And my food for today you ask? Yesterday on my way back to base after practicing Tai Chi by the river I stopped by a bread shop and picked up a blueberry pastry and then headed over to Seiju Dept Store. Like most large Japanese Dept stores the
first floor is a grocery store. I picked out a ramen sandwich, a small serving of sticky rice topped with salmon and black sesame, a bowl of siamen noodles and a pack of Mochi pastries. I am about the only one here than brings my own lunch. I also brought a liter of water a Georgia MAX Coffee (can of coffee made by Coke) and a Japanese energy drink: Oronami C Drink. This is pretty typical. I figure since I’m over here I should eat off the economy as much as possible. It beats eating mid-rats at the galley. I can only eat so many ham and cheese omelets, chicken cordon blue and canned/frozen carrots, Brussels sprouts, squash, etc. About the only
really stellar food at the galley is the soft serve ice cream, or as one of my friends refers to it… auto dog.
Just before I finished my watch yesterday I was having a conversation with toe people on the oncoming watch. One is a LtCOL that is part of the full time USFJ staff. He is one of the people who was scrambling to react to the emergency from day 1 and attempting how to organize all the augmentees before JTF 519 showed up two weeks later. Talking to him I realized all my frustration with JTF 519 should be set aside. My real focus needs to be on USFJ and providing them feedback necessary to move ahead of this as an organization. I have seen how the JTF works in crisis and am not impressed. USFJ on the other hand has done amazingly well considering their significant limitations. So for my last week here that will be my focus.
Just had another earthquake (I wrote that a few days ago). It didn’t shake much. I was looking at my computer screen and it seemed as if my vision were a bit off. Then I realized it was a small tremor…at least small here at Yokota. Well it turns out the “little” quake was a 7.4 off Sendai! Luckily it was 40 km deep so hopefully it won’t cause another submarine landslide and tsunami. Well it’s been a half hour and no tsunami so we’re good! Peoples reaction to this post on FB has been amusing. Some are amazed that a 7.4 could be considered an aftershock or can’t understand my understated reaction. Seriously though it was no big deal way down here in Yokota. The shaking was nominal. 40 Km deep is really very deep. My personal worry is for Alaska and California. We’ve had multiple quakes around the edges of the Pacific plate (Chili, New Zealand, Baja California, Japan and major volcanic developments on Hawaii. It’s clear the plate is making some major movements. Who knows where it will settle out?
More Random Thoughts…
• After my visit to Kamakura I realize just how provincial Fussa is... Too bad.
• When did it become fashionable for Japanese girls to wear incredibly short shorts with stockings in the winter? Isn’t that cold?
• I am amazed how isolated Americans willingly keep themselves when in foreign lands. I was speaking with a Colonel yesterday and mentioned I didn’t want to move to the other side of the base because it’s too far from the main gate. She then asked almost incredulously if I had been off post. WTF? Don’t these people know too much time on post leads to insanity? The really sad part is how common it is for the military to remain voluntarily cooped up on bases.
• Walking around Shinto shrines from the Middle Ages while listening to NIN and Primus is a very surreal experience.
• Japanese are fun people to party with. They have a great since of humor and are quite generous.
• Mr. Donut still makes the most amazing buttermilk old fashioned chocolate dipped donuts on the planet!! They melt in your mouth and are just sweet enough without being sickly. I’ll take one of these over anything Crispy Cream can produce any day!!
• For a people living in very dense towns the Japanese are amazingly well integrated into nature. Community gardens abound, nature trails abound, I am quite content here.
The cherry blossoms are in full bloom. The weather has warmed up. The grass is beginning to turn green. Today we had a huge thunderstorm. Spring has arrived to the Kanto Plain. It seems fitting that, with the change from winter to spring, the Joint Support Force for Operation Tomodachi begins to draw down. Many personnel have departed already. The main focus of operations is now transition. Not a simple return to the USFJ structure pre-quake, instead a slightly beefed up HQ will remain. The need remains for better consequence management for US bases here on Honshu. 
We have done some good work here both is providing humanitarian assistance as well as assisting the government of Japan with options for managing the disaster at Fukushima. Having lived in Japan for a number of years I was more than happy to jump into this fray. But… still having such a large force in Japan so long after 1945 is a bit disconcerting. It is yet more proof that the US is an empire. During the operation, personnel had to be reminded repeatedly to remove the word “Foreign” from “Foreign Humanitarian Assistance” in briefings. The correct term was to be simply “Humanitarian Assistance”. After all, we are the foreigners here, we should not be briefing the Japanese, stating we are providing Foreign Humanitarian Assistance. Walking the halls of USFJ I have glanced numerous times at the paintings that line the walls. They are like the paintings in any military HQ. Tonight though, it struck me how bizarre it must be for the Japanese SDF Officers walking these halls. We are in Japan and lining our walls are paintings of Navy Wildcat fighters scrambling on Saipan to attack the Japanese as well as Naval engagements from the Pacific war. I suddenly wondered how the Japanese must feel seeing paintings of their defeat on proud display in their own country. Only an empire would have the balls to pull that. 
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