Los Angeles (CA 135) - Naval Cruise Book

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akata Wan on ihe northwest coast of the island of Kyushu was our stop. Because of relatively shallow waters, compared to those in ;h we normally anchored, it was about a five mile boat ride into the ling at Fukuoka. A bit of windy weather caused our boats a rather ;h time of it so in order to speed things up a bit the ship rented a large y boat to land the liberty party. Once «c got ashore there was no ranee that «e would be able to get a boat back to the ship the same day, but the overnights that we got were much appreciated. .Some of us stayed at the Air Force base at Itazuki, but some preferred to try the Japanese futons. Their are numerous temples and shrines around Fukuoka. the largest city on the Island of Kyushu and we visited many of them. Watching a Japanese wedding from a distance or maybe a Buddhist priest performing part of a daily ritual made these trips even more interesting. Resulting from a Judo Shi-. i held on nur fanlail we received quite a bit of publicity and had a number of groups of visitors aboard, including a group of press photographers, .Mr Force personnel and dignitaries from the City of Fukuoka. ■ -■■- ' f ii V .i ' it; : ■ . JV -. - ' ■- ;i5 «;;

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|i ' U This ploasani little city, nestled bark in a beautiful little bay, was celebrating its port festival when visited. It was just at the beginning of Cherry Blossom time and this with the wonderful hospitality we were shown made it one of our most pleasant visits. We no sooner arrived than the bands from three ad- jacent prefectures gathered on the pier to v clcome us with music. Following the musical welcome we set to work preparing for our participation in the festivities, e entered two floats in the parade and gathered together costumes for units of marching astronauts and olyTnpic athletes. Our marines, the Destroyer Flotilla One Band, color guard and clowns made quite a colorful contribution to the activities on the day of the big parade. 1 120