Category Archives: Travel

Weird Night in Sasebo, Japan…

Our ship pulled into Sasebo for a few days and unfortunately it was made a working port. Despite my best intentions to sleep and catch up on some blogging, I’ve been doing nothing by contributing to the downward spiral that is my life.
I got a room at the Navy lodge for the second time [...]

Port Call in Cebu, Philippines & Last Time in Hong Kong.

I sincerely apologize to all my readers for disappearing, but I’ve been too busy counting down the days until I am off this piece of scrap metal, and gone from Japan…never to look back. Seriously though, I haven’t forgotten about the site. I’ve just been extremely busy and uh occupied. I’m working on two big [...]

Bad Port Call in Nagoya, Japan…

*Sigh* Maybe one day I’ll be able to write a post about visiting a port where I have a profound cultural experience, have some crazy local food, and am deeply touched by the disadvantaged people I help at a ship-sponsored community relations program. This port is obviously not one of those.
We pulled into Nagoya, the [...]

USS Shiloh Visits Pattaya Thailand

After the soul-crushing experience that was my first visit to Pattaya on USS Last Ship, I seriously thought this visit was going to push me so far to the edge, that I’d eventually do a swan dive off a hotel balcony. Luckily for me, I ended up spending the entire time with a friend from [...]

Required Reading: The Wanchai Chronicles

When we were sailing back to Yokosuka from Hong Kong, I was definitely in the dumps. Most of my days were spent reading Skippy-san’s posts about his last trip, at least for a while, to his beloved Hong Kong. I was a bit envious that he was having such a good time in what is [...]

I Finally Saw the Great Buddha…

Despite being in Japan for over two years, I’ve actually done very little when it comes to sightseeing. This Saturday, a couple friends and I decided to drive out to Kamakura to see one of Japan’s great sites, the Great Buddha. From Japan-Guide:
The Great Buddha of Kamakura is a bronze statue of Amida Buddha that [...]

Second Port Call in Beautiful Guam.

We recently pulled into Guam for a four day port visit. This is the second time I’ve been to Guam, and even though I only had two days off, I still had a great time relaxing and taking in the sun. Me and a buddy got a hotel room on the 10th floor of the [...]

Are you a Sonar Tech in Yokosuka / 7th Fleet?

I recently received a comment on my post about my ship’s port call in Brisbane, Australia. The author’s name is Joselyn, and she wanted to tell what it was like to be on the other side of the common situation of Sailor’s meeting someone in port, forming an unusual but comfortable relationship, and then having [...]

Port Call in Brisbane, Australia…Revised.

I decided to revise my post about Brisbane, because I didn’t think my original bummed-out opinion did any justice to one of the finest port visits. Allow me to start over and give you the play by play of my time down under.
The first day started like any other fine Navy day, with a little [...]

Port Visit in Guam.

We recently pulled in to the US territory of Guam for a four day port call. I had never been to Guam, and anything I’ve ever heard of it from other Sailors, was about the lack of anything to do. I went out expecting to be bored out of my mind, but instead had one [...]

I’m in Norfolk, Virginia

The flight from Tokyo to Chicago was actually pretty quick. I managed to sleep through the whole thing. Our flight was delayed an hour which made our connecting flight to Norfolk very tight. Luckily we made, but my bags are another story. I should be getting them today though. I haven’t been to NAVSTA Norfolk [...]

Blogging from Narita Airport.

I’m sitting here in the Narita airport in Tokyo. My flight to Chicago has been delayed about 50 minutes. I’m not complaining though. It took me forever just to get to my terminal, because I couldn’t resist all the tax free electronics stores. It’s also amazing how many things can be inflatable. I don’t have [...]

Driving in Japan

I may have mentioned earlier that I bought a motorbike. A Honda CRM250R to be exact. It’s a two-stroke, kick-start only, dirt bike that apparently makes little work out of newer bikes that are rated at up to 400cc. They’re not in production anymore because of their emissions, but are still huge in Japan [...]

Another Trip to Harajuku

My friend Lloyd hadn’t been to Harajuku yet, and wanted to go see some of the girls. We went pretty early because I didn’t expect much to be happening, and figured we could still have time to do some other shit after we saw the dozen or so kids and left. I guess I [...]

My Brief Time in Korea

We recently left Korea after pulling in for a few days. Unlike the other ports we’ve hit so far, we had to work during this one. We usually got off at 4PM and had to catch a bus from Chinhae to Busan where they had a little more to offer when it came to human [...]

My Time in Pattaya Thailand.

Ask any retired Sailor where their favorite port call was, and most likely they’ll name some place in Southeast Asia. More than likely that place will be Thailand. I’ve never been worldly man, and while that’s changing, I’m still pretty ignorant to a lot of happenings in countries that aren’t as developed as those in [...]

I’m in Singapore. More to Come!

I’m in a rush, so I won’t write much. We’ve been here for three days, and tomorrow is our last. All I can say is I’m amazed at how beautiful a place Singapore is. The women are beautiful, shopping is good, everything is relatively cheap, and I’ve packed so much stuff in since I’ve been [...]

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