Sea of Japan - Part 2

I had too many photographs for a single post, so here are some more. These are more about the ship than the aircraft. It is hard to choose which photos to include, I have many that are of interest but I just cannot post them all.

Anyway, my accommodations were good. I was assigned to a two-man stateroom. Ahhhh, the privileges of a little seniority.

My bunk was the one on the top.

Cool things on the Ship include the enormous anchor, which we cannot see because of its location, and the anchor windlass that raises and lowers the anchor. Also cool is the enormous chain

...and the chain covers, decorated with the American and Japanese flags.

We took our meals in Wardroom 3

...with the officers. The junior enlisted mess decks are not quite so nice, although we ate exactly the same food.

While we were in the Republic of Korea (South Korea) we had many visitors from Busan. These included military and political VIPs (including extremely senior people) as well as local citizens. Everyone seemed to have a good time and enjoyed their visits. Hundreds of smiling faces were everywhere.

During the port call the hangar deck was decorated with the 13 starred flag.

It normally looks more like this...

As I have mentioned elsewhere, we were there during the military exercises that took place in the Sea of Japan (that irritated Kim Jong Il so much).

In this picture, the ship in front (to my left) is of the ROK Navy and the one behind (to my right) is of the U.S. Navy.

That's all for now. I will do one more Sea of Japan post to include some pictures in Okinawa.

じゃあね

Sea of Japan - Part 1

The Wandering Gaijin returned home to the USA in the middle of May and was just getting settled into a new, temporary assignment when the order came - Go to the USS George Washington at sea and help fix her. The sea was the Sea of Japan. What we were fixing I will not say.

This is what makes working for the US Navy an adventure. After arriving in Yokosuka and reporting to the PSNS Detachment I settled into my hotel room at the Mercure and went to visit the fabulous Shie at Sakato-ya. The next day at lunch I got into a van and was taken to Atsugi Naval Air Station. After waiting around for a couple of hours I was placed aboard a Grumman C-2 Greyhound and flown out to the Ship. This is called a COD - Carrier Onboard Delivery.

This is how we landed;

The idea is that, using a tailhook installed under the aircraft, we catch one of those wires on the deck to stop the plane. If we fail to do that, we will not stop in time. So, we hit the deck at full power so that we can continue off in case we miss a wire. There is no surviving going into the water off of the end of the flight deck in front of the Ship.

We got off in a similar manner. The aircraft is attached to a catapult and it launched off of the flight deck, reaching flight speed in approx. 2 second. This is an intense experience.

It is very loud on the flight deck. This next picture is of me on Vulture's Row on the 09 level. The flight deck is the 04 level, so I am 5 stories above the flight deck. Double hearing protection is required. That is the Navigation Bridge behind me. That is where they drive the Ship.

BTW: The water here is the most beautiful blue sea water I have ever seen. I was all that I could do to prevent myself from diving into it to escape the heat and humidity.

USS George Washington carries four flavors of F-18, EA-6B's, E-2C's, and helicopters. For details, read about Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 5. This command includes VRC-30 - the outfit that owns the previously mentioned C-2A Greyhound that flew us out to the Ship.

An EA-6B launch;

And two recoveries, an F-18 and an EA-6B, shot from the 010 level.

No other nation of the planet can do these things. I count it as a huge privilege to have been able to record these.

That's all for now. Part two is coming.

じゃあね

Kannonzaki Park - 観音崎公園

Kannonzaki Park in Yokosuka near Uraga is a wonderful place to walk and enjoy the woods, beach, rocky cliffs, old lighthouse, and the preserved footprints of Godzilla left there the first time he came ashore from Tokyo Bay. I don't have much to write about it so enjoy some pictures.

This shot was taken from the top of Kannonzaki Lighthouse.

Godzilla (Gojira or ゴジラ) first came ashore from the depths of Tokyo Bay here at Kannonzaki Park. His footprints have been preserved. (yeah, ok...so they got the scale wrong.)

The beach at the Park.

The first appearance of the War Memorial from the path on the hillside below. The white structure is reminiscent of the sail of a ship at sea.

Also at the site is a sculpture of sailors adrift at sea. It is emotionally very powerful. Emperor Showa visited this site. There is a stone in the gardens that commemorates that visit.

(Video not taken by the Wandering Gaijin)

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Setsubun - 節分

One of the most fun things that I did while living in Yokosuka ( 横須賀 ) was participate in the Setsubun  ( 節分 ) festival at the local Shinto shrine. Shie-chan (see side bar) invited me to participate during one of my many sessions at her business. She was running the sake booth at the festival. While this is an observance of the change in season, it is not a national holiday. It is simply a festival that the Japanese hold on the day before spring.

