Tortuga (LSD 26) - Naval Cruise Book

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You know, we get pretty spoiled in America . . . especially when it comes to taking machines for granted. Oh, they've got machines in Japan, too . . . but the average man doesn't have them in his house to help out the wife on wash day, or anything like that. Most of the people in Japan are really poor, and therefore most of the work is done by a pair of arms well lubricated with elbow grease. Japan has automobiles, too, but not in every ga- rage as we do. Most Japanese must get along with rickshaws, nondescript little wagons, and ox-carts: They drive you crazy on the highways. Oh, there's money in Japan, and a lot of brains too, but Mr. and Mrs. Public don't get the benefits of eitherthe way we do at home. There have always been two big problems in Japan . . . too many people, and too little freedom. I guess we've been lucky. Shopping in Kamakura Yokosuka is a very busy place right now. As the chief repair and recreation headquarters for the United States Fleet operating in Korean waters, its shops keep humming day and night and 1ts streets are crowded with sallors enjoying a chance to get off the ship and get that wonderful feel of pavements under their feet, again. In no time at all everybody knew at least a few words of Japanese, and loved to show them off. I wasn t the only one who-se jaw dropped the first time I heard a boatswain's mate using Japanese words to work'h1s gang on, deck. When I asked him about it at chow that day, he told me they understood it better than English. And we d only been out here a few months already! if Back for replenishment . . . Then Off again! Page Nineteen

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NN! x .X K n if , - ' .H ' J l rwngmmiiun comepfe! BUGS There's a lot of beauty in Japan . . . particularly the religious shrines. Every village has at least a couple of them, and the Shintos and Buddhas seem to run a contest as to who can build the more beau- tiful structures., I guess I looked at more carved wood, laquer, and pagoda roofs than I'll ever see again. Maybe you wouldn't want them in your back yard, but for a sight-seeing tour you can't go wrong. Page Eighteen This trip to Yokosuka produced the first case of camera madness . . . and within two weeks the disease had spread through the ship like a fire out of con- trol. The symptoms are easy to recog- nize . . . a fixed stare, and an un- quenchable craving for more and more expensive cameras, more and more ac- cessories, and bigger and bigger bags to carry them all in. Finally the victim ends up buying a pack mule, loading it with 300 pounds of filters, and heading off into the wild blue slopes of Fuji- yama to die by throwing himself over a cliff trying desperately to get that perfect angle shot. And the countryside is quite lovely, too once you get away from the port towns and the big industrial areas. On the left is some of the tall timber in the mountainous country around Nikko, north of Tokyo.

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One of the most popular spots in the area was the little city of Kamakura . L . just a ten-minute hop away from the Yokosuka RTO by train. There was then-Buddha . . . a ,towering monster cast in bronze 500 years ago . . . and the famous shrine on top of -a hill that always seemed a mile high. At cherry blossom time this shrine was the site -of what seemed to be a big municipal picnic . . . with Japanese families spread- ing their lunches all over the grounds, going boating, playing games, and gen- erally behaving like the local Sunday School on its -annual outing. One ex- ception to that, though . . . .I'm afraid some of the Japanese men brought along a little more saki than was ab- solutely necessary to wash down' the rice. After a few glasses of saki the Japanese love to start 'singing . . . but I'm afraid the Oriental versions of Show Me the Way to Go Home just doesn't quite hit the spot 'with these ears. v 'The Shrine at Kamakura N 1kk0 Shrine The Carpenter kept wondering why the.sh1p kept sinking lower and lower in the water while we were in Yoko suka . . . until somebody got the bright idea of weighing the souvenirs coming aboard Let s see it averaged 100 pounds per man per day . . . times 300 men oh Just ask the mailman He carried It all over to the post office, anyway. Watch out, America . . theres going to be a boom 1n secondhand oriental curio stores next year. Page Twenty