“What’s going on? Where’s that voice coming from? Who’s talking?”

When I lived in the countryside in Japan—Joso, Ibaraki, to be exact—I rarely stayed at my apartment on the weekend. Instead, I would go to Yokohama and spend Friday night to Sunday night there with my girlfriend, who’s now my wife. One of the reasons why I stayed away from my apartment, specifically on Sunday afternoons, was because of this morbid voice that would drive by in a truck and repeat something over his loudspeaker. The video below is what I heard.

Ishiyaki Imo Truck

My immediate thought was “Is that someone going around and warning the townspeople about a typhoon or fire or some other impending disaster?” The first time I heard it, I ran outside to see if people were scrambling to leave the area. What freaked me out was, when I looked around, there was nobody outside and no sound. I waited for a good minute or two until I heard a car drive by on one of the nearby residential streets.

Turns out, the voice I heard on Sundays was the “ishiyaki imo” truck, which is a truck that sells roasted sweet potatoes. And the voice? That’s the truck’s calling—think of it like an ice cream truck in the United States.

After hearing it a few more times in and around Yokohama, the voice and song (or maybe “calling” is a better word") became something that I found humorous. Still, it sounds like a pretty gloomy song, and I don’t think I’ll be buying sweet potatoes from his truck anytime soon.

Change the song, pal!