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.

Day 5 - Found out about the Information Operations social

By now, most of the staff sections have been able to meet with their counterparts and have a bilateral social.  Most of these socials have occurred off post.  I was beginning to feel that we were just not going to have one, when finally, I found out.  By now, I’ve started to develop working friendships with other Army officers at higher headquarters and adjacent headquarters.  I still haven’t really met my Japanese counterpart and at the rate I’m going, I probably won’t. 

I found out about the social while I was taking a quick break from training my section.  The Joint Forces Land Component Command (JFLCC- pronounced Jay-Flick) Deputy IO chief pulled me aside and asked me if I was going to the social because he didn’t see my name on the RSVP.  Hmmm, could this be another communications problem?  In any case, I told him I would go and that I was honored to be asked to attend.  He also asked me to pass this on to the rest of the team at division.  I went back and let my boss know and he already had something planned for that evening.  He would drop in later.

The social was a complete BLAST!   I really had a great time and got to know the Japanese soldiers a lot better.  

It was hard enough to communicate to them sober, imagine what it was after a few….  I tried not to get too saucy and I followed the rule of keeping your glass full if you didn’t want any more.  Apparently, rumor has it that it is rude to keep your guest’s glass empty.  This by the way is true.  The hosts were always filling your glass.  We also were served a dinner.  The Japanese colonel that sat beside me asked me if I ever had eaten noodles with chop sticks.  Hmm… Yup.  He laughed and asked the waitress to bring me a fork and I told him politely that I could in fact eat just about anything with chop sticks.  I have been practicing with Sushi back home for over a year.  The noodles were served and he was definitely impressed.  So were the other US soldiers at the table.  The Japanese colonel marveled over my “technique.”  He commented that my technique was better than his son’s.  Aregato! 

The other parts of the meal consisted of “taco balls” and those goofy deep fried knuckle things. 

 The word TACO in Japanese means Squid.  The rest of the night was toast after toast and lots of laughs.  The pictures I took really couldn’t capture the atmosphere.  I will remember this event for a long time. 

Day 4 – Warm start of exercise.

Bummer, rained this morning.  It’s been overcast for most of the day.  I got up early this morning to watch the Green Bay / Chicago game.  The doors were supposed to be open to the MWR tent by 4:00 am.  This by any standards is pretty early, even by Army standards.  The tent was closed and the rain was falling.  The first thing that came to mind was the Foreigner song “Juke Box Hero.”  Standing in the rain, with his head hung low.  Couldn’t get a ticket…. Was a sold out shoe…”  I chalked it up to yet another communications failure.  Eh, no worries.  As I walked back I overheard some other soldiers saying that the time had changed and that the MWR would open at 430 hours.  Ok, so, there might be some hope after all.  I waited by the makeshift PX and then went back to the MWR facility.

The doors were open and soldiers started to go in.  I got to watch the first quarter of the game before I had to go on shift.  Green Bay was winning and it looked like Chicago was more than likely going to lose. 

I was crunched for time and went to the office; only to forget that I needed to drop off my laundry.   Bummer.   The rest of the day went by quickly. 

After the end of the work day, we decided to go out to diner again.  By now others had “reconned” the area and we began swapping stories on where to go eat.  We decided to go to a place that was a modified fondue / Mongolian BBQ place.  The restaurant ended up being a really nice place.  The atmosphere was contemporary Japanese and the clientele were definitely upper middle class.  The booth we sat at had a small BBQ grill in the middle of the table with a smoke stack just above the grill.  I ordered a basic meal which consisted of a variety of meats, veggies, cabbage, rice and soup.   A slight vacuum sucked the smoke from the grill as I put very thin strips of meat on the grill along with my veggies.  I’m surprised we don’t have anything like this at home.  Really cool place and I forgot to take pictures!  Hmmm… Note to myself…  Must go back.

Day 3 – First Night off Post

I’m bummed out that I missed the morning tours and “field trips” out to town.  I also didn’t get to participate in any cultural exchange visits with a local family.  The problem is that our unit is under staffed and the elements of the division that would normally be responsible for coordinating and finding out what’s going on are not here.  Thus, we are lagging behind on the cultural events. 

 So, I took it upon myself to schedule a night out on the town.  We decided to go outside of our base.  We didn’t take an interpreter with us so we decided to go out to one of the local restaurants near our post. 

Five brave souls went out on a quick adventure.  I was looking forward to Sushi.  My boss, who went out with us wanted Kobe beef.  Others in the group just wanted something different that they didn’t have at home.  We couldn’t differentiate restaurants from shops or business offices.  Go figure, everything here is in Japanese.  We decided to just go walking and let our noses determine what a “restaurant” was.  This idea seemed to be well accepted by the group and we proceeded to walked for about 30 minutes.  We didn’t walk in a straight line, we actually appeared to randomly turn left, then right, go forward a few more steps and the turn right, etc.  The delicious smells from around were getting stronger and most of us were just plain starving! 

Finally, we saw what looked like a restaurant and we stepped in.   The restaurant was small on the inside and had booths with sliding, see through doors.  The tables were about a foot off the floor and we sat on benches.  We had to remove our shoes and then fold ourselves into the tables.  I think this is pretty traditional.  The menu was in Japanese but at least it had pictures!  We guessed at what some items were and if they sounded appealing we ordered them.  The best way to describe the style of food we had here is “tapas.”  When our meal arrived, the servings looked like appetizers.   We all shared each other’s dishes and discovered that most of what we had guessed was wrong.  For example, we thought a picture that looked like chicken nuggets was something completely different.  The size and appearance the “chicken nuggets” were like KFC chicken poppers.  When we put some on our plate and ate them, we discovered rather quickly that it wasn’t chicken.  In fact, I would describe the items as “knuckles.”  Yup, knuckles … Cartilage.  Deep fried knuckles. 

