Day 12- INDEX (End-exercise)

Today we ended our exercise at around 8am.  We had a running pool on when the exercise would end and as it happens, I won.  In fact I guessed the date and time to the minute.  I'm a bit bummed because this means that we need to pick up leave.  Tomorrow we all load up on buses and go to our home stations.  The experience here is one that I will look back favorably and remember all of the soldiers that I worked with.
The only thing that hasn't changed is the stupid stuff we need to do to clear an installation.  Once we picked up our equipment and cleaned up our tent we were allowed to go off post.  I quickly made it back to my tent and changed into my civilian clothes.  I was looking forward to see more of Japan, at least in a 100 KM radius.  Leaving by 10am today would allow me to really get a quick tour of the area.  But, it always gets messed up when it comes to army "tours."  One bad apple spoils the lot.  I met up with my buddies and we headed out to the CQ to sign out of post.  Unfortunately, we waited and waited and waited with no word on when we could leave base.  BUMMER!!!!
It's 17:49 hours right now and we still are locked down.Which means I've been waiting for 7 plus hours with no indication of when we can have some small liberty.  I'm suspicious that we are locked down because the active duty bubbas don't want to risk having 4,000 plus guardsmen go into town and cause an international issue.  Unfortunately, we've had a couple of "incidents" already but I'm not sure if they were guard soldiers or if they were active soldiers.  In any case, I'm pissed that we can't leave this post.
Earlier today, I was able to exchange gifts with some of the Japanese Defense Army soldiers and tonight there is a bilateral social/dinner. I'm taking more gifts just in case.
Tomorrow we load up and I won't be able to blog for at least a couple of days.
This has been an awesome, once in a lifetime experience for a national guard soldier from Kansas.  I'm proud to have represented The Kansas National Guard and The US Army in this exercise.  I will take back many memories of a country I only read about.

This is Major Bob Arteaga, signing off from Yama Sakura 59.

Day 11 - Cruise Control

Our exercise is coming to an end and the friendships we have made will definitely last for quite awhile.  I've updated earlier posts with some photos that I've been wanting to upload.  I have more and I will try to make another page with more pictures.
Continuing on for today... Both Armies have adjusted well and are integrated professionally.  These guys really know their stuff. I've noticed that the Japanese Army pays attention to every detail.  You can see it everywhere you go, starting with the environment.  I've already talked about how the Japanese as a whole are into recycling because its a necessity. The culture here has a "low impact" to nature concept.  Take a look at the pictures below.

The above picture shows me in front of a WWII hanger.  Notice the bonsai sculptured plants.  These things are everywhere.

I complimented one of the soldiers I work with about the beautiful gardens that are here on post.  He then tells me that there is an MOS (military occupational specialty) in the Japanese Army for horticulture.  Well, that makes sense.  It would take an army to keep all of this up! 

Another level of detail is how the tents that we live and work in are set up.  First of all, there are colored guide wires that line up each tent row and column.  Then there are wooden planks (more like path ways or side walks) that wind in 90 degree turns and are perfectly matched. I'm assuming that these are constructed to keep the dust and dirt from entering the tent.  Yes, Duane, tents.  Oh, and did I mention earlier that its COLD here! 

See ya'll soon!

Day 10 - All The Cylinders Are Pumping

Wow, it's hard to believe that I'm just about done with this exercise.  The division staff is well established and I'm clicking along with the rest of the staff.  My briefing skills have caught up with my translator now and I've learned how to stop in logical steps.  I've also learned a new TTP (technique, tactics, and procedure) on briefing with an interpretor. You write out what you are going to say and then give it to your interpretor.  Works like a charm!  I'm now in a rhythm with the briefs.  The section that I'm a part of has gotten in a groove and we are moving along nicely.  If I didn't know it, I'd say we look like we do this all of the time.  

The Japanese Army counterparts have also gotten use to some of our habits.  We had a real good brainstorming session with the Japanese Army and got through our meeting on time.

I have learned so much from the Japanese Army that it's hard to put in words.  These guys make a plan and stick to it.  They also get really hung up if our slides don't match exactly.  Also, we, the US Army, put up a slide and then brief items that are not necessarily on the slide.  The Japanese Soldiers read every bullet of the slide and get upset with us when we deviate from our slide.  Our cultural norms are such that we have short attention spans and need quick sound bites.  The Japanese Army works on chains of thought and reason.  So, they don't necessarily like to spin off topic.  At least this is how I perceive them.

Day 9 - Things That Make You Go hmmmm..

