am not sure since I have never used this service) they come back and check the box and you pay for what you have used and they also will refill it for you.

[torakris]

I saw this show sometime last year on Japanese tv about the "original" wandering vendors of the Tokyo area. I am not sure when it started but it was very common during the 40's to 60's and these young women would gather the vegetables from their gardens in the very early morning and then ride the train (often for a couple hours) into Tokyo. The vegetables were placed into baskets on their backs, these were quite big, 3 to 4 feet in height and weighing about 50kgs (over 100lbs). With these baskets strapped to their back they would wander the streets selling the vegetables. They had their own "neighborhood" and would visit the same place 6 days a week. They would spend a lot time in people's houses enjoying a cup of tea and a chance to remove the basket from their back.

The show was talking about how this is a fading tradition and it showed some women who were still doing it even though they were well into their 80's now.

This was really an incredible show and I have at times tried to find more information on this on the web, but to no luck....

[helenjp]

Oh yeah, we have a traveling bakery too! He doesn't sell any grainy breads, and comes in the evening after closing his bakery, but luckily for lazy me, he also sells milk! His set up is almost identical to Kristin's photo.

We don't have a fish or tofu truck run nearby, unfortunately, but every so often a very old lady comes puffing up our steps to invite us to check out the family vege truck parked round the corner. This is not as well stocked as the usual vege truck, and is obviously limited to the 2-3 varieties they grow themselves, but cheap.

[torakris]

Is it like that in Yokohama and other Japanese cities, too? Any familiar tunes played by ice cream trucks?

I don't think there are ice cream trucks in Japan, I ahve never seen them or even heard of them.

The yaki-imo trucks have a sort of moaning like song that just says yaaahki-iiimmoooooh, it is quite loud and can hear even you are in a house with all the doors and windows closed and are quite far away from the street.

Our garbage trucks play songs too......

[Pan]

Musical garbage trucks? How about that!

[kuishinbo]

There is a burrito truck that parks at the station in the evenings. He is apparently the only burrito truck in Japan. (I've been visiting him for about 7 years).

There is also a vegetable vendor that comes to my apartment building on Saturday evenings (sometimes). I haven't bought anything from them because we never know when they will show up for sure and we don't usually wait until Saturday evening to do our vegetable shopping. I have tasted some delicious veggies at a local restaurant that came from the truck.

We also get the usual yaki-imo, ramen, and laundry pole guys.

When i lived in Hiroshima there were a couple of ko-iwashi (baby sardine) vendors. These old ladies would just set up a chair on some street corner (one was in a residential street off the beaten-track) with a big tray of ko-iwashi. They would sit there all day and fillet the little 2 inch fishes. I think ko-iwashi sashimi is the food i miss most from Hiroshima. You can't seem to get it in Tokyo.

[torakris]

There is a burrito truck that parks at the station in the evenings. He is apparently the only burrito truck in Japan. (I've been visiting him for about 7 years).

There is also a vegetable vendor that comes to my apartment building on Saturday evenings (sometimes). I haven't bought anything from them because we never know when they will show up for sure and we don't usually wait until Saturday evening to do our vegetable shopping. I have tasted some delicious veggies at a local restaurant that came from the truck.

We also get the usual yaki-imo, ramen, and laundry pole guys.

When i lived in Hiroshima there were a couple of ko-iwashi (baby sardine) vendors. These old ladies would just set up a chair on some street corner (one was in a residential street off the beaten-track) with a big tray of ko-iwashi. They would sit there all day and fillet the little 2 inch fishes. I think ko-iwashi sashimi is the food i miss most from Hiroshima. You can't seem to get it in Tokyo.

what station is that burrito truck at?

I forgot about the laundry pole trucks, they don't seem to come around as much in the winter, but in the summer they are out there daily.

I mean come on, do people really hear their song and think, oh yeah I need a new laundry pole!, I have had mine for 9 news and still don't see new ones in teh recent future....

We also have a music playing truck that collects old electronic appliances.

ko-iwashi vendors, that is a new one for me.....

[smallworld]

I forgot about the laundry pole trucks, they don't seem to come around as much in the winter, but in the summer they are out there daily.

I mean come on, do people really hear their song and think, oh yeah I need a new laundry pole!,

Yes!

They're so hard to carry home if you don't have a car!

