So here goes.
This is a picture of a fake bamboo fence here at the lodge. I had to take a picture of it to emphasise the military's attempts at fitting in with the culture, no matter how feeble the attempts... These little fences are here and there around the base and though cheesy in that they are fake, are novel anyway.
This is our friend's orange tree that is growing in her back yard here on base. It grows those little 'Christmas oranges' otherwise known as mandarins. I learned through experience that eating an unripe orange is not an extremely pleasant experience. That is, unless you enjoy making a fish face and squinting your eyes super tight while tears shoot out of them. I guess I'll have to hold of on stealing people's oranges until they are actually orange...
This and the next few pics are examples of some of the things placed here and there in the lodge to give it a little bit less of a bomb shelter feel. I really wouldn't mind having either of the following pieces of furniture. I wonder if they'd notice me carrying them out of here on my back?!? LOL! Just kidding of course.
While Toilets in some areas seem a bit primeval, Japanese have mastered the best bathing system ever!! These shower knobs look a bit confusing and at first are even a bit scary, especially since nothings in English, but once I figured them out, I will be so sad to use anything different. I only hope our house here will have the same system. When I get my house, I'll let you know.
I'll do my best to explain these 3 knobs as I have come to understand their purpose. We'll call the knob on the right (displaying the number 40) knob 1, the lowest knob (clear knob with orange and grey areas showing Japanese Kanji characters) will be knob 2 and the white knob will be knob 3. okay The purpose of knob 1 is to set the temperature you want your water to come out of the faucet every single time you turn it on, be it for the shower head or the spigot. The only trick is that knob 1 is in Celsius, so be careful!! Knob 2 when turned to the left turns on the shower head, the further you turn it the higher the water pressure, until it is blasting the skin right off your body. I did an experiment and filled a knee deep tub with water from the shower turned on high in less time than it took me to shave my legs, that's like 50+ gallons in probably less than 3 minutes. Talk about serious water pressure!! If you turn knob 2 to the right, then water will come out of the spigot to fill your tub. Now let's say you have used knob 2 to fill your tub with the perfect temperature of water as set by knob 1, and you are relaxing in a tub that's actually big enough to truly submerge your whole self except of course for your head, when you discover that you have not become adequately pruney yet, but your water is no longer sufficiently hot. That's where wonderful knob number 3 comes into play, just reach up and turn knob 3 to the desired temperature of scalding water to top off your tub. You see, knob 3 only sends water out of the spigot and can be set for anywhere from 100 degrees Fahrenheit all the way up to 250. The numbers on the knob go to 300, but it doesn't turn past 250. I imagine that past 250, you'd really only be getting straight steam anyway, so what's the point right??
(The following is an unofficial public service announcement from my pediatrician back home) Don't let the baby play with the knobs in the tub!!!! (since she didn't want my water turned any hotter than 120 from my water heater and proceeded to ask me about it every single time I saw her.)
The toilet's here in the lodge are pretty cool too. You'll notice the knob here has an arrow pointing up and one pointing down, each with a Japanese character assigned to each direction.
The character associated with the up arrow means big, giving you a big flush and using the whole 5 gallon tank of water. This flush is intended for large waste, call it what you will.
The character associated with the down arrow means small, and gives you a small flush, that lasts only as long as you hold the lever that direction. This flush is intended for small waste.
Worlds smallest, most baffling fire extinguisher. This is above my stove top here in the lodge, and is less than 3 inches across and doesn't have any levers or knobs or anything, it's just a little can suspended from the hood vent. I haven't the slightest idea how to work it, or if it somehow just works itself. By now it's probably a moot point, since the thing looks like it might be older than I am and my experience with extinguishers in the states is that from time to time they need recharged or they are worthless.
Here's a pic of a dry dock that was built in the 1880's (sorry, I forgot the exact date) which means it was here before the US ever even came to Japan for any reason, let alone took over their navy base and called it home. On the side of the base where this is, the scenery is much different than what I see from the lodge. It is very industrial and actually quite ugly. There are big conduits running along the sides of the roads and big buildings everywhere. It is strange though to see that mixed in with the cinder block construction (to stand up to the constant winds and typhoons), there are huge warehouses made of corrugated fiberglass and corrugated aluminum and steel. They look older than the hills around them, yet despite the winds and all they are still there, obviously patched, re patched and re patched, but still there.
Here's an example of one of the afore mentioned hills and an example of the hills that cover this base and this area of Japan. The ground can be completely level, and then suddenly a huge hill will be there, super steep and tall. The next photo is a picture of one out in town when we went on a house hunting trip. In the 20 minutes it took us to get to the house we went to see, we went through about 8 tunnels I think and each one was through a hill that was super super steep. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures on our way back from that house, because on the north side of a few of the hills were beautiful cemeteries built up the sides of the hills. They were fantastic.
A nasty grey sky picture from yesterday. The day was dull and grey throughout, but by nightfall, it was very windy and quite cold and as I walked with DD half way across base, the winds were too strong for her to walk against it and I had to carry her and lean into the wind to make any headway. It reminded me of Alaska.
This is the only shrine I've seen so far. It's small and dirty and abandoned. It's actually on top of a hill here on base, another throw back from when this was a Japanese Navy base. Next to it is a murky, mucky, fish less pond.
In a way I want to get in there and clean it up, it looks so sad, but I don't really know what I would do with it once it was clean since I am not Buddhist and would not be putting a Buddha in it. It just looks so sad and forgotten.
