Japan

Well, I'm well overdue for an update. I'm out in the middle of the ocean, sailing onboard the USNS Loyal. We finally got underway a few days ago. Here's the story: we flew out on the 9th of April for a deployment on the USNS Effective. We left soon after arriving, but our ship broke down only 2 days into the mission. So we limped back into port where we sat for nearly a month. In short, they switched us to another boat that was operational, and sent us on our way to perform our mission.

I've had a few people ask me exactly what it is that I do while I'm underway. I can say that I am a Sonar Technician working as part of a military detachment for SURTASS (Surveillance Towed Array Sonar System). It's a fancy acronym that means we track submarines using sensors that are towed behind our boat (If you know anything about the military, you know they just adore those acronyms).

But let me get to the important stuff -- it was fantastic being in port!! Where else can you get paid to tour a foreign country!?! I had a blast. So yeah, to say I took advantage of our free time is an understatement. I went out so much that there were a couple of days in between my sight-seeing that I had to just rest on the boat.

We port out of Yokohama, Japan which is the second largest city next to Tokyo, of course. Three million people! I think I saw nearly every one of them on the train system, which I took everywhere. When I wasn't riding the train, I was zooming around on my foot-pedaled scooter I got while I was here. It cut my travel time down to a third of walking, which gave me more time to explore.

I'm not quite sure where to begin with my travels. I was definitely limited to where I could get by train b/c I had to be back on the boat every evening, but there's still plenty to see. I took some pictures which I am going to begin posting tonight.