Sasebo Veterinary Treatment Facility

I don't know why I haven't written about this earlier, but below is a picture of the office I will be spending the next 2 and a half years in. Pretty small huh? There's an exam room (far right), a room for minor surgeries(middle), and the office on the left. The new Vet has arrived and I immediatley saw a vast improvement from the last one. He seems to have his priorities in line more. We just finished up our fourth week of working together and it makes the time go by alot smoother when you enjoy the people you are working with.

My small three room clinic

I hope you enjoy your jalapenos...

I went shopping today at the commissary for some fruit for the upcoming week. I got halfway down the aisle and almost dropped my basket. Jalapeno peppers were $9.20 a pound. I counted the ones in the package and only came up with eight. I'm a little used to paying a little more for the fresh stuff that can't be shipped over here, but this was crazy. I couldn't help but laugh as I thought back to the summers of picking bowls of these out of the garden, and paying just pennies for the seeds. Looks like no salsa for a while.

Japanese Final

As quickly as it started it ended. I was a little upset about how I thought I did on the final since the stuff we learned two days prior hadn't sunk in yet and there were a few questions where I couldn't think of the word. I got my grade slip in the mail yesterday and it turns out I didn't do so bad. I got a B- on the Final and ended the class with a B, which isn't bad because this was a hard class. The colleges aren't offering Japanese 112 next term because of lack of teachers, so now I have to keep all that I learned fresh in my mind until I cn take the next class.

Minute Milestone

Why is it that the days and weeks seem to drag along while they are in the present but looking back it seems like they just flew by? Today is the 4 year anniversary of my employment in the Army. Woo-hoo right? I'm proud to say that I only have 3 years left on my current contract and 16 more until retirement! Sometimes I think where I would be had I opted to go to college after High School. But as I think of all the places I've been, things I've done and people I've met I am glad I chose the path I did and look forward to the next 16+ years.

Not the Mid-Summer's Classic I had in Mind

The summer softball season ended this past weekend with my team, making yet another disapointing no-show. I don't know the reason, but for every game that wasn't rained out nobody wanted or couldn't play except a handful of us. This has been the case for the last three weeks, so it's been a while since I've picked up a bat. Since not alot of interest was shown for the end of the season tournament, or next season, the team I'm on will probably be dissolved. I've talked to a few team mates that want to keep playing but there's not alot of interest. So I might be playing on a different team next season which starts Aug 15th. Which is fine by me as long as I am playing for somebody. I'm not getting any younger you know, 23 is right around the corner.

Independence Day

Aunt Linda's last day here happened to be the same day as the base wide Independence Day celebration. We spent the afternoon touring the base, getting her some much missed american food, and even tour the ships that were in. The Essex and the Juneau were in port and showing off their insides to the crowds of people both military and civilian. (They opened up the base to the citizens of Sasebo as well.) As the festival was coming to a end, Linda said her good-byes and headed for Nagasaki and unfortunately missed the fireworks. A friend of a friend invited us to watch them over the port on the Essex, the huge aircraft carrier. Even though I toured the ship earlier, I didn't really want to pass on this. Since I was with a smaller crowd we got an even more in depth tour of the ship's inards, and when the time came we headed up to the flight deck and watched a pretty good firework show. The picture here shows the tarmac from the deck and the fireworks at night. The other is the Essex as viewed from the Juneau.

Fireworks.

The Essex, viewed from the deck of the Juneau.

Remnants of Urakami Cathedral

City of Nagasaki

While visiting me here in Japan, Aunt Linda wanted to go and see the atomic bomb museum and Peace Park, the site of the 1945 atomic bomb dropping. We caught a bus, then a streetcar and working together found what we were looking for. The day was kind of gloomy and drizzly but we made the best of it. This was a very well created park. The Peace Statue among the monuments donated by various countries were all placed on top of this hill next to the hypocenter "Ground Zero". The courtyard of the hypocenter had three monuments erected in a huge open coutyard. The museum was half about what happened with a bunch of melted debris and half on the effects of nuclear weapons, the nuclear arms race, and where we stand today. We didn't receive as many awkward glances other than an older man on the streetcar, whose english was so-so said, "Why are you visitng it, YOU droppped the bomb on us?!" Luckily we got off before I had time to think of a good enough answer.

Watching the Ships Come In

As the Fourth of July draws near, all the forward deployed ships have returned this week in time for the base wide celebration. The other half of the army here has their office located near the docks. As I was going over there for a meeting I saw the biggest of the ships stationed here coming into harbor. Being my first time watching this, I camped myself against a rail and watched in awe as it coasted into port. My own personal problems with parallel parking seemed dwarfed to what it takes getting a ship of this magnitude into a slot not much bigger than the ship itself. It took three tugboats and about twenty minutes to get it docked. Once the procedures for anchoring the Essex got underway, I decided to get back to work. There'll be more returns in the future.