Retreat at Yokosuka Naval Base

Twice a day, if you are in a car or walking outside, you are required to stop when the music for colors or retreat is played. In the morning, the colors is the national anthems of both the United States and Japan. It always is played at 8:00 a.m. Retreat is the music that is played in the evening to signal the end of the military day. The time for Retreat changes depending on the time of the setting sun. Mona took the picture and video from our balcony.

Ikego Campground

After running yesterday, I decided to spend some time checking out the Ikego campground area. It is a very pretty and easily accessible area that reminds me a lot of being in the mountains back home. It is very quiet and peaceful. Unfortunately, it isn't very big - maybe a couple of miles from the entry gate. However, you do feel you are far away from the city and it feels pretty primitive just beyond the trails.

I enjoy running at this track - it is very scenic. The hills have
several different types of trees and the locals have a garden
(the white fenced-in area). 

This is the view as you begin to enter the campground area.

Some of the campgrounds are very unique. They are very large
and isolated - surrounded on three sides by the steep hills.

Fireflies are a big deal in Japan - there are several
firefly festivals throughout Japan.

This is the scene from the porch swing at one of the cabins.
It is very calming and peaceful listening to the birds and the wind.

This is a side view of one of the cabins. The cabins are very
basic - kind of like the KOA cabins. No bathrooms inside the
cabins - but there are plenty of bathrooms throughout the campground. I should have checked to see if they had showers.

The little valley opens up to a meadow as you leave
the campground area.

Japanese Bluebonnets

While we were at the Kurihama Flower Park, we saw a field of flowers that reminded us of the bluebonnets back home in Texas. These flowers even bloom at the same time of year as the bluebonnets.

From a distance, they look very similar to a field of bluebonnets.

Up close, they are very different looking than the bluebonnets.

Mona loves to take pictures of her girls. It is amazing
to see the change and the similarities over time.

Zachary, Macie, Mona and Andrea.

Couldn't write about Kurihama Flower Park without including
a couple of pictures of Godzilla.

McCampbell Field Trip

Macie's 8th grade team at school went on field trip to visit their namesake - the U.S.S. McCampbell.
It is a destroyer based here in Yokosuka. I volunteered to go as a chaperon. It was really interesting tour - the people were extremely nice and patient with so many people in such small quarters.

This is the gangplank we used to board the McCampbell.

I find it interesting that all the ships, any time they are docked,

put up a banner.

This is our group going through a walkway - 
extremely tight. When passing, stay right.

This is the mess area for the ship. The
machines to the right are fountains with
all types of soda, juice, milk, coffee and tea.

The cooks made cookies. The kids loved them.

Another view of the mess area. The guide told us
that the cooks will even prepare things at midnight
for the night watch.

This shows how tight and steep
the stairs are on the ship

This is the berth area - where the sleep
and hang out when not on watch. The beds
were small - I would have to keep my knees
bent if I had to sleep on these beds.

Believe it or not, these are torpedoes.

Very cool - a gun that can be battery operated
and can fire 4500 rounds a minute.

These contain missiles.

Macie girl about to go down the stairs on
our tour of the outside of the ship. The stairs
are just as steep as the ones on the inside.

I don't think this picture captures just how
high this mast really is.

The GM (gunnery mate) shows us the gear
they wear when they man the guns.

Mona and Macie got a big kick out of
this picture.

5 inch guns that can hit targets up to 14 miles away. Our guide
said that when these guns fire, the entire ships shakes.

Macie and her friends had a good time. She even wished
that we could have taken more time.

Godzilla: Kurihama Flower Garden - Part 2

The main part of Kurihama Flower Garden park is a meadow that gradually rises and ends at the base of small mountain ridge. There is a series of wooden stairs that take you most of the way to the top of the ridge. After a little more walking, you reach the top and find a play area that includes a giant replica of Godzilla. Why Godzilla? In the original movie, this is the part of Japan where he emerged from the ocean and set foot on Japan for the first time.

Besides the Godzilla statue, there is a huge
wooden playground with ropes and slides.

The large slides have rollers which makes the
ride pretty rough. There is a store that sells
a padded seat but it was closed. So, Zach used
a ski jump crouch and made it all the way down.

Andrea is posing using the peace sign that
is very popular among Japanese when
having their pictures taken.

Scene from the other side of the ridge as the
park extends down toward the ocean.

Kurihama Flower Garden Part 1

     Yesterday, we went to Kurihama Flower Garden. It is a park in the foothills not far from the Yokosuka Naval Base (about 25 minutes by car). It was a really interesting park - an open meadow filled with flowers surrounded by high hills - a series of stairs at the end of the meadow that leads to the top of ridge. Once you get to the top of the ridge, there is a park with a huge wooden play area with slides, cargo ropes and ladders. Oh, the park has one more thing - a giant replica of Godzilla. Also, there are lots of paths - most of which are shaded by huge trees filled with birds singing.

     We took lots of pictures - so I am going to make several posts about the area. The first one is pictures that I took with Macie's phone.

The sign says memorial photograph. Look at the date -
April 23, 28. 28? Japan marks the year by the number of years
the emperor has been in power. So this is the 28th year of
the Heisei period. When the current emperor dies, the Heisei
period will come to an end and the new period will begin at 1.

These are the Japanese carp windsocks - they flown from April
to early May to celebrate the children's day holiday.

This is how mom is going to get to the top of the ridge when
she visits. According to Mona and Macie, she will have company.

This is the view looking down the meadow towards Yokosuka.

It is a really peaceful walk.

This is all the varieties of flowers at the park and the display
shows when each will be in bloom. There are different flowers
that are in bloom throughout the year.

This path lead to an area that had the feel of a
temperate rain forest. Couldn't find any takers
that wanted to walk on it.

Yokosuka Naval Base Bazaar

Yesterday we went to a big sale that Yokosuka has twice a year. The base brings in sellers that sell everything from fine furniture and paintings to antiques and resale items - and everything in between. I really wasn't that interested in going but it turned out to be really fascinating experience.

This was material (obi?) that is used to make all sorts of things
or used as decoration.

At the storefront above, there was a book that gave you
ideas on how to use the material. In the gym, they had several
stair step furniture pieces that we had seen and wondered
how it would be used.

There were lots of kimonos.

This is a traditional samurai armor piece.
The cost was over $14,000. 

Traditional Japanese dolls. 

Lots of very cool t-shirts. This one is Godzilla. According
to the story, Godzilla first came ashore not for from Yokosuka.

The girls thought it was really cool how they had kimonos
for American Girl and Barbie Dolls.

More cloth material - and a tailor to make kimonos.

These were embroidered place mats Very detailed and
the colors really stood out.