MCAS Iwakuni Japan

[Big Shasta]

I'm here for a month and we have the weekends off so it will be nice to see some Japanese culture and country.

Last Friday we went out with some of the locals for dinner and drinks. A lot of Saki as well as Japanese whiskey was consumed. I ate Blowfish, Basashi (yes, Horse Sashimi) and Octopus as well as some other (somewhat normal) items.

On Sunday we were invited to a Harvest Celebration at the house of one of the guys we are training. He also came to the US for us to train last year so we have known him for a while.
He has a shrine that he has built on his property and this celebration was sort of like a play that celebrated the years harvest and pushed out the evil spirits to help in next years harvest. Very cool to see this side of Japanese culture, we felt very honored to be invited. It's normally for family and very close friends.
LOTS of Saki was consumed. We had to finish all the Saki they had before the celebration was over. (no problem).

The people here are SO nice, they had a feast after and fed us as much as we could stand. I ate eel and Beef Cartilage as well as as a bunch of other very interesting and somewhat unknown items.

Ropes are made from the stalks of the harvest and they are stacked on the tree every year with the prior years underneath.

 

[Wayloncle]

Very cool!

 

[txav8r]

Thanks for sharing your trip with us Ken! I flew to Japan for a year on the 777 15 years ago, but only did it for a year. I never had the experience to see the local culture like this...or drink saki like that would have been nice to have a weekend off there! Enjoy your trip, and thank God they have saki...don't drink the water! lol

 

[jawsf16]

Last time I was in Iwakuni was over a decade ago. It's a cool place for sure. Enjoy it!

 

[Julian]

Thanks for sharing...very cool! I try to do similar things when I'm in Bangalore....my only problem is the food is way too spicy for me (but its a great weight loss program!)!

 

[Big Shasta]

@Julian Spicy would be much better than bizarre. I haven't really had anything spicy yet expect for adding wasabi. I love spicy in my mouth but I don't like spicy in my sinuses like wasabi gives you.

I can't believe I forgot the toilets....Awesome electronic toilets with heated seats. Such a welcoming feeling when you sit on a seat heated...LOL. Just don't accidentally push the girls button unless you want to rinse your nuts.

 

[Big Shasta]

I forgot to mention, Sorry that the website isn't registering international hits, I run a VPN to spoof being in the states. An particular area of the states you would like to see hits from, I can pick anywhere I want....even any country internationally I want?

If I didn't run it, things like Direct TV Max wouldn't let me stream football and Netflix wouldn't work.

 

[Rigger]

Holy crap Ken! I was stationed there from 98 - 01! You have to go to the Chicken Shack! Hiroshima museum is a must.

 

[txav8r]

Uh...those toilets can wash your backside better than tp too! I liked them so much, I bought a toto bidet when we built our house. I hate to leave home!

 

[Julian]

I forgot to mention, Sorry that the website isn't registering international hits, I run a VPN to spoof being in the states. An particular area of the states you would like to see hits from, I can pick anywhere I want....even any country internationally I want?

If I didn't run it, things like Direct TV Max wouldn't let me stream football and Netflix wouldn't work.

Which VPN service do you use? I paid for hidemyass for a month when some other site blocked my IP adresses (it still does for one I haven't bothered changing). Didn't realize HBOGO would not allow me to connect when we went to the carribbean... and I'll be in India in a few weeks and could use some HBO while I'm there!

 

[Big Shasta]

Holy crap Ken! I was stationed there from 98 - 01! You have to go to the Chicken Shack! Hiroshima museum is a must.

Awesome, Hiroshima is on our schedule for this weekend. Where is the chicken shack?

Uh...those toilets can wash your backside better than tp too! I liked them so much, I bought a toto bidet when we built our house. I hate to leave home!

Yep, Love Em....need one at home!

Which VPN service do you use? I paid for hidemyass for a month when some other site blocked my IP adresses (it still does for one I haven't bothered changing). Didn't realize HBOGO would not allow me to connect when we went to the carribbean... and I'll be in India in a few weeks and could use some HBO while I'm there!

https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/ I travel overseas a lot so I bought the year. I think it was 35.00 for a year and it can be installed on 5 devices. I like the idea that my main home computer (Doing lots of financial stuff online) and other various travel devices can be protected with an encrypted VPN tunnel as well.

The only small issue I had was my google accounts didn't like seeing it because it looked like I was being hacked. I had to verify my accounts again but then it was good to go. I've even changed my "location" and google is fine with it.

 

[Big Shasta]

So last night we went to a local restaurant because it had grilled meats on the picture in front of the restaurant. VERY interesting menu, at least they had one with English translations on it. Probably because it was close to the base.

I had chicken on a stick, chicken hearts on a stick, chicken thighs on a stick, a hot dog on a stick and bacon wrapped rice on a stick.....Could have been much worse: (Mmmmmm...chicken skin on a stick)

 

[Big Shasta]

Made it over to the Hiroshima Peace Park and Museum on Saturday. What a powerful place. Amazing the attitude in the air. Even coming in as an American it wasn't about "look what America did" It was completely about learning what we need to prevent in the future.
The walk through the museum was very moving. You could hear a pin drop the entire way through (about an hour) I did get the audio tour which was awesome. A small earpiece explained in a lot more detail what you were looking at.
The Museum entry price was 50 Yen. (less than 50 Cents American) and the audio tour rental was 300 Yen. About $2.50. They don't want to make money, only charge enough to maintain the Park and museum. The outdoor park and monuments were completely free.

When you look at some of the pics in the photobucket link, here are some facts to consider.
Only 15% of the Uranium in the weapon went into Fission.
Temps on the ground at the hypocenter were 3000-4000 Degrees Celsius.
A Hydrogen Bomb (developed later) is 31,000 times more powerful than an A-Bomb.
Hopefully this Photobucket link works for everyone.
http://s469.photobucket.com/user/condronkr/media/Japan/Hiroshima/CIMG5871-Copy_zpse1558fdd.jpg.html?sort=6&o=0

 

[txav8r]

Thanks for sharing your journey to Hiroshima Ken. I can only imagine the somber feeling and appreciation for wanting to prevent this from every happening again, no matter where you hail from. I visited the 9/11 memorial, footprint pools, freedom tower, this past month. It was a visit that I didn't intend to ever make. I was one that felt you could never do justice to the loss of life and destruction on our culture, and that they should rebuild the WTC as it was. I was wrong. And I am glad folks with more vision and determination than me, were in charge of seeing that we healed from it. Like the Hiroshima Peace Park and Museum, the 9/11 memorial and ground zero are an absolute must for anyone on the planet to see. What a fantastic job and remembrance those with foresight created. It isn't possible to do justice for any of these situation, to the innocent, but in the case of the 9/11 memorial and the freedom tower, it appears that they did as good a job as possible. Anyway, I appreciate you sharing your visit.