sweet potatoes, apples and carrots

so to my knowledge in japan there is no such thing as an ice cream truck that drives around dishing out ice cream to kids. but they do have the yaki imo man! the yaki imo is a sweet potato that is roasted on hot stones and charcoal. so apparently starting in mid November the yaki imo man begins driving through neighborhoods peddling these cherished seasonal japanese food and will continue throughout the winter. the truck is set up so that the imo (sweet potatoes) are roasting on a fire in the back of the truck

haven't been able to snap a picture of the yaki imo man in my area but found this picture


but there is more to this whole thing, the man drives around chanting the yaki imo call. and the first time i heard it, i was very confused. if you check out this link you can hear it: http://www.cc.kyoto-su.ac.jp/information/sounds/ishiyakiimo.html

in other news, today when i was just having a lazy day in my apartment there was a knock on my door (not all that common, haha). when i opened the door, my elderly neighbor couple were standing at my door with a bag for me. they brought me 3 apples and 2 carrots. the best part was that there was a note attached, written in english!! so we discussed (in japanese) a bit who had written it, and it turns out that the man speaks some english, who would have thought?!

the note read:

to foreign teacher,
please help yourself to apple and a carrot.
perhaps, this apple is the most delicious in japan.
because this apple was cultivated by a new type of fertilizer.
it's producted only japan.
and this carrot is too!
in memory of japanese tastes.
from neighbor.

how adorable is that!

anyway i was caught off guard by this, as most of my neighbors are pretty quite and just give a little bow when they see me. oh, except the other day, i noticed that one of my other neighbors (a family with 2 little kids that go to the elementary school across from my house) had left the inside light of their car on. i decided that i should let them know, so i went and ended up having to communicate this through an intercom in japanese. yikes! but somehow she understood what i was saying. so now whenever i see her or her kids they all greet me. looks like my neighbors are starting to acknowledge my presence, only took 4 months :)