My Ship

I saw my ship today.

It was one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen.



I saw it pushed sideways to the pier by tugs and I got to go on board and see how big it really was. The well deck is massive inside. The MA office was small, but there's only like 8 of us, so its no big deal. I met my bosses, all of which seem very awesome. I entered through the port side hangar bay and only got to see a few parts of the ship, and I can't wait to stand duty and patrol the whole thing. It was so big, I think its one of the largest things I've ever seen.

I report for my first workday (really just check-in, but I have duty on Saturday) tomorrow, and I can't wait.

Monkeys, Capybaras, and Babies

Well, I'll start out with an exciting experience I had this morning, which in my mind trumps the rest of the day which was also a lot of fun. I awoke this morning and got up, showered, got my clothes ready and checked on my lovely wife who was still relaxing in bed. She was talking to Jackson (our baby due in October) and I thought I might participate as well. Since I am able to, I got right down by him and was saying hello, and I put my ear to Em's belly to listen to him, and he kicked me in the head! I couldn't be prouder, my boy has a good kick, he'll be a strong one. I talked to him some more and we had breakfast.

Our plan today was to go south to Nagasaki and check out the Nagasaki Bio Park, which is pretty much a zoo, but much more interactive than a stateside zoo. Its a good walk, a few hours, but you get to see dozens of monkeys, fish, birds, plants, llamas, and other critters, some of which I'd never seen before in my life. The interactive part is the best, which allows you to feed many of the animals, some of which right from your hand. You can also get really close to many of the animals, some of which is fun, some which are not so much.

The first big attraction is the Insectarium, which is ultra-creepy, as its all stuff like Hercules and Rhinoceros beetles, which are way too big for insects. Some of them looked like they could weight several ounces.

After that is a petting area, which had squirrels, rats, turtles, guinea pigs, hamsters, and other small furries that could be picked up and handled.

Further up the path though was my favorite part of the park by far. The Capybara area. Now if you don't know what a capybara is, here's a picture.

Yes, I am petting it, I fed it also, right from my hand. It felt like an old hairbrush, very coarse, but very friendly. There were about 15 of them just walking around in this small fenced area. I had to wade through about 30 hysterical Japanese children who for some reason thought the capybaras were going to eat them all alive. Even when they saw me emerge unscathed, they still would squeal whenever one would walk towards them. These same children protested though when their parents tried to get them out of the fenced area. Too scared to interact, but too fascinated to leave, strange.

After that was a Rhino who was asleep, but very large, and very close. It was not to be interacted with, but they do allow you to feed them at specific times on Sundays, but it had already passed by the time we got there, so we missed out.

Further down the trail, there is an area with a cluster of cages holding goats, raccoons, and lesser red pandas. Now, these are normal animals I'm familiar with, but there were some others that simply ran loose which I'd never seen before. The best description I can give is a cross between a rabbit and a small deer. No tail, longer deer-like legs, with a rabbit-like face. There were about 20 and they would run back and forth between these two buildings. Having no experience with them, I approached but did not get too close, as they appeared to have formidable claws on their front and hind feet, and I didn't want to get killed by a rabbit-deer, what kind of story would that be? (further research revealed the animal to be a Patagonian Cavy, see below)


Next was the monkey area, and by monkey area I mean, the monkey cage you can walk through, with the monkeys. Now, monkeys look cute, so I thought I might get close to see if one would run up my arm and perch on my shoulder for a picture. The monkey reached out and grasped my hand, and I thought I was in the clear, but I was suddenly rewarded with a bite, hehe. Not a bad one, no blood, but it sure startled me, and the monkey may have learned a new word or two. Suffice it to say, I didn't try to hold any more monkeys. They were cute though.

After that were the hippos, but they were all underwater or sleeping, so there was little activity there. It started to sprinkle a little at this point, so unless we saw something incredible, we made for a covered area. The aquarium was next, and it had a huge amazonian fish in it, which I also researched and know to be an Arapaima, the largest freshwater fish in the world, some reaching over 400 pounds.


At this point we have reached the end of the zoo, which is a huge loop of one-way traffic, which was nice as you cannot miss anything and don't have to compete with people walking every which way like in other zoos.

We then went out for lunch and returned home, tired and having had a great day.

Been Busy

We have been very busy here, as is indicated by the lack of recent posts. Our friends moved in a couple apartments down which is nice as they are going to have a boy only a couple months before Jackson is born. We met them in the indoc class and have gotten along very well, as like us, they are adults, and can carry on mature conversations about real life. The husband is a civilian who works on base and they got a car before us, which has been convenient as he goes to work at the same time as me.

I've spend the last week familiarizing him with the train system and the other things we've been able to learn about in our short time here. Emily has made me able to jump into things much quicker than I ever used to, as we have ventured into several areas off the beaten path and are now able to share these experiences with others and show them the interesting things we've seen that make life here easier.

We are also about to buy a car. I suppose it could be called a car, its kind of a Japanese SUV though. It is a Suzuki Wagon R (Mine is silver). Sort of a van/minivan/mail truck. The Japanese call it a "kei car" or keijidosha. That literally means "light automobile", which it is. The engine is a 1.0 or 1.3 liter straight three. Yes, three-cylinder engine, great for gas mileage, since fuel is 4-5 dollars a gallon here. I love the train, and will still ride it often as it is convenient to get into town and to work. It's also less expensive.

There is quite a bit of a process to buy a car here.

Japan has what is called JCI, which means Japanese Compulsory Insurance (I think), which is essentially an automatic insurance policy. It is obtained through an extensive inspection. Blinkers, windows, tires, brakes, lights, everything is checked. This is done every two years.

The base then requires additional liability insurance. This is paid a year in advance, but its not bad, only about $250, since I'm now over 30 and an E-5.

Then, you have to pay road tax, which is due every year by May 31st.

Then you have to get a government parking sticker, because to have a car, you have to have an assigned parking space. Kind of like if Aberdeen, or any city, kept track of every residential space, and only allowed you to have as many vehicles as could be parked in the spaces allotted to you. This would be handy in several areas of the US.

Then of course I have to get base decals, which obviously, allows me to drive the vehicle on base and park it in government areas off base.

Fortunately, my car dealer handles the JCI and the parking, I already have the insurance done, which is required before you can even purchase a car, and the base part can be done whenever.

So, as I said, busy, but having fun doing it all. We should have the vehicle on Friday, so we'll be exploring this weekend, finding new things. Might go to the zoo in Nagasaki, and while we're there see the peace park, which is ground zero for the atomic bomb. I want to go to Imari and see pottery caves, something Em is excited about also.

I still have a tough time believing I'm in Japan, and no only that, but I'm driving around, riding the train, talking to people, eating all kinds of who knows what, and often don't want to, hehe. I recommend this to everyone, we've had the time of our lives so far, and we've got three years to go.