Gunston Hall (LSD 5) - Naval Cruise Book

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ii ii ' long sleek Buick Dynaflows jockeyed for posi- tion with pint-sized rickshaw runners. And the roar and rattle of the electric commuter ' s train overhead mingled with the clip-clop of a thous- and wooden sandals on the pavement. A few of the crew traveled inland to Osaka, the second largest city in Japan with a popu- lation count as large as the city of Los Angeles. And some went even further to historic Kyoto by beautiful Lake Biwa. And when we finally singled up the Imes to lea ve Kobe, Osaka, and Kyoto, there were nough tea sets, silks, fishpoles, binoculars, and cloisonne ' vases to represent our entire ten rrionths overseas. It had been a very productive five days. 39

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KOBE - AND FIVE Someone somewhere gave us five days of rest in Kobe during October. It gave many of us our first real opportunity to see Japan. The ship was spht up into two 48-hour leave parties for those who wanted a period of R R; the rest of us returned to the ship every other day to stand the watches Kobe had none of the fishing village charm or prevailing odor of little Sasebo, nor any of the glamour attractions of the Yokohama- Yokosuka area, but was an unarranged composition rep- resenting a mixture of Wilshire Boulevard, West Madison in Chicago, and Bourbon Street, New Orleans. The general shopping area of- fered an expensively decorated silk salon next door to Haki Saki ' s trinket shop. In the streets. — ' ■ ' -ii iAssss 38

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GOODBYE YOKOSUKA AND NIPPON BEER! The last few days in the Far East were just numbers on a calendar waiting to be crossed off. We emerged from the Administrative In- spection with an Excellent, paid a short visit to Otaru on the island of Hokkaido, while participating in an amphibious operation, and then bid an anxious farewell to Yokosu- ka, Nippon Beer, and the Grand Shima. On November 12, a dreary, grey day — but didn ' t it look beautiful — we backed out of the slip, swung the bow into the channel, and headed home. The return trip was somehow not as rough as our previous one, and there were days of firing at balloons and listening to the ship ' s jazz band on the forecastle. Our two-day stop-over in Hawaii was spent on the beaches at Waikiki, touring the island, and at the Moana or Don the Beachcombers. It was thrilling of course, but the biggest thrill came when Diamond Head slipped over the horizon for the last time, and our next stop was San Diego . . . Sweethearts, wives, mothers, and the end of a long, long cruise. It was at that moment that it all began to feel real again. 40