Baked Sweet Potato Sold in Japan

choi

Russell Thomas, The Endurance of Japan's Simple Street Snack. BBC Travel, May 18, 2022.
https://www.bbc.com/travel/artic ... weet-potato-vendors

Note:’
(a) " 'Yaki-imo * * * ' * * * flowed from speakers on a stubby flatbed kei truck. This small vehicle, a ubiquitous part of working-class Japan, had been converted into a vessel for idōhanbai (literally, mobile sales). * * * this hearty vegetable, yet another import in a sizeable list of historical introductions to the island nation (ramen, for example), has long been a beloved winter snack eaten in the cold months after its harvest. * * * Asuri KAMATYANI [釜谷 あすり (1992- )], president of modern yaki-imo outlet Himitsu na Yakiimo (Secret Roasted Sweet Potato), has noticed the same thing. 'Certainly, compared to the Showa era [1926-89], the ojisan [uncle] with his roasted sweet potato truck is rarely seen,' she said." (brackets original).
(i) Japanese-English dictionary:
* yaki-imo 焼き芋
   ^ imo 芋(P[rincipal]); 薯 (n): "tuber; taro; potato; yam   <いもを食べるとおならがでる。 Potatoes give me wind [faltulence, fart].>"
* kei (long vowel of ke) 軽 【けい】 (pref[ix]): "(1) light (eg aircraft, truck); (n) (2) (abbr[eviation]) (See 軽自動車) light motor vehicle (up to 660cc):
* idōhanbai 移動販売 【いどうはんばい】 (n): "mobile sales (eg food trucks)"
* hi-mitsu 秘密 【ひみつ】 (n): "secret" (mitsu is Chinese pronunciation of both kanji 密 and and 蜜; the shop name below -- 秘蜜 -- is a wordplay)
* okayu お粥; 御粥 【おかゆ】 (n): "thin rice porridge; watery cooked rice"
* The Japanese preposition "yori" means "compared with."
* umaiうまい 《旨い》 (adj): "delicious"
* okayu お粥; 御粥 【おかゆ】 (n): "thin rice porridge; watery cooked rice"
* The Japanese preposition "yori" means "compared with."
* umaiうまい 《旨い》 (adj): "delicious"
* kōbō 工房 【こうぼう】 (n): "workshop; studio; atelier"
(ii) ramen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramen   
(section 1 History, section 1.1 Etymology)
(iii) Incorporated as 株式会社秘蜜開発, 秘蜜な焼き芋 is a one-shop business in 東京都 渋谷区, selling 石焼き芋 (where sweet potatoes are heated over pebbles (not directly atop fire) with skin on.

(b) "Ono's truck, Oono-ya, haunts busy spots along the Odakyu Line, a railway route that stretches from Shinjuku to the south-west suburbs of Tokyo, and the Nambu Line that serves Tokyo's Ota Ward and parts of neighbouring Kawasaki."
(i) "Ono's truck, Oono-ya"

Oono-ya 大野屋. This is the English name on the truck, despite standard romanization for a long vowel of o is either ō or ou (two systems); difference between long vowel (ō: 大) and short vowel (o: 小, 尾) results in different kanji and opposite meanings,
(ii) Odakyū Line [1927- ; 小田急 or 小田原線; 83 km; 急 (short for 急行列車) = express (with limited stops)] links Shibuya 渋谷 and City of Odawara, Prefecture of Kanagawa 神奈川県 小田原市 (southwest of Shibuya).
(iii) Nambu Line 南武線 (1927- ; 45 km) "The name refers to the southern (Japanese: 南) part of the ancient province of Musashi (Japanese: 武蔵 [国]) (now Tokyo and northern Kanagawa prefecture), through which the Nambu Line runs."  en.wikipedia.org.
links City of Tachikawa 東京都 立川市 and City of Kawasaju, Prefecture of Kanagawa 神奈川県 川崎市 (southeast of Tachikawa).

東京都 contains 区 in urban areas and 市 in rural areas.


(c) "Sweet potatoes originated in Central and South America * * * 'The earliest historical reference to sweet potato in Japan seems to be in the diary of Richard Cocks in 1615,' said Eric Rath, professor of Japanese history at University of Kansas * * * Cocks, the director of the British East India Company's outpost in Hirado, wrote that he'd received the potatoes from honorary samurai William Adams, recorded as the first English person in Japan.  Rath said there's some evidence they might have already been available in the Ryukyu Kingdom (today's Okinawa) as early as 1605, via the Philippines and then China [from Okinawa though Satsuma, hence sweet potato's full name in Japan is Satsuma imo 薩摩芋 [or 甘薯 (in Japanese)]."
(i) Hirado, Nagasaki  長崎県 平戸(市)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirado,_Nagasaki
, where hira and to (softened to do in the city name) are Japanese and Chinese, respectively, pronunciation of kanji 平 and 戸.
(ii) Satsuma Domain  薩摩藩
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satsuma_Domain  
("was a domain (han [藩]) of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1602 to 1871")
, which is about the same size as the earlier Satsuma Province 薩摩国.


(d) "Stalls were [past tense] set up at the main guard buildings in post towns along important highways, and their sweetness and aroma – and their affordability – caught on. Signs at stalls sometimes advertised them as 'kuri [Japanese pronunciation for kanji 栗] -yori-umai' (better than chestnuts). 'In Tokyo, many ate them mixed with okayu (porridge made of rice and barley),' Rath said.  The snack became so well-loved that on 8 May 1891, Tokyo newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun called them 'the kasutera [Portuguese-inspired sponge cake] for students and the yōkan 羊羹 [a hard, jelly-like sweet made from red beans (this pair of brackets original)] for alley society.' * * * Kamatani has found success too, but by going a different way. For her, she felt that the snack's old-school image needed to change. * * * To subvert that reputation, she focused on onkochishin [温故知新; the definition next is what this phrase means in Japan, somewhat different from its meaning in Taiwan, where it means re-read textbooks to prepare for entrance examinations] – an idiom meaning 'learning new ideas from the past' – and started her venture with a stylish, tricked-out [same as 'decked-out'], pink VW campervan in 2018. Fast-forward to 2021, and her business has moved into a permanent (and still pink) storefront in the fashionable Omotesando district of Tokyo. * * * There's even a company called Yaki-imo Kobo やきいも工房 (Yaki-imo Workshop) that provides information for potential vendors and sells everything they'll need to set up a mobile shop – including cassette tapes of the yaki-imo song."
(i) post town
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/post%20town
(ii) Japanese words okayu, yori, umai and kōbō are defined in Note (a)(i) above.
(iii) For the Japanese word kasutera, see castella
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castella
("The name is derived from Portuguese Bolo de Castela, meaning 'cake from Castile' ")
(iv) Omotesandō 表参道
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omotesandō  
("an avenue * * * stretching from the Meiji Shrine 明治神宮 entrance to Aoyama-dōri [青山通り; 通り = thoroughfare] (Aoyama Street)"; section 1 History)
On the other side of the Shrine is 裏参道.