I live on the end of a tiny dead-end street so the only vendor that comes near is the kerosene truck (and only because a few neighbors are regular customers). NOTHING else comes (even couriers or food delivery people have trouble finding us!) so I'm in total envy of you all!

I'll occasionally hear vendors in the distance and have even tried to track down one of them- the guy who collects old electonics. Very convenient and it saves me having to pay the disposal fee.

There are plenty of farm fields (with stands or lockers out front) and some great little shops around here so very few itinerant vendors. The few times I have come accross them- yaki-imo, gyoza, fish- I've always been on my way to work and unable to indulge.

The stationary trucks and carts are almost a whole other category. There is an excellent tako-yaki truck infront of a nearby station, a pretty good pizza and pasta truck at another, and a few carts selling ramen or oden that I've been to scared to try.

I often come accross trucks in front of a station selling strawberries, melons or other seasonal fruit, usually at good deals. I am afraid to buy from them since they are only around for a day- they don't have to worry about repeat business so who knows if their stuff is good!

Further into the city there are quite a range of trucks, with the coffee trucks and Gyros trucks being my favourite. Seems there has been quite a boom in these trucks in recent years! I don't get into the city enough to have a favourite, but if anyone knows any good trucks in Tokyo please let us know!

[helenjp]

Laundry poles...yep, I perceive the demand, but every day???

When I first came to Japan 25 years ago, I went to visit friends who lived halfway up a mountain, considerably past the end of the last car-bearing road. They enjoyed watching all the sound trucks going past on the roads further down the mountain, touting services that nobody in the country needs...laundry poles? Cut 'em down from behind the house. Collection of unwanted bikes, machinery etc? But everybody knows they have to rust for 20 years in an outhouse first...

Finally they made up their own chant to deal with the real rural surplus:

Boro-jiisan, boro-baasan, gofuyou to narimashita okusama, ugokanakunatta furui dannasama, gozaimashitara, koukyuu toiretto tissue to koukan itashimasu...

(We will take worn-out grandaddies and grannies, unwanted wives, non-functioning elderly husbands, in exchange for quality toilet tissue...)

For years I used to remember this simple ditty at inopportune moments and laugh helplessly to myself, while everybody else on the train inched cautiously away from me...

[herbacidal]

At this point, I'm trying to figure out what a laundry pole is.

Is it a pole that you set a reasonable distance from a building/another pole as

a base for string/wire for drying laundry?

[torakris]

At this point, I'm trying to figure out what a laundry pole is.

Is it a pole that you set a reasonable distance from a building/another pole as

a base for string/wire for drying laundry?

There are basically two ways of setting up your pole.

If you have a yard you will have a two stands that you place about 5 feet apart from each other and then place the laudry pole across them. The pole is used used for hanging up clothes directly (or futons) or you hang teh clothes on theses contraptions that have lots of pinchers and then hang the contraptions to the pole.

If you don't have a yard you have a small veranda/balcony andthe ceiling will have some hooks hanging down a couple feet apart and the pole hangs across these and then they are used the same way as described above.

I have a yard so have one of the stand thingies here is a picture taken from my window because I am still in my pajamas and it is too cold to go outside.

lookf carefully in the back left side of the picture and you will see two stand supporting one blue-green pole, there are two silver poles leaning against it, the silver poles and the blue-green pole are all laundry poles. The pink think is the pincher contraption.

[kuishinbo]

what station is that burrito truck at?

the burrito truck hangs out at Nakano station after 9PM every day except Sundays and rainy days (and days the police are hanging around to harass vendors).

It can also be found in the Shibuya area (i think on Meiji-dori) during the afternoon.

[torakris]

I don't know if these "wandering vendors" are trying to make some sort of comeback or what but we have a new one in our neighborhood now.

Two days ago my neighbors and I were outside chatting when were heard a horn, not a car horn but some one blowing on a horn in almost a song like fashion, then from around a corner comes a man, dresses head to toe like he just walked out of a history book on pre-war Japan, pulling a cart with a banner announcing him as the tofuya-san (tofu shop).

An inspection of his cart showed a wealth of items from natto and soy milk to various tofus to croquettes made from okara and tofu steaks filled with a variety of vegetables, everything freshly made that morning. I picked up some yuba (tofu skins) and a couple zaru-dofus and it is going to be difficult to go back to the supermarket stuff after eating that!

Depending on how sales go, he plans on walking this route (in front of my house) once a week....