We finished our meal, paid our check and then headed for the base.  Oddly enough, we made it back to the base without getting lost.  I guess it helps if you have an android phone with GPS.  My BB had a signal but I’m not on an international data plan. 

Day 2 Getting Started - First Full Day at the Camp.

Getting Started - First Full Day at the Camp.
I normally get asked questions about what “it’s” like.  In this case, “it” can be just about anything.  So, this one is for Tim H.
Our sleeping quarters are four man tents with a gas fired tent heater in the middle of the tent.   Our offices are in tents too. The Showers are temporary shelters made out of fiberglass material, similar to an 18 wheeler’s trailer.  The latrines are improved port-a-johns.  The mess hall looks like a double wide trailer and has really small tables.  I think they would be about the right size if we were in Kindergarten.   We have a “Small PX” which has the basic knick-knacks that a soldier needs: personal hygiene items, chips, soda pop, Red Bull, and a sundry of other items.  Our camp area has an MWR (Morale Welfare and Recreation) center.  One item to note on the MWR is that the MWR doesn’t have an outside telephone system attached to it.  In fact, there aren’t any AT&T booths with phone banks like I’ve experienced in Iraq.
Today we had our first meetings with our Japanese counter parts.  They went well and I thought the Japanese army was extremely professional and well prepared.  They were very polite and asked a lot of clarifying questions during our initial operations brief.  I noticed that a few of the Japanese soldiers had masks on.  I’m not sure why they are wearing them but I’ve noticed that a few civilians ware them also.  I’ll post more on this in later.
As usual, I’ve been moved from what I was supposed to be working on.  I came into the exercise as a “mission analyst” which means “no responsibility.”  Instead, I’m now the Deputy G-7.  No worries, I can handle Information Operations, but I was hoping to have fewer responsibilities this time and be able to concentrate more on my surroundings.

So there you go Tim.  I hope this helped.

Day 1 NSTR – Nothing Significant To Report

The acronym, NSTR, which stands for “Nothing Significant to Report” is normally used by the Army for basic Situation Report (SITREP).  NSRT comes to mind as a great description of the flight from the States to Japan and basically my first day of this mission.  We left out of KCI at around 8 am and flew to San Francisco.  We didn’t have too long of a layover in San Francisco.  When we arrived in Tokyo, we then were bussed to another airport and flew to our final destination and bussed to the Camp.  We went through In – Processing and then picked up our bags.  At our In-Processing Brief, we were assigned our sleeping quarters and a lay out the land along with the does and don’ts of the Camp.  I went straight to bed and passed out quickly.  

Day 0

Well, here we are in wonderful Leavenworth, Kansas.  I had to drive into Leavenworth tonight because of the heavy snow fall here in the greater Kansas City area.  Report time tomorrow is even before “O-Dark thirty. “   So, Kristina and I thought it would be a smart thing to just take it easy and get a hotel room near the armory for the night.

 I actually left a little bit later, ok A LOT LATER, than I wanted to because I was still at work.  I was working on finishing up some clean-up work items and also had a conference call with the guy who will be taking over my work while I’m in Japan.  The guy asked some really good questions and appears to be a very professional software engineer.

 The roads driving to Leavenworth were pretty dicey but I was determined to drive slow and careful.  I definitely didn’t want to have an accident before I ever get started on this adventure to Japan. 

I thought I'd try my hand at using the new camera to capture the winter wonder land from near my hotel.

What is this Yama Sakura Exercise anyway?

Yama Sakura

Yama Sakura (YAMA SAKURA means Mountain Cherry Blossom) is an annual, bilateral command post exercise that simulates Japanese-US military operations required to defend Japan. Yama Sakura is a computer simulated command post exercise designed to strengthen military operations and ties between the U.S. Army. and the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force. Yama Sakura is a yearly command post exercise between I Corps and the JGSDF sponsored by USARJ and the Japanese Ground Staff office. It is I Corps' largest and most important exercise in Japan. Every year, one of the five regional Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) Armies is joined by US Army I Corps to conduct the exercise in Japan and the US.
Since their inception in 1982, these exercises have focused on the development and refinement of the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) and U.S. Army Japan (USARJ) efforts in the areas of bilateral planning, coordination, and interoperability through training. The first YAMA SAKURA was held in 1982 with a total of 570 US soldiers participating.
Although each annual event has grown in scope, magnitude and complexity, the exercise’s mission has remained unchanged from its original mission: "To conduct a joint/bilateral command post exercise (CPX) with JSDF and U.S. forces to train for the bilateral defense of Japan." YAMA SAKURA exercises have had four mission objectives: 1) To train U.S. ground forces for deployment to Japan, 2) Provide JSDF maximum exposure to U.S. warfighting doctrine, 3) Exercise JSDF capabilities to defend Japan, and 4) prepare USARJ/9th Theater Army Area Command (TAACOM) for its wartime mission.

source: http://www.globalsecurity.org/

Hello and Welcome to Major Bob's Adventures

Friends,
Welcome to the "Major Bob" BLOG!  Here in a few days, I will be documenting my adventures on a military exercise in Japan.

Yama Sakura, which means "mountain cherry blossom," is an annual bilateral exercise designed to strengthen military operations and ties between the U.S. Army and the JGSDF.