It was close to midnight when we arrived at the Navy Lodge - after settling in, we actually were able to sleep a little before getting up early to start our first day in Japan. This day ended up being a day of learning many lessons about how things work at Yokosuka.
Steps - Learning the Ropes
1) One of things you get when you receive your travel orders is a checklist of things to accomplish - in some order of importance. So, when we got up that first morning and saw the base bus go by as we were eating the continental breakfast, we decided we could just walk to the places we needed to go. Seemed like a good idea because when you look at a map of the Yokosuka Naval Base - things look pretty close together and easily accessible by walking. So, we walked.....and walked.....and walked. Ended up walking about 9 miles that day. Over the next week or so, we walked an average of 7 to 10 miles a day. The lesson - have patience and wait for the bus. Become familiar with the bus schedule. And, if you miss the bus, wait for the next one. The bus goes completely around the base every 30 minutes. And don't worry about missing out on getting your exercise walking because, even when you use the bus, there will be a lot of walking involved. For one thing, the buses do not run after 6:30 at night - if you do anything after this time, you will either be walking or taking a taxi.
2) The second lesson we learned that day is you will spend a lot of time talking to people who will tell you that you are in the wrong place for whatever it is that you need to get done. A lot of the time, they can't even tell you with certainty where you need to go. Most everyone is nice but there are so many different departments that do very specific functions for specific groups of people. It is amazing how many different groups of people that are here - military, military spouses and dependents, DOD civilians and their dependents, contractors and Japanese civilians. So, have a lot of patience and talk to as many people as you can to help steer you in the right direction.
3) The next lesson, which we were prepared for, is to have your travel orders and passports with you where ever you go. You need identification for just about anything that you want to do. You need the travel orders and passports to get into the commissary, into the Navy Exchange - you can't even get into the movie theater without being asked to show i.d. Mona put all of our papers into an expanding folder and kept the folder in a backpack that she carried everywhere we went - because no matter what we intended to do, we were inevitably asked to show our paperwork. One positive from always having to show your i.d. is that my family won't have to hear me say that I left my wallet at home.
4) Did I mention to be prepared to walk? It is about a 20 minute walk from the Navy Lodge to Main Street Yokosuka - that is where the commissary, library, the Navy Exchange, one of the movie theaters and a lot of the places to eat are located. And, remember that the buses stop running at 6:30 - so, if you go out to eat or shop later in the day, you will end up walking or taking a taxi (which can add up pretty quick).
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