Today we got to do a little sightseeing with Tim. He picked us up, along with another new officer on the ship, Jorge, and we drove around to see what was there. It was an entertaining and educational trip. Sasebo is really quite a small town, but there are lots of people. First, we drove may be five minutes up to an overlook and it was like there was no city at all. Tim says some of the houses off base have that view.
We got our first experience with a Japanese dollar store (100 yen store). It's the same premise as in the US, but with better quality goods. Anything you might want is there, from chopsticks and china to pots and pans to paper and office supplies. We'll definetely be back there as soon as we are able. From there we stopped into a grocery store. The produce is amazing. They had apples the size of grapefruit, and kiwi the size of my fist. The fish section is as big as a normal meat section at a store back home, and they have about a million varieties of cup-o-noodle style meals. So that was quite something. Part of adjusting to Japan will be learning where to shop for food. The commissary has good old American stuff, but for fresh food, the Japanese markets seem to be the way to go.
Next we drove by what the Americans here call the Ginza, after the famous shopping area in Tokyo. It's like a giant mall, basically, only more outdoor. There are a few American stores there, apparently, so it's a popular place to shop. There were people gathering there to protest the arrival of a carrier to the base. It's nuclear, and they don't like it. Tim was unconcerned. He said that Japanese protesting is very organized. They always send a schedule to base when it's going to happen at their entrances, and it always works out just they way they say. It starts precisely on time, they shout angrily for awhile, and leave again just on schedule. Very interesting...
Anyway, from there we wandered a little further afield and found a Japanese bowling alley and found out just how creative the Japanese really are. Over the course of our tour, Tim had been showing us the various products we could get from the vending machines. Mostly, it was hot and cold drinks and ice cream. He assured us, however, that these were only a few of the many uses the Japanese have for the machines. In the bowling alley, we found that you got your bowling shoes from vending machines! They also served french fries and hot snacks from another set. It was worth going in just to check it out.
Behind the bowling alley was what Tim calls the Japanese Wal-mart. The name was in kanji, but that was certainly what it looked like. It was a big warehouse building that advertised having a McDonalds inside. We didn't go in, but it will be a good place to check out when we need stuff for the house.
Our last visit before we went back to base was Hairo Village, which is the other half of the Navy base. It has housing and the elementary school. Hairo is settled just behind a place called Huis Ten Bosch (pronounces Hahsten Bahsh). It's a Danish style amusement park. So there are all these European buildings and apparently you can pay to go in and look around. I'm not clear on what the draw is, but it looks pretty funny. It's like suddenly arriving in Europe after leaving Sasebo. Apparently, in the summer they have fireworks every night, so that's cool.
Probably the funniest part about coming back to base was that as we approached, a crowd of sailors in civies walked out of base to explore (probably from the carrier). Zack and I both agreed that it was a little weird to be seeing white people again even after the short time we'd been driving around. Having the carrier in town is making things more interesting this weekend. The base is fairly small, so there's like twice as many people, and they're all wandering around, so the food court and the coffee shop are suddenly busy. They also set up a little street market just outside the NEX with a bunch of Japanese stuff for sale. So it's really hopping around here suddenly. Clearly we have more exploring to do...
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