Sean's Summer
Journal Entries - Week One
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Saturday, 14 June 2008 (abbreviated)
Head to the airport, fly to Seattle. My friend Ariel picked me up from the airport. Ariel and I went to a military school together and had seen each other once since then, but it had been about 4 years. We stopped by his house to drop stuff off and freshen up a bit, then headed to “The Nectar Lounge”, the local “everyone knows your name” bar. I had to wear a sweater because it was colder than I was used to in Kansas, even with the rain we’d gotten lately. We missed his friend, Betty, but we had a good time anyway. Of course, I had too much to drink and we ended up back at his place.
Sunday, 15 June 2008 (abbreviated)
So I wake up in the morning to Ariel standing over me. He’s ready to go. We met Betty for coffee at Ladro’s and then wandered around for a while. We drove through Queen Anne, Freemont, and Ballard (parts of Seattle). We had lunch at a Puerto Rican place, and the food was great, but in spite of my meager objections and statements like “I’m never drinking again”, we had Mojitos. That was just the beginning of a long, long night. We walked around for a while before we ended up at the Brauwery (I think that’s spelled right), had another few drinks, then went to the Nectar Lounge again. We had a great time, and then ended up at the house grilling burgers at 2 am. One of the neighbors actually came out and asked us to quiet down. I’m sure Ariel's roommate was not too happy, either, but that’s another story for another time.
Monday, 16 June 2008 (abbreviated)
Again, I wake up with Ariel sitting next to me. He’s been ready to go for several hours because he doesn’t sleep. He’s a mutant. And again, I swore I was never drinking again. We had coffee again because not having coffee in Seattle is apparently a crime, not to mention that I desperately needed it. After coffee, we decided to go to the gym. I’d already agreed to go with him because the recreation center at Kansas University wouldn’t let me in anymore and I wanted to continue working out. But, like I previously stated, Ariel is a mutant. He worked me to death and I probably did somewhere around 40 pull-ups throughout the course of the “program”…even though I still can’t do one completely by myself…and I knew my body would hate me for it. Then we did some cardio for about 30 min. Afterward, we did some more wandering around and stopped at the beach before the light started to fade and it got too cold for me. I actually started to shiver.
Tuesday, 17 June 2008 (abbreviated)
Once again, there’s this guy sitting next to me sipping coffee when I wake up. We decided to hit the gym again, and I knew this time it would be painful. My arms were already starting to feel the strain from yesterday. But, Ariel assured me, we would work some completely unrelated muscles so this wouldn’t be that hard. I should have known better, but I went. I was actually looking forward to it until we started with the pull-ups again. Yup, my body will definitely hate me. We drove around after the workout for a while, went to Pike’s Place Market, saw the original Starbucks, drove to West Seattle, and cruised around town for the day. It was a good time. We finished up by returning to the house and watching the end of “JSA”, a Korean movie I hadn’t seen since Language School, because we fell asleep watching it the night before. I think I stayed up most of the night, I potentially snoozed for about an hour, but I can only truly account for about 7 minutes of actual sleep.
Wednesday, 18 June 2008
I didn’t want to sleep all night and then not be able to sleep on the plane and I was also anxious about arriving early at SeaTac so I could check in for the Space A flight. I shouldn’t have been worried, but I was. I guess that’s just me. I arrived at 0400 and checked in at the USO office.
Since there is only one military flight per week to Asia from the Seattle area, the USO was packed. There were lots of military folks heading out for PCS or returning from leave, so they had priority, but there were also plenty of dependents waiting for return flights, making them Space A travelers, as well. I was one of three people just taking a Space A flight for the hell of it, and the other two were a WWII Navy veteran and his wife trying to get to Japan to visit relatives. Needless to say, the three of us had pretty low priority since we were Class VI “retirees” and therefore the chances of getting on a flight like this seemed to be an impossibility. People were sleeping on the floor, on their bags in the luggage room, sitting in the hallways and walkways checking email and playing on the Internet, and squatting on the floor in the small dining room. The airport didn’t open until 0600, so I had plenty of time to find out what I needed to know and find some coffee.