Setsubun ( 節分 ) is the day before the first day of a new season. It is usually observed only for the transition to Spring. During the change in season, red and blue monsters become apparent and have to be chased away. This is done by throwing roasted soy beans at them. People will, in their homes, throw beans and shout "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi" ( おにはそと! ふくはうち! ), "Monsters out! Luck in!"

Local Shinto shrines will also have public bean throwing where members who have donated to the local shrine will stand in front of a crowd on a stage or platform and throw beans at them. People who catch the beans will have good luck. At the shrine that I attended this happened at several scheduled times during the day. There are (at least at the shrine I went to) booths where you can buy snacks, coffee, or sake as well as gifts or souvenirs (omiyage - お土産 ). In between the scheduled times for throwing beans there was apparently performance of taiko music on the stage. I arrived too late to hear that.

Japanesepod101.com has a culture lesson from 2006 about 節分 that you may find informative (the audio is free). This year (2010) the festival was on February 3rd.

The people at the shrine were very welcoming and made me feel at home. My wife escorted me both to help me with the language and for her own amusement.

After removing our shoes and donning slippers we entered a dining/meeting room to await our turn in the shrine where the requisite prayers and etc are performed. Being in the waiting run in a Shinto shrine was very like it would be in any Christian church. Anyone active in a Christian church would have recognized the atmosphere immediately.

We were offered tea or sake while we waited and donned the ceremonial garb. Then off to the shrine for prayers. I observed the prayers, but did not pray for a couple of reasons, but found it very interesting. Following the prayers we were each given a wooden box with envelopes of dried beans and went off to a stage to throw them.

I tried to step to the back, but the shrine members all stepped aside and insisted that I take a position in front.

This was fun. Immediately in front of the stage were a number of kids who were trying desperately to catch some beans, but we were throwing them over their heads to people farther away, so I started throwing beans close in for them.

This was an extraordinary amount of fun and good for the community. After I returned to the meeting/waiting room a member of the Yokosuka City Council came up to me and shook my hand, thanking me profusely for participating in their festival. We (my wife and I) were enthusiastically welcomed into their community.

Setsubun will be a regular event for me from now on.

じゃあね

The Nihon-ji Daibutsu aka The Stone Buddha

Japan has a number of Daibutsu (大仏) in various places. One of the oldest is the Nihon-ji Daibutsu in Chiba Prefecture, across Uraga Channel (at the mouth of Tokyo Bay) from Yokosuka. Those of us who come from Puget Sound Naval Shipyard refer to it as "The Stone Buddha".

To get there from Tokyo (or Yokosuka) you can take the train to Kurihama. Either the Keikyu Line or the JR Line will do. From there you can catch the bus to the ferry terminal or walk. If you choose to walk, follow the canal to the sea and then turn right. You will find the ferry terminal, you can't miss it.

On the way you will pass by the the Monument in Commemoration of the Landing of Commodore Perry, who landed there at Kurihama Kaigan (Kurihama Beach) on July 8th, 1853.

From the ferry I believe that there are two ways to get to the Daibutsu, but I only know one if them. After crossing Uraga Channel on the ferry from Kurihama in Yokosuka, you arrive in Kanaya in Chiba Prefecture. After a short walk, you catch the gondola that will take you up most of the way to the top of Mt. Nokogiri (Sawtooth Mountain) where you begin the hike to the Daibutsu.

At the top of the ride is a booth where people can buy a fortune on a slip of paper and then tie it to a tree on the path there. I believe this to be a fertility thing for couples - note the large black penis in the booth. It seems that the Japanese do not have quite the same hang-ups about sex that we Americans do (that is not to say that they are immodest).

Walking the paths there are a number of things to see. There are four items of major historical interest. The first is the Kenkon-Zan Nihon-ji, the Nihon Temple on Mt. Nokogiri. It was founded approximately 1300 years ago by Imperial order of Emperor Shōmu and Empress Kōmyō back in the days when the Emperor really had political power and ran the country. A handout that you get when you enter the grounds points out that the Emperor gave the Temple an Imperial tablet inscribed by his own hand and about 18½ tons of gold. the Empress gave a scroll that she embroidered by her own hand with 33 images of the Buddha Kwan-yin and ten bolts of damask and brocade.

There are also the 1500 stone figures of Tokai Arhats carved between 1779 and 1798.

