Josh in Japan

hey everyone, i just wanted to give a bit of a plug for something cool that seuss from the unharshed mellow hooked me on.

the blingo button on the right hand side of the blog takes you to a google search within their website. with each search you do through their google box, you have a chance to win prizes. just thought it was something cool that i’d bring up with ya’ll.

as for the family and i, we’ve moved to obachan’s house while we’re waiting on my paperwork to clear back in Yokosuka. the further away i can get from the base the better. lately i’ve had a bad taste for base…. you guys know what i’m saying.

the other day while in yokosuka however there were some odd things going on that i wanted to mention. we were driving to コジマ でんき and noticed that there was a very, very large population of yakuza very close to our house. normally you never see even one yakuza around our area, but that day, it was like the entire household was in our neighborhood. license plates from all over kanto. it was kinda odd. it must have been some sort of meet up.

then 3 minutes later once getting on the highway, we noticed policemen on every block with their 1.5 meter nightsticks, riot shields lying on the ground and rolling baracades. at each large intersection, there was a paddywagon bus that i’ve described before. at each of those paddywagon busses, there was an accordian baracade like you see when in tokyo at the US embassy. when we got to kojima, i had the wife go ask the cop standing at the corner what the police were for because there was just too much police for the group of yakuza that was concentrated close to our house.

my wife was holding the youngest daughter when she asked the cop for info. he gave her a scowel and said it was a protest about the upcoming deployment of a nuclear carrier and about the upcoming realignment of US forces (even though Yokosuka is not going to be affected in any with with the realignments). they were expecting about 20,000 people to attend. it was all peaceful of course, but still that’s a hell of alot of people.

and about this whole nuclear carrier controversy. i honestly see the protesting about it as just something for older people to have to bitch about. the carrier in question is the george washington which will be stationed here towards the end of next year when the kitty hawk goes back for decomissioning. those protesting have no footing in my opinion about how dangerous it will be for the environment. if they knew anything about how much pollution the KHK puts out every day inport and especially when pulling out, they would beg for a non-polluting alternative like a CVN (designator for a nuclear carrier). they have no clue how many nuclear submarines visit the base each and every month (we do house the commander for sub group seven on base). there have been numerous studies done upon the US side of the base measuring radiation, and many times when a US nuclear sub pulls in, a JN coast guard boat stays close by at all times to monitor any lost radiation. surprisingly, there is none. all nuclear propelled ships are designed to contain themselves should a meltdown occur. i never went to nuc school, but it is common sense. this isn’t an arguemet about weapons since we house nothing nuclear here. it’s all about the tiny reactor on the GW that will be permanently housed here. and ya know what, japan has a nuclear power plant no more than 20 miles away in kannonzaki. i don’t see any protests about it or any of the other numerous nuclear power plants that are scattered around this country.

i’m sorry if i sound aggitated, but the media here has shined such a bad light on us military here since the relocation plans were thrown up. the media is complaining that the GOJ spends more on the US military in japan than on the entire SDF. there’s a reason for that. it’s because we are the only protective entity here. Japan’s SDF role is purely inland defense. the US military role is projected defense of japan as well as holding all offensive duties in case japan is attacked. we have to maintain personnel and that takes housing, healthcare, food and morale establishments because unlike SDF troops who all live close to their bases and rotate far less freuent than US troops, we have to maintain our troops and their families within the base’s structure. The vast majority of families on US installations are all american (no japanese spouse like myself). i can fend for myself on the local economy because I have been taught to do so by a native, they on the other hand can not. i can read japanese, they can not. i speak some japanese, they can not. it is a novelty for many families just to leave the base for a couple hours because they are not equipped with the ability to live off the economy. they have no choice but to reside on base and consume US goods because that’s all they know. the media was bitching about resturaunts and bowling alleys and movie theaters on base. americans who can’t live off the economy need these things. happy people are productive people. the SDF needs none of this because this is their country. they can go to a movie after work anywhere they choose. they can go to any hospital they choose. they can get drunk at any establishment they choose. americans can’t. you all get my point. i’m just upset at the media’s portrayal of how we are a waste of japanese money. without us here, japan just wouldn’t have the defensive capabilities they need to be the economic superpower they are. MY OPINION! ALL MY OPINION! IT’S ALL HERESAY BECAUSE IT’S………MY OPINION!
it’s 0230 so you can tell by the typos (edit: which i fixed… i think) that it’s time for me to go. don’t forget to check out bilngo….

ja-mata!

This entry was posted on Monday, July 17th, 2006 at 2:33 am by Josh and is filed under General Posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.