We all gathered around the meeting spot in front of “Seattle’s Best Coffee” on the main ticketing level at 0600 so the Air Force Airmen/Sergeant could gather rosters of those in attendance to plan the day’s flight. They originally stated they had 15 slots for Space A travelers, which accounted for about one quarter of those that showed up, but they added that they would likely have more once they completed the head-count and determined how many active duty and priority travelers didn’t show. We waited for an hour before the AMC (Air Mobility Command) Airmen returned with some numbers. They took the first 15, in order of priority and precedence, and then added another 17. I hadn’t lost confidence yet, but the numbers were starting to look bad as time went on. The flight wasn’t scheduled to leave until after 1100, but it was already after 0730 and things were starting to get tight. The AMC airmen told us to wait and returned to their office to check numbers again. By 0830 they’d accumulated another several open slots and sent more Space A travelers to the gates. Naturally, I wasn’t on the list, but they went to check on additional slots again. We had to have all our baggage ready to go as soon as they gave notice, so I pulled out my bag with the blanket in it so I could rest my head while I was waiting and I took the opportunity to take a nap on the floor in front of the coffee shop. At about 0930 another list came out with a few more slots open, but I still had to wait. I sent a text to Ariel just to give a heads-up and let him know I hadn’t had any luck yet. The AMC staff tried to reassure us that most of the time they don’t get all their active duty arrivals, so they have more open, Space A flights than they expect. Finally, around 1000-1030 the remaining Space A travelers received word that AMC would have just enough space to accommodate everyone.
Talk about close…we had half an hour to clear the security checkpoints and make it to the gate before we started boarding. The senior Airman there told me that I should travel through Yakota Air Base to Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, since they tend to have more regularly-scheduled flights to Korea. It seemed counter-intuitive, since Yakota is so much larger than Kadena, is close to a major city, and is actually closer to Korea, but who am I to argue? I couldn’t find any information at all on the Internet, I couldn’t contact anyone by phone at Kadena, and nobody who I thought should know could provide any useful information. Kadena is like a black hole of information. Nothing comes out. In any case, airport security wasn’t a problem, but the subway train and the walk took some time.
Almost as soon as I arrived at the gate, the flight personnel announced that they would start boarding. I sent one more text to Ariel to let him know my status and headed to the skyway. I think I sent one to my father, too. We loaded up on a commercial jet and headed to Japan at 1145 AM. The pilot told us there was a 17-hour difference, which I don’t think was right. I couldn’t immediately crunch the numbers in my head, but I suppose I couldn’t argue with natives about what time they think it is. Anyway, the flight was packed. I got a little sleep and a little food on the plane, but it was still a long, semi-miserable flight next to a nearly-retired Navy guy who barely fit in his seat. I did feel bad, though, because I ended up spilling milk on him trying to make my coffee. The flight lasted about 9 hours. It wasn’t until later that I figured out that there’s actually a 14-hour time difference (forward) between Okinawa and Kansas. I’m still trying to figure that one out. There will only be a 13-hour difference from Japan and Korea to Kansas.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
We arrived at Yakota Air Base outside Tokyo, Japan at about 1300 local time on Thursday afternoon. We lost out on almost a full day. I sat at the Yakota Air Base terminal for an hour or two while the plane was unloaded, customs spoke with all the passengers bound for mainland Japan, and they refueled the plane. We re-boarded the plane along with all the new passengers going from Yakota to Kadena. The additional flight lasted about 2 hours, so it wasn’t that bad, but I’d already been stuck on a plane for about 10-11 hours including loading/unloading. I was done.
We arrived at Kadena AB in Okinawa at around 1800 local time on Thursday. Where’d my whole day go?! It took quite a while to clear everyone out and connect new PCS troops with their sponsors, so I had to wait for them to leave before the terminal personnel could help me with what I needed to do. Apparently, I had to check in with Japanese customs and immigration because I was not a service member. The driver, a young Air Force MP who’d returned to Kadena from Camp Bucca, Iraq, had to drive me and another Okinawan woman returning home into Kadena proper to find the customs and immigration office. I added another “stamp” to my passport, which I thought was mildly satisfying in spite of the added frustration involved.
One of the first things you notice outside the U.S. is that in many places they drive on the “wrong” side of the road. That really screwed with my head for a while. In addition, everyone obviously speaks Japanese. That wouldn’t be a problem for me except for two things. One, Japanese can sound very similar to Korean at times. Two, I’ve studied Korean for so long that I keep trying to speak or respond in Korean and end up getting a funny look in return. I couldn’t even remember how to say thank you. Instead of “arigato”, I said “komawayo”.
Anyway, the MP informed me on the return trip about the Shogun Inn, which was the Air Force lodge on post, and told me about the Banyan Tree Club down the street from the lodge, which happened to have country music night on Thursdays. He dropped me off at the Inn and I checked in. I didn’t know how long I’d be in Okinawa, so I only checked in for one night. I unloaded stuff in my room and took a shower. Believe me when I say it was desperately needed; I felt disgusting.