Kristina asked me to be on the look out for Sushi vending machines.  So far, I haven't seen any sushi vending machines but I have seen several diffent kinds of soda machines.  Some of the soda machines sell coffee too.  You can get a can of coffe for about 90 yen which is just over a buck.  You have the option of either cold or hot coffee cans.  It takes about two of these to fill up a large plastic thermal cup I have for my morning routine.
There are a lot of cigarret vending machines and I mean ALOT!  You walk down the street and see one at about every other corner.  You can also buy beer out of a vending machine too!  What a country!  Which reminds me... I found out today that it's impolite to walk and drink here in Japan.  The soda/coffee/cigarette machines have bins on the side where you can recycle your container or throw away your trash.  In fact, you see recycle bins just about every where.  I don't blame them because I bet landfill space here is either non-existent or hard to come by.  The soda machines around post are the 'water cooler' equivalent back in the states.  What I mean is that there is where you get to talk about the news, weather and sports for the day. 

Another vending machine dispenses noodles.  I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but in any case, these vending machines have EXTREMELY hot water.  The noodles are a type of Ramen noodle with different spices.  Kinda hard to read but the ones that are really colorful are the better ones.  I've tried a few at night when I miss out on dinner.

Day 8 - Going Kinetic

Our op tempo (also known as operations tempo) just got kicked up a notch. Things are going hot and heavy in our exercise.  I gave my first Bi-lateral briefing.   I thought it was going to be a quick easy briefing.  However, it took longer than I expected because every other sentence had to be translated from English to Japanese.  I’ve seen others fail at this and I thought I would excel given my background with Spanish. So there I was, rambling on and my interpreter telling me to slow down.  I was nervous enough just briefing the higher command staff elements of the US and then when the spot light came on and I had to brief both Armies, my presentation skills went out the door.  I started out strong but in the end I failed.  Oh, well, that’s what this exercise is all about.  We need to understand how to communicate effectively with allied armies.

Our military laundry pickup and delivery times are inflexible and don’t work with my work current shift schedule so I had to go off post to get my laundry done. This is a good thing because I was down to my last skivvies.  The temporary military px we have here sells some underwear, socks and t-shirts but I really didn’t want to buy any more of those items.  While my clothes were in the laundry machine, me and one of the guys walked around town and noticed a sushi joint nearby.  Finally!  Oh, one thing to note, the washing machines add laundry detergent automatically to the wash.

We decided to go to the sushi joint right after the laundry was done, which ended up being around 8:30 pm at night.  We walked into the sushi restaurant and it was one of those sushi places that have sushi riding around the tables on conveyor belts.  This was the coolest thing ever!

You just grab a plate and at the end of the meal, you ticket is based on the plate color and amount.  You can also order on a touch pad that has Japanese writing and pictures.  Although the directions were not written in English, we still figured out how to use the device.  The food you order off of this touch pad is then sent to you on an upper conveyor belt.  TOO COOL!!!  We ate until we were stuffed, paid our bill and walked back to the hooch.

Thus ends another day.

Day 7. Opening Ceremony

Last night was the coldest night since arriving to Japan.  Our tent heater couldn’t keep up with the outside cold and I woke up because of the cold.  On the good news side, the Division is coalescing and coming together quickly.  All of the staff elements are working in unison towards a common goal.  It’s nice to see us continuously improving our skills.  Today we had to stop our exercise and go participate in the opening ceremonies for Yama Sakura 59.  All of the visiting US soldiers and the participating Japanese soldiers stood outside the Western Army Headquarters in the parking lot.  There was Japanese media that attended the function and took a lot of pictures and video.

The ceremony went well and there were over 4000 soldiers.  The two Armies were split: one on the left and the other on the right.  I couldn’t take any pictures of the event because I was in the ceremony but I’ll see if I can get some that our Public Affairs NCO took.  The Pacific Land Component Commander was there and spoke on behalf of the US portion.  Our flag was presented as well as the Japanese flag.  When the American National Anthem was played,  Ol Glory started to move in the breeze and it just felt very patriotic being there and representing the US.  When our National Anthem completed, the Japanese anthem was played and as if on cue, the Stars and Stripes lost its breeze and the Japanese flag picked up the breeze.  It kinda gave me a little chill.   

Day 6. Dude, what’s up with all of these meetings?

Ok, now the exercise is in full swing.  I can tell because I have meeting after meeting after meeting.  We have the meeting before the meeting to discuss what we will discuss at the meeting.  It kinda feels like Tropical Thunder when Robert Downey Jr. says, “I’m the dude… playing the dude… playing the dude….” or something like that.  The problem we have is that we need to develop our position and then send it over to the Japanese Army which then sends their position to us.  We review on our own and then have each position translated.  If you followed that, then you can appreciate how long it’s going to take.  By the time the meeting is ready, the positions are all completed.  The “meeting” is really just a formality and a way of making sure that we are on the “same sheet of music.”  Of course, the simulated war is still going on and doesn’t really care how many meetings it takes.  I now understand why the Japanese don’t like to make changes to a plan.  It’s just too complicated to deviate from a plan when there are so many variables to work through which must be translated from English or from Japanese.