A trip to USS George Washington

This is bit late for a blog but I’m just so excited to tell about my experiences during my trip in one of the biggest US carrier ship deployed in Japan. We went there as a treat for Christmas for my family and friends. I am really amazed at the size in and out of the ship.

Chief Boatswain Mate Larry Seesholtz brought us to plenty of spots that allow visitors to roam. These places include the eating areas which are divided for Officers, Chiefs, and Rank and file or for common navy men. He also brought us to the place where the captain of the ship works for maneuvering the ship.

It is quite enticing to walk around as a visitor in the ship but probably working there is very challenging. I cannot imagine working in a ship where staircases are really narrow, the walls smell like paint thinner, the ceilings are standard but for the taller workers, they’d be bowing most of the time. Or maybe I am just really an office worker to begin with. Anyways, I salute our guide BMC Larry Seesholtz for working 20 years of his life in such scene. I mean it’s not really hazardous but for me it’s really a man job. I am surprised there are plenty of women serving in the navy.

The roof deck where the airplanes fly and land is really wide, like 2 soccer field. It was a great to be on top of the tall and long ship where you see the place where all the planes launching happen. I feel so lucky because some other people cannot just visit or come to the ship; a sponsor is needed to do that.

Yukata Festival Cruise in Tokyo Bay

Yukata Cruise in Tokyo Bay

I have few months left in Nihon so I wanted to experience those things that I have not take in the past 3 years of living here. Constantly, I am just comfortable in my pad inside my turf. I know I am having fun with my friends doing the usual stuff, Friday night's gatherings after a good novena prayer, Sunday is church day and all week day is work day. Yes, I do believe in the saying that it's not the place that matters but how you cherish the place and how you enjoy the people you meet but experiencing new stuff is adding more zest to life.

So last night September 12 at Takeshiba Pier near Odaiba I had a wonderful time in my Yukata. The weather didn't agree with our fun really well but I think it added more joy and blessing to the night coz if it didn't rain participants could have been wilder and drunker than it was. I would take a short cut route of my story, my friend Fe and I just did well in making our knotting, fixing and wearing of our Yukatas without any supervision from the local. Actually we did quite well but it wasn't about the formal way of wearing them as other people in the Yukata festival just had their own ways of wearing it which is absolutely fun to look at. I'll tell you more about that later.

We didn't have a good quality camera on hand that time but I saw one video in the internet that is similar to what we experienced (additional with the rain)

Yukata Cruise in Tokyo Bay from Philip Cotsford on Vimeo.

We took the Monorail to Takeshiba Pier and ended in a meeting place with almost 200 people wearing in Yukatas in various colors and kinds, from then on it was a little awkward at first coz obviously we were the only Pinoys and we were surrounded with bunch of foreigners from different nations. My friend Fe was a little conscious at first so we tried to open up to each other first how to fit in and we did it perfectly. People were so accepting and were so glad to have us as companies. We took and paid for the registration and went immediately to the cruise ship.

It was really amusing being in a place packed with great people who are wearing Yukatas in their own ways; indeed, very creative! They added definitions like wearing rubber shoes with it, adding hats, wearing together with the usual walking shoes and sandals. I thought at first it was disrespectful but when I talked to a Japanese girl who's amazingly mixed with my genes (Filipino), she said it's fine and the locals wouldn't mind at all. The Yukatas are just like fashion and it's no longer a strict implementation. But they have certain time and occassion of the year that they still observe to wear Kimono's like when children turn 3,5,7 years old. They said it's a good celebration and a formal one so they have to observe a well defined wearing of Kimono.

The whole time of the cruise were enjoying chatting with my friend and meeting new friends and just walking around enjoying the party that I would know wont happen again.
We went to the upper deck were there's a little stage to see shows from Japanese people wearing Yukata and a whole platform of different people dancing and having fun.
Fe and I decided to change our Yukatas because it was wet with the rain and continued having fun. We met more people maybe it's because we let out the real us? It was a funny thought.

I love activities like those; it was fun definitely worth of all cents and time. I don't wanna count my last days in Japan I want my days count.