US
Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan | September 16th, 2004
| Brian
So
far, the Japan leg of the tour has gone remarkably smooth and
been very comfortable. There were no major roadblocks in leaving
Korea or arriving in Japan and our rooms on base here in Iwakuni
are more than adequate. For the majority of the trip we’ve
each been given our own rooms and it’s a saving grace for
the collective vibe. The rooms here at Kintai Inn are very comfortable
and MWR is covering all our meals too. We arrived on Tuesday,
had the rest of the night off, all of Wednesday off and performed
at Club Iwakuni on Thursday. Everyone’s been recovering
from the Korea’s hectic schedule and catching up on sleep
and workouts. Speaking of workouts, no disrespect to the other
armed forces, but Marines are cut from a different mold, these
guys are monsters.
One
of the great coincidences of the trip has been meeting up with
Brian Boyce. A bunch of the guys know Boyce from college and he’s
been someone who Scott has kept in touch intermittently over the
years. He’s Major Boyce now and pilots a radar-jamming aircraft
called the Prowler for the Marines. He was actually at Camp Casey,
S. Korea last week and ran into an advertisement for our performance
at Garry Owen. After doing a triple-take at the ad, he shot off
an email request for our tour schedule. As it turns out, his home
base is here in Iwakuni. Who would’ve thought?
On
our day off, Me, Scott, Boyce, Kevin and Bass went to Hiroshima
to do some sightseeing. The weather was perfect and the train
ride into the city went north along Japan’s southern coast.
I thought we were moving pretty damn fast til we got passed by
one of those bullet trains…you can’t believe how fast
those things go. Once inside Hiroshima we took a quick trolley
ride, first stop, naturally, was the Peace Park, the Memorial
for Atomic Bomb victims. There’s really only one original
building left as a landmark to the events of that fateful day,
the Atomic Dome. The rest of the city has been rebuilt. The bomb
detonated 600 meters above that landmark, 140,000 Japanese killed
by the end of 1945 and many more in the years that followed. At
the core of the actual memorial is the Hall of Remembrance, a
circular room where the interior wall is a 360 degree panorama
of the A-bombed city from the hypocenter ...hospitals, elementary
schools, municipal buildings, neighborhoods, etc. The wall is
made of 140,000 mosaic tiles. Below the tiles are the names of
the neighborhoods, the lower the name, the closer that neighborhood
was to the hypocenter. The room gave me the chills. Needless to
say, the experience was extremely heavy. While it’s not
realistic to view the events of 1944 from 2004’s perspective,
it’s hard to imagine how our leaders came to this solution…and
then, having seen the aftermath, to repeat it again in Nagasaki.
While I’m aware there are still older generations on both
sides who carry a lot of bitterness, I’m also amazed that
there isn’t more anit-Americanism here amongst the younger
generations too. The experience also brings into focus the importance
of the international effort to crush nuclear proliferation. The
world doesn’t need to learn this lesson again.
Well,
not to trivialize, but after that, it was time for a drink. We
found a nice Irish pub in the heart of Hiroshima, ordered Guinness
and appetizers. It was great hanging out with Boyce, he’s
been all over the globe flying for the Marines and he’s
got an endless amount of stories. There was a lot of crackin’
and some serious conversations too. It’s been interesting
and refreshing on this trip to hear the perspectives of those
who carry out the decisions of our leaders. For most of us, the
world’s war zones are just ideas…when it doesn’t
effect your day to day, you can tune it in and out as you like.
But for the soldier, it’s right in front of him.
We
continued bar hopping throughout the evening…we went to
this one bar called “Stevie’s Wunder Bar” where
they played strictly soul music. I’m pretty sure we skipped
dinner. Today was a great day. The next night’s performance
at Club Iwakuni went well and Friday we left for US Army Ammunition
Depot Akizuki in Kure Harbor.
Akizuki, Japan | September 17th, 2004 | Brian
Akizuki
was tiny…we stayed in the same building we performed in,
which is the same building as the galley and gym. For whatever
reason, it seems that the smaller bases tend to have the better
turnouts for the shows and they really appreciate the music. Akizuki
was a prime example. The tiny room we played was packed with the
tight knit community and they really made us feel at home. The
show went great and the crowd participated the whole night. At
the end of the show, the colonel got on the mic and gave us an
impromptu commendation on our performance where he presented us
each with Akizuki coins. He went a great lengths (as only a Georgia
boy can do) to explain to us the significance of the giving of
the coin. Afterwards he led the crowd in an accapella version
of “Lean on Me” as a token of their appreciation.
Since we’ve been performing for AFE, we’ve started
a collection of military coins. Each base has it’s own coin,
with it’s own design, crest, motto etc. Our first coins
we’re given to us in Thule, Greenland a year and a half
ago. But the coin we received in Akizuki maintains the most significance.
Fukuoka
Airport, Japan | September 19th, 2004 | Brian
Last
night’s show in Sasebo was relatively uneventful, once again
we played a Navy base when the ships were out to sea. Leaving
Japan the next day was, however, eventful. To make a long story
short, after putting all 42 pieces of luggage/equipment through
security, we spent 3 hours at Asiana Air counter trying to get
it all checked in. For some reason, the flight to Singapore charges
about 20X more than any other airline for extra baggage and overweight
charges. According to their calculations, checking a water bottle
to Singapore would cost you about $30. The monies we were allotted
by AFE to spend on extra baggage only summed up to about 10% of
what they were trying to charge us. In the end, thanks to the
band’s patience, persistence and credit cards, the situation
finally got resolved and we made it just in time for our flight.
We
had one layover back in Seoul before the 5 hr flight to Singapore.
I got some beautiful pictures over Asia from the airplane window
as the sun was setting. Every minute the sun, clouds and colors
would change for me and it would be a whole new picture.
<Photos
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