Afterward, I decided to walk down to the club and have a beer before heading to bed. The weather was nice and the sky was clear, but it was already dark. It was a little humid, but bearable. The club was not that different from most military clubs, which made it relatively small, but it was still an interesting place. I wondered if I should have gone to the NCO club, but figured this would be fine. It actually had a “gambling” machine room attached to the side of the dance floor to lend the authentic Asian feel to it. I haven’t really listened to country music in quite some time, but Ariel and I listened to a lot of country music in Seattle. It was starting to grow on me again. There were a few people dancing now and then, but eventually the DJ took over and more people got up to dance. I have to say, if you’ve never seen Asians line dancing to songs like “Electric Slide”, “Cotton-Eyed Joe”, and “Macarena”, I highly recommend it. They weren’t quite as enthusiastic as their American counterparts, but still, very nice. I’m a country music fan again, at least temporarily. After an hour or two, I returned to my room and fell asleep for a long, long time.
Friday, 20 June 2008
Well, I woke up around 0830. I had no idea how long I was going to be here and I had no idea when the next flight to Korea was going to be, so my first priority was to get to the AMC passenger terminal. I figured it was a nice day outside, so I’d just walk again. It wasn’t that far to the terminal, maybe a mile, so I put on some shorts and a t-shirt and headed out. As soon as I walked outside I was reminded that this is a semi-tropical environment. The humidity almost knocked me on my ass. I think I saw on TV somewhere that the temperature was only about 80-90 degrees, but wow…nasty. Humidity will definitely make an impression. I took a map that the inn provided to me so I could navigate to the terminal, but it wasn’t a very good map. I found myself on a street about a half-mile past where I intended to turn off toward the terminal. My hike that should have taken about 15 minutes took almost 45 minutes. By the time I got to the terminal, I was soaked in sweat. I’m sure my shirt was wet. I spoke to an airman (is airwoman the appropriate, PC term?), and she told me that there weren’t any scheduled flights to Korea within the next 72 hours, but that there might be one on Monday. So, I’m going to be stuck at Kadena, Okinawa for three days. They told me I could check future flight information on the TV or by calling their information line at any time. Well, that answered my first question. The next stop would have to be back at the inn so I could check in for an additional 3 nights.
I took a taxi back to the inn. I wasn’t sure I wanted to walk that much anymore. The drivers are all native Japanese contractors and charge Japanese Yen for the trip, but they accept U.S. dollars, as well, as long as you’re on post. The trip took about 4 minutes and cost me about $6.50. I decided there and then that I was walking everywhere else for the remainder of my time here.
I checked in again at the Shogun Inn, but they were short on space, so I had to switch to another room in another building. The rooms are very nice, by the way, and include a kitchen, living room, bedroom, closets, and full bathroom. They have two TVs, a fridge, oven, microwave, dishwasher, and even include a full set of dishes, pots, pans, and silverware. My next priorities were to get food and water and see what else I could find out about the area. I realized I hadn’t eaten since I was on the plane to Okinawa, so I had to find food.
I walked down the street to the BX/PX and the commissary. It was only about a 10-minute walk, but again, I was soaked in sweat. I bought something to eat, bought some bottled water, and got a guide to Seoul, Korea. I tried to find a simple Japanese phrase book, but oddly enough they didn’t have any. They had several large Japanese study manuals, but no small handbooks. I opted not to buy one of the larger ones because I couldn’t justify it. You could get all the books on Korea, Italy, Germany, Indonesia, and the Philippines you wanted, but not much on Japan or Okinawa. Go figure that one out.
I also found a couple of gift shops in the area, so I stopped in to look, but most of the stuff looked like tourist bait. As a matter of fact, I saw the same little travel chessboard that I bought in Kuwait on my way to Iraq. So much for that idea. There were some obvious Asian items, though. The tables and cabinets, for example, but they were a bit costly and I couldn’t justify buying one and then paying to ship it home, especially when I could probably find something similar in Korea for about the same price or less. I also considered buying a kimono, but again, not Korean and not cheap. I left empty handed, which is saying something for me, and headed back to the inn. I tried to find some information along the way about local trips and tourist attractions, but didn’t find much of interest that I could afford besides the ruins of the local castle. That seemed interesting, and I may try to go see it, but I don’t know how far it is and I’m certainly not going to walk it. Money is going to be a very important factor this summer.
I got back to the inn about mid-afternoon and I was determined to get a workout in today. The inn has a workout room that I planned to use, but it only has cardio equipment and one pull-up bar with some limited weight exercises. I went to my room and had something to eat, grabbed some water, and immediately fell asleep for about 12 hours. Wow! I was exhausted, so I guess it wasn’t a huge surprise. I suppose I didn’t have the energy for a workout after the flights and then walking in the heat all morning. I wondered why I got a strange look from the personnel at the air terminal when I told them I walked there.