“I swear I can’t stand this place, and whats becoming of me the longer I have to stay, I want to think all unthinkable  things and say what I shouldn’t say, I need a change,” A Call To Arms by Bayside.

March 20^th will be my official detaching day onboard my ship, though I do not fly out until the 26^th via MAC flight. The same day I detach will also be my last hoorah out in the Honch. I still need to sort out the details with Admin to find out if they will put me in TPU because I don’t fly out until the next week, or have to stay at a friends’ house. I really didn’t want to leave until the 23^rd for reason that I can not say, but unfortunately if I did do that, I would have to stand my last duty day on the 20^th.

At most normal commands, you would think that your CoC would do something appreciative like give you your last duty day off in regards to all the hard work you’ve done for the last 3 years, but instead I got something like, “we don’t believe in a last duty day off.” The last IT who tried to request a last duty day off was eventually yelled at because he didn’t feel he should route it to the Captain because anything given to the Captain, according to the command, you are to utilize the CoC for anything routed, especially when it will require the CO’s approval. Because my CoC doesn’t believe in it, they will not route it, and instead requested that I route a leave chit for that day. That becomes pointless since I would have to route it for the whole weekend since it begins on a Friday and my leave would start that Monday anyways, so that makes no sense. I just said fuck it and will detach as normal.

This goes to show how much my command cares about the morale and quality of life of its crew.  I will live on the streets than have to take any extra days on this ship. Only a few weeks left; that’s all I have to say about that!

Well today is my birthday and I am now 22 years old.  Unfortunately I have duty, and because I really don’t care about this birthday, I thought I would write about the USS George Washington finally arriving in its new home port of Yokosuka, Japan and I have to say I was not surprised with what I saw.

I debated whether or not to head out to the Honch to have a few drinks with a buddy, as well as mingle in with the new crew that had just arrived.  After being out at sea for an exercise that I believed we shouldn’t have been involved in, a few drinks were in order.  Obviously I expected all of the places to be packed with sailors, new and old, after their long journey from Japan to San Diego back to Japan.  When I got out there, the streets were indeed crazy and the MAAs was in full force.  Because of all media attention towards the George Washington and Japan not being a fan of anything nuclear, everyone had to be on their best behavior and security was out to make sure it stayed that way.  To make it even more clearly to them how important a first impression was, no one was allowed to be on the streets past midnight if you were a GW sailor.  Of course, the drinking curfew was midnight for me; I was still able to stay on the streets so long as I didn’t have an alcoholic beverage in my hand.

Some of the things I noted when I was out there were, of course, all of the MAAs roaming to keep everyone on the up and up.  They even went after guys who were just sitting down because in Japan, if you pass out on the streets, you could wind up in jail and that is the last thing this crew needs for a first night.  They asked him if he was alright, and whether or not he had too much to drink.  He told them he was find, but they still recommended to him to head back to base just in case.

Of course with new sailors, comes the massage ladies that walk the street asking if you want a massage, though we all know there is another agenda that goes on behind closed curtains.  Those not familiar with Japan are asked by these ladies if they want a massage and a big smile goes across their face.  Some of them would actually walk up to these women and ask them about it, and I was laughing my ass off.  I was able to ward them off by holding out my cell phone acting as if I was texting someone.  It appeared to them that I wasn’t new to Japan and I know what happens during these massages.

I guess it isn’t very often that 3000 new people arrive in Japan at once, so when I saw that there were tour guides to the Honch, I was definitely surprised.  There would be a group of about twenty people and would say break off, ten going one way and ten going the other and meeting back at a certain time.  Apparently those who weren’t new to Japan didn’t explain that there isn’t much to really tour about in the Honch.  All it is are bars, clubs and a few food stands.  Maybe it is just me, but if I was on the GW and someone told me the Honch is where everyone goes to hang out and drink, I wouldn’t need a tour guide to show me the bars around.  I’ll just walk right in to a place and ask for a drink.  Some places, people would just look to see what is going on, and if they only see a few people they just proceed on and don’t even give the place a chance.  Believe it or not, it is nice to be able to drink some where and not have to worry about a million people crowding the place while I am just trying to relax with a beer.

Well, I haven’t heard of any wrongdoing out last night, so hopefully a good first impression was made.  There was no way RADM Wren was going to have one of his sailors mess it up for the first night and I believe he did a good job placing these measures to prevent anything that would bring discredit upon the Navy and the crew of the George Washington.  Congratulations on a good first night and with the weekend upon us, and the rules relaxed, let’s see how long the GW goes before an incident occurs.