Navy Base in Atsugi!

So one of my New Years resolutions is to improve my blog and blogging skills. One way of doing this is to update as much as possible! So, here's another update!

entrance to the base

I met up with my friend Natsuyo today and we went to go see her boyfriend in Atsugi. He is an American Navy guy and lives on the base there so I was a little excited to see what it was like. My grandpa was stationed at a Navy base in Japan back in the 60's or something (a different base from this though) and i've always wondered what living on a base would be like.

They took our passports and gave us entry permission slips at the gate. There wasn't really much there though me and Nat were only allowed to go into certain places. We went to the food court (that smelled so much like America!) where they had a Taco Bell (gross!) and some other fast food places typical of American food courts. Then we went into this mini wal-mart type store where I proceeded to squee over how cheap things were (and they only handle American money so all the price tags were in dollars which took me a moment to realize the change) and be all "natsukashii" (nostalgic) over all the familiar items.
 I bought my contact solution for half the price I pay at Japanese drug stores, as well as some Ibuprofen and a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup (Yum!). Since I didn't have any American money I had to have my friend buy it for me and I gave him yen in return. I guess even though the base is in Japan, you're technically in America...confusing? There is bigger grocery store on base but that was one of the places we weren't allowed to go into. They also have an elementary school and a huge pool with a water slide! It was like being in a mini American town almost (though I bet if we were able to go to where the residential housing was it would have felt even more like America, but he lives in the barracks so we didn't go that way).


It really made me a little homesick seeing all those familiar brands and food items, but i'm happy I got to go. We proceeded to hang out at his room and watched the Star Wars Family Guy series (never realized how awesome those are!) then had dinner in Yokohama.




Tomorrow I teach then go to the bank to try and figure out a money transfer, then hanging out with a new buddy I met a couple weeks ago!