Many of these had the heads knocked off during an anti-Buddhist revolt during the Meiji era and are only now being repaired. It is said that no two of them have the same face and that everyone could have found the one that has his own face before they were damaged. Now your face may be on one of the ones that had the head knocked off.

Another amazing site is the Kannon Bosatsu aka the Hyaku Shaku Kannon. This was carved during the later 20^th century. It is in a large chamber that is so acoustically perfect that if you stand at the feet of the Kannon and speak in a normal tone of voice, or even a loud whisper, you can be easily heard through the whole area. How I would love to play a string quartet recital there!

The 大仏 is in an open park like area and dominates magnificently.

This is one of the largest Buddhas in Japan and the world and I think that it was once the largest Buddha in Japan. It is in any case the largest stone carved Buddha in Japan being 31.05 meters (101.9 feet) high. It is magnificent.

The surrounding park is a lovely place to picnic or just rest and watch the hawks and other birds while enjoying the Buddha and some other notable sights which I will leave you to discover.

じゃあね

Cherry Blossom Festival

Being an American, I never quite understood why the cherry blossom festivals in Japan were so popular. Yes, the blossoms are beautiful to look at, but many things are and people don't go crazy about them. It seemed like one of the cultural things that are essentially inaccessible to an American like me. Then I went to the Cherry Blossom Festival on base here in Yokosuka.

Wow. Now I get it. It is the Japanese version of the 4th of July in America.

This is the time when families go out to the park with a large blanket or some chairs and sit under the cherry blossoms and picnic. There are booths where food is being cooked, drinks are being served, and souvenirs are being sold. There are temporary stages set up where musical groups are performing. And there is the beauty of the cherry trees filled with blossoms.

I remember that as a child, my mother and father would take the family (I have a brother and two sisters) to a nearly town with a good fireworks display. We would sit on the banks of the river and watch the fireworks show and have a picnic. It is the same with the cherry blossom festivals in Japan. Families will get together, parents and children with their grandparents and neighbors and friends and eat and drink and visit. An American would have no trouble recognizing this.

Many corporations will have company picnics at the large famous parks or festival sites. They will send their junior management out to the park the afternoon or evening before the festival starts to scout and claim a location under a nice cherry tree and plant some chairs and blankets to claim the site for the next day.

Many people in Japan take vacations and follow the blossoms as they bloom, beginning in the southern parts of Japan and heading north as the blossoms come out later and later. Each year a forecast of cherry blossom blooming dates is made and festivals are scheduled to that.

The photographs in this post was all taken by yours truly at Naval Base Yokosuka on April 6th, 2009 during the festival there. On that day the base is opened to the public and anyone can enter without producing any kind of identification. The people of Yokosuka, and many Japanese from Yokohama, Tokyo and other nearby cities came to see the base, the ships, and the cherry blossom - and eat and drink and get drunk under the cherry blossoms.

If you are in Japan when the cherry blossoms come out, do yourself a favor and attend the local festival.

じゃあね

Blue in Green

No, I am not writing about the beautiful tune "Blue in Green" by Bill Evans and most famously performed by Miles Davis' sextet, I am writing about a jazz bar and antique shop in Yokosuka named for that tune.
Blue in Green is a jazz bar and antique shop in Yokosuka that features live jazz performances every Saturday night. This is a very laid back place owned and operated by Yoshiaki Hayashi, himself a jazz guitarist. He doesn't play publicly, but once in a while you can catch him practicing when you walk in.
When you walk in on any given night (except Saturday) you are likely to be the only person there except for Yoshi himself. He will have jazz music playing on a very fine sounding audio system run through iTunes on his Mac laptop. He maintains a full bar including some very high quality beers and whiskeys. This is the only place in town where you can find American microbrews such as Red Hook, Sierra Nevada, Samuel Adams, Alaskan or Stone Brewing Company products and the whole line (it seems) of Anchor Steam products and others as well. Easily the best place to drink beer in Yokosuka. It is the only place that I know where you can get a nice hoppy (my wife would say "stinky") IPA. He also serves food and coffee - starting with the grinding of the beans when you order. The place has a New York jazz club feel and the food is American in a New York style.
It is a small place, as most in Japan are, with a warm ambience and not brightly lit. A very comfortable place to eat and drink.
It is also a very comfortable place to shop for antique guitars and other items (see his web site linked above). I think that this must be Yoshi's main business, because as often as I see the place empty, it cannot be the bar business (although it is my favorite bar).
Go hear some jazz, get a bite to eat, and have a great beer. And visit Yoshi - one of the nicest guys in the world.
Oh, and here is the tune - Blue in Green performed by Miles Davis' sextet.

じゃあね