I will try to get a picture next time!

For now here is a picture of a similar cart:

http://www.chugoku-np.co.jp/kikaku/photore...u/02090901.html

(they aren't dressed as fun though!)

The horn he was blowing is called a rappa and has been used by tofuya-sans for ages to announce they are coming down the street, I am not quite sure what this is called in English...

[Hiroyuki]

torakris,

>I am not even sure if there is a collective Japanese term.

I think that you can call these people 物売り mono-uri.

>This was really an incredible show and I have at times tried to find more information on this on the web, but to no luck....

I think these women are usually called 行商のおばさん gyoshou-no-obasan.

Here I post only one link (in Japanese). There are several others, though.

http://www.nhk.or.jp/a-room/kotoba/37chiba/37episode05.html

>We have "medicine" vendors in our neighborhood,

Oh, yes. 富山の薬売り Toyama-no-kusuriuri!

smallworld,

>Sweet potatoes are one of my all-time favourite Japanese treats, and they are far from bland.

I agree. I think the writer should see a doctor for calling yaki-imo bland.

>as well as yatai vendors, are usually organized into yakuza-like groups

Such people are called 的屋 tekiya. For example, 寅次郎 Torajiroh, the leading character in a series of famous Japanese movies, is a tekiya.

>A great many cultures do, out of necessity, eat insects,

My father is from 信州 Shinshu. Shinshu people are known for being 悪食 akujiki (those who eat bizzare foods). They eat inago, as you mentioned, 蜂の子 hachi-no-ko (bee larvae), 蚕のさなぎ kaiko-no-sanagi (silkworm chrysalises), and others.

helenjp,

>Boro-jiisan, boro-baasan, gofuyou to narimashita okusama, ugokanakunatta furui dannasama, gozaimashitara, koukyuu toiretto tissue to koukan itashimasu...

I have never heard of the first phrase, "Boro-jiisan, boro-baasan". A common phrase is "Furu-shimbun, furu-zasshi" (old newspapars, old magazines).

I can laugh at the phrase, but I don't know what real boro-jiisan and boro-baasan have to say...

[torakris]

I just found this:

http://www.kyoto-su.ac.jp/information/soun...shiyakiimo.html

for those who have never been to Japan, now you can hear what the yaki-imo truck's song sounds like!

[easternsun]

yesterday around noon i heard the familiar tune of my childhood>>>>the ice cream van!! in february? no, just the gomi (garbage) truck - but oddly enough, the songs are quite similar!

it got me to thinking about the ramen truck that used to come by our old apartment every night around 11:30pm, and the tako-yaki van that used to set up down the street. both had unique and easily recognizable tunes that would have couples in pajamas out on the street looking for midnight munchies. we also had the yaki-imo man in the winter and the warabi-mochi guy in the summer. a tune and a food guaranteed to force a battle between your brain and your belly

last august, we moved from the heart of the city (mostly singles and kidless couples) TEN MINUTES AWAY, to a family neighbourhood. the thing is - there is no ramen truck or late night tako-yaki. these days, all i see is the vegetable truck in the afternoon, twice per week - AND HE DOESNT EVEN PLAY A SONG

so my question is what food vendors come to your neighbourhood?

ps. i dont think i will recognize the start of summer without the WWWAAAA--RRAAA-BIIIIIII, MOOOOO-CHIIIIII, WARABI-MO - O -CHI!!!!

Edited February 22, 2005 by easternsun (log)

[Hiroyuki]

Although I am a native Japanese, I have never seen or heard of warabi mochi peddlers. I'm curious to know where you lived in your childhood.

[easternsun]

Although I am a native Japanese, I have never seen or heard of warabi mochi peddlers.  I'm curious to know where you lived in your childhood.

←

i was born in canada. the gomi truck song reminds me of the ice cream truck tune from when i was a kid! the song is almost the same!

warabi-mochi vendors - maybe it is an osaka thing. i have always thought that the start of summer was indicated by the warabi-mochi vendors in the neighbourhoods. (like the first time you smell oden in the autumn at conbini) i wish this forum had audio so i could sing the sing for you all!

i was in india last summer, so i am just hoping that my new neighbourhood has a travelling warabi-mochi vendor!

[Hiroyuki]

warabi-mochi vendors - maybe it is an osaka thing.

←

As I confirmed by googling, it is mainly a Kansai and Nagoya thing.