The Trip that Wasn't

Like my trip to Disneyland on the day before New Year's Eve 2006, I couldn't sleep.

All I could picture was clips from Letters from Iwo Jima and Flags of our Fathers, or recreate the stories I heard about Whitey Fox, a Marine who survived many landings, including Iwo Jima.

My friend Jim (an architect in the Navy) and I flew up to Tokyo and caught the train to Atsugi last Thursday, about an hour and three different train lines later. Our mission: to join our fellow CEC offficers on the mainland for a trip to Iwo Jima on Friday. We jumped into a cab at the train station and 710 yen later we were at the front gates to NAF Atsugi.

Jim checked the forecast ahead of time: heavy showers. So we packed our camoflouge gortex jackets and trousers. But we thought the cabs would be able to take us onto the base, like they do here in Okinawa. Not quite. I even picked up my civilian rain jacket to get to my shoes before leaving Okinawa.

So we mosied through the front gate and asked for directions for the Navy Lodge, since we weren't going to catch a ride. Thankfully the advertised 1-2 mile walk in the rain only turned out to be a 1/2 mile long.

We got directions to the best ramen and gyoza restaurant in town. After walking 15 minutes (this time after buying an umbrella - can't wear the camoflauge gortex out in town), we made it to the restaurant. It was only 100 meters from the train station we got off at (don't know the name but the building was black). We celebrated our safe travels with a kompai (cold Kirin beer) and came back to the Navy Lodge full and about 2 pounds heavier with my water logged pants.

After waking up on the hour every hour and hoping it was time to get up, the alarm finally went off at 5am. We donned our uniforms and rain gear and headed out for the walk to the air terminal to meet our group that drove over from the other bases on mainland Japan.

We were a bit puzzled when we walked in and were told the only flight to Iwo Jima was a "Japanese only" flight. After looking at eachother with a confused and concerned look, we were relieved to hear we were at the Japanese Defense Force air terminal (the American terminal was 300 meters away).

We arrived at 6:40am, 20 minutes before our required arrival time and joined in on the breakfast burrito festivities. Before we knew it, 7:30 came and went... but not before the announcement came to the group of 20-30 people waiting for the flight, "sorry folks, flights cancelled due to heavy rains". I didn't know the Navy didn't fly in the rain... but before I expound on my assumptions, we realized it was better to be stranded in Atsugi than Iwo Jima with its extremely limited facilities.

So what do you do with a free day in Atsugi (remember, it's raining)?
A. Checkout the IKEA in Yokohama
B. Go to the 4 story mall with 370 stores and compare it to the Mall of America
C. Go to the Yokohama Bay Stars baseball game
D. All the above

We were craving the cinnamon rolls, coffee, and a dry climate. But we were a little confused with the "walk towards the IKEA sign visible from the train station and you'll be there in 7 minutes" when were was no such sign in sight. After a few lost in translation moments and 25 minutes later, we found ourselves at our favorite blue box store. Who wouldn't want to see how a Swedish store with all its space maximizing trinkets set up in a country with limited space like Japan? Turns out it sets up the same as California and Switzerland (Jim saw the Swiss IKEA) and Japan. And the almond cake, cinnamon rolls, and coffee were delicious.


As we walked out of the IKEA looking for a cab to take to take to the train station, we thought a bus stop must be around here somewhere.... oh wait, IKEA had a free bus from IKEA to the train station. Genius.

We thoroughly enjoyed the vertebrae bridge between the train station and the mall. The mall was pretty slick, but the architect in Jim came out as he noticed all the design features and was quite impressed.

But before we could buy too much loot for our carry-on bags (as you can see, Olivia was the big winner),it was time to head to Yokohama Stadium. We heard the Japanese play baseball in the rain (as long as it is not heavy rain), and they start their games at 6pm.


So we went to the game, enjoyed the food and cheers... yada, yada, yada, it was 9pm and time to catch the train back to Atsugi and hit the rack (our dogs were barking). The baseball game was an adventure in itself - another story for another time.

So we were bummed that our trip to Iwo Jima was cancelled, hopefully we can do it again some other day. But when life throws rain at you, take a big leap and splash in the puddles.

The